By John Stewart
Chief Investment Officer at Farmers Trust Co.
Week in Review: Market Blasts Off to New All-Time Highs
I mentioned in the last Investors Edge that despite fears over Iran, the earnings estimates for the S&P 500 weren’t just holding up – they were actually rising. And they weren’t just rising – they were rising at an accelerating rate.
Needless to say, investors couldn’t ignore the skyrocketing earnings picture for long before deciding to bid up stocks, and boy, have they bid them up quickly.
The S&P 500 has now rallied nearly 12% in just 12 trading days to reach new all-time highs, while the tech-heavy NASDAQ is up more than 15% over the same time frame – also a new all-time high.
With earnings season now in full swing, it will be interesting to see if we can keep the momentum going . So far, the early reporters have delivered year-over-year earnings growth of 31%! Quite incredible.
Featured Insight: There are No Sure Things
Nothing in life, or investing, is certain.
Investors came into 2026 certain that markets could go nowhere but up. And then, after roughly a 10% decline, many became just as certain that they would never go up again –or at least that more downside was very likely.
And even more quickly than the market went down, it was back at new highs.
Your best defense against uncertainty is diversification (don’t put too many eggs in any one basket) and discipline (stick to your plan).
Looking Ahead: The Ever-Resilient Consumer
Many a market analyst has predicted the death of the U.S. consumer, only to see consumer incomes and spending levels surprise to the upside again and again.
We’ll get another look at some consumer spending data next week with U.S. retail sales, along with consumer sentiment numbers.
The sentiment is based on what people say. The retail sales are what they actually do.
The former has been quite negative for some time now, while the latter has continued to show strength and resilience.
Whether it comes to investing or anything else in life, pay a lot more attention to what people do versus what they say.