Stocks are hovering near record highs, with momentum continuing to build as earnings season gets underway. Strength across multiple sectors and improving participation beyond megacap technology names are reinforcing optimism about the year ahead.
BNN Bloomberg spoke with Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group, about why he expects equity gains to continue through 2026, how early earnings trends are shaping expectations, and what broadening market leadership says about the durability of the rally.
Key Takeaways
- Expectations for continued equity gains in 2026 are supported by momentum from fiscal policy, monetary easing and sustained capital spending.
- Early strength in earnings season has historically signalled higher returns, particularly when results exceed conservative forecasts.
- Market leadership is broadening beyond a small group of large technology stocks, a sign of a healthier bull market.
- Cyclical sectors such as industrials and financials are benefiting from strong productivity gains and economic resilience.
- While volatility risks remain after several strong years of gains, underinvestment by many investors is seen as a larger risk.
Read the full transcript below:
ANDREW: Stocks are at or near new record highs. Our guest is in the bullish camp, especially for the U.S. for the rest of 2026. We’re joined by Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group. Ryan, thanks very much indeed.
You’ve been optimistic about stocks for a while, and sure enough, they’re at or near record highs, with the S&P topping 7,000 yesterday. Remind us why you think there are further gains in store.
RYAN: Yeah, first off, happy Friday, everybody, and I’m glad I could join today, so thank you for that.
We just released our 2026 outlook last week, and we titled it Riding the wave. We could talk about this for two hours, but I’ll keep it quick. We think there’s a lot of momentum in this market, whether it’s fiscal policy, monetary policy, AI, capital spending, earnings growth or profit margins. All of these things, Andrew, continue to move forward, and we think they’re likely to keep pushing this bull market higher.
One more quick point. You mentioned that I like the U.S., and that’s true, but we manage billions of dollars on the Carson investment research team. We do think this is still a global bull market. We have exposure to other parts of the world because we don’t think this is just a U.S. story like it was two or three years ago. A lot of other things are looking good this year.
ANDREW: Tell us your thesis on overexuberance in the AI space.
RYAN: That’s a good one, because we have some really big IPOs coming out. Last year we saw multiple AI leaders named Time magazine’s person of the year. Jensen Huang at Nvidia was also named the Financial Times’ person of the year.
There’s a lot of optimism, and it is what it is. We’re more even-weight technology. We’re not wildly bullish, but we’re by no means bearish. And you can see what’s been happening lately. Technology has lagged over the past 50 days or so by a pretty wide margin. How has the broader market done? Just fine.
So we’re even-weight technology, and we continue to be impressed by how the baton gets passed around. Then you look at earnings. What Taiwan Semiconductor said yesterday was a reminder that AI spending is nowhere close to over. I don’t know when it ends, but it sure doesn’t look like it’s going to be in 2026.
ANDREW: You think there’s still a strong enough case for corporations to invest heavily in AI?
RYAN: We do. When you look at the largest five U.S. companies, you’re talking about more than US$500 billion in expected capital spending. That was in the low US$400 billions last year, and it just continues to go higher.
It’ll be interesting to revisit this in a couple of weeks, once we have more earnings to discuss. But at least very early on, based on what Taiwan Semiconductor had to say, there’s no slowdown yet, and we don’t expect to hear that over the next couple of weeks this earnings season.
ANDREW: You also like traditional industrials. What kind of stocks are you talking about?
RYAN: Exactly. The broad-based market is doing very well. Various advance-decline lines are hitting new highs. Again, it’s not just about seven stocks.
We like industrials. When you break it down, there are different parts of that space. Something like airlines, for example, has been doing really well. Industrials aren’t just one thing. It’s not just Caterpillar. There’s broad-based strength.
To keep it simple, when you have a stronger economy, like we think we will, industrials tend to do better. That’s one of our favourite groups for 2026.
ANDREW: Is that partly due to the massive electrical buildout?
RYAN: That’s definitely part of it. At the same time, you look at a company like Caterpillar. They used to just make big trucks. They’re anything but that now.
It’s incredible to see how these companies are leveraging AI and productivity. We saw data last week showing revenue per employee in the S&P 500 at the highest level ever.
At least in the U.S., we’re in a slower-hiring environment, but companies are as productive as they’ve ever been. We’ll find out more this earnings season, but we think industrials and financials — those cyclical areas of the U.S. economy — will continue to do very well.
ANDREW: What about bonds? How are you positioning there right now? Are you keen on owning the U.S. 10-year?
RYAN: We’re underweight bonds. I’ve been saying this for a while, so I’ll sound like a broken record — overweight stocks, underweight bonds.
We absolutely have bonds in the portfolios we manage, but the Fed is probably going to cut rates three times this year. Inflation isn’t soaring, but it’s sticking around three per cent.
So while we expect a couple of cuts, we still see better opportunities elsewhere. The traditional 60-40 portfolio doesn’t look the same as it did 10 years ago. You still want bond exposure, but that other bucket can include things like managed futures, some cash, and commodities like gold, metals and mining, which have been doing incredibly well.
They may be stretched and could pull back, but those are still important components of a well-constructed, diversified portfolio.
ANDREW: What trends are you seeing in this first week of earnings season?
RYAN: It’s very early, but it’s been positive once again. Earnings expectations are around eight to eight-and-a-half per cent year over year, based on FactSet data.
What we’ve seen for years is that expectations tend to be low-balled and results come in better than expected. We’re optimistic that happens again.
The other big theme is broadening. Technology has driven most of the growth over the past couple of years, but value is starting to creep up and impress. That includes financials, industrials and maybe parts of health care.
We haven’t seen that yet in earnings because many of those companies haven’t reported, but that’s something we’ll be watching closely over the next couple of weeks.
ANDREW: Final thought — is there a risk the market is underestimating?
RYAN: There’s always risk. The S&P 500 is up more than 15 per cent three years in a row. The last time we saw that was the late 1990s.
Could we see choppiness or volatility? Absolutely. But the biggest risk, in our view, is that many investors are still underinvested in a strong bull market. So ride the wave. That’s the message of our outlook, and we remain optimistic for investors.
ANDREW: Ryan, thank you very much indeed, and thanks for joining us at short notice.
RYAN: Anytime. Happy Friday, and thanks for having me.
---
This BNN Bloomberg summary and transcript of the Jan. 16, 2026 interview with Ryan Detrick are published with the assistance of AI. Original research, interview questions and added context was created by BNN Bloomberg journalists. An editor also reviewed this material before it was published to ensure its accuracy and adherence with BNN Bloomberg editorial policies and standards.
