Previewing 2026 from our experts… a 13% Q1 surge?… why we should question “forever” stocks… the critical ingredient for a strong 2026… brace for impact

As I write on Monday, markets are digesting dramatic news from the weekend: U.S. forces carried out a high-stakes military operation in Venezuela, capturing President Nicolás Maduro and his wife.

Maduro is now in New York awaiting his first court appearance. He faces charges including narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, and weapons offenses.

President Trump has signaled a willingness to oversee Venezuela’s transition and potentially tap its vast oil reserves. For now, however, Caracas remains under interim leadership, and the day-to-day realities of U.S. involvement – let alone governance – remain murky.

As I write, the market is sharply higher. Energy and oil-service stocks are climbing as traders price in the possibility of eventual U.S. involvement in Venezuela’s oil patch. Gold, silver, and defense stocks are firmer as investors hedge geopolitical risk. But there’s not enough fear of additional conflict to weigh on risk assets, so even the Nasdaq is up nearly 1%.

Now, despite these gains, this news is unlikely to be a sustained driver of market returns. Rebuilding Venezuela’s energy complex would take years, and a broader regional conflict still appears unlikely.

That said, this news dovetails nicely into what will matter in 2026: volatility, positioning, and owning the right assets when headlines hit.

And that brings us to our experts and their 2026 forecasts…

I’ve spent the last few days reviewing the 2026 predictions from Louis Navellier, Eric Fry, Luke Lango, and Jonathan Rose

A loose consensus emerges:

• Risk assets are going higher
• AI will change the market in 2026, as well as the idea of a “forever stock”
• Earnings growth driven by AI-powered efficiency will be the defining factor separating winners from losers
• But even if you own the right stocks, 2026 will test your conviction with sharp, frequent volatility

Let’s unpack what this means and how to prepare both your portfolio and your mindset for the year ahead.

A powerful tailwind hiding beneath the surface

Kicking off 2026, we have near-record-high valuations, a cautious Fed, and inconsistent confidence in the AI trade. Despite that, veteran trader Jonathan Rose of Masters in Trading Live sees a bullish setup that most investors are overlooking.

Why?

The short end of the yield curve.

To make sure we’re all on the same page, the yield curve shows the interest rates investors earn on U.S. Treasury bonds across different maturities – from short-term bills to long-term bonds.

Under normal conditions, longer-term bonds yield more than short-term ones, compensating investors for locking up their money longer.

Here’s our current yield curve…

Here’s Jonathan on why the short end has him bullish:

The Fed has quietly told us what they’re going to do at the front end of the yield curve in 2026. They’ve signaled they’ll be buying somewhere in the ballpark of $240–$300 billion in T-bills…

They’re effectively stepping in to absorb close to 70% of all the new supply at the short end.

They don’t want to call that quantitative easing. But functionally, it’s a form of targeted QE at the front end.

In short, the Fed has signaled it will buy most of the new short-term Treasury supply. This will put upward pressure on prices, downward pressure on yields, and ease volatility.

And this has important downstream effects for stocks.

Here’s Jonathan:

When the curve steepens and the Fed is actively supporting the front end, bond volatility tends to get sucked out of the system…

If bonds stop whipping around, investors who were hiding in “safe” assets start getting more comfortable reaching out on the risk curve.

They move further out in duration, further out in credit, further out into equities.

And that’s where you can see some pretty powerful risk-on moves that don’t look connected to the headlines at all.

As to that powerful risk-on move, Jonathan believes the S&P 500 could surge as much as 13% by the end of Q1. From today’s level, that would put the S&P near 7,800.

That’s an aggressive call – and he acknowledges it – but his message to investors is simple: don’t let emotion override what market structure is signaling.

Here’s his bottom line:

When I zoom out and look at the plumbing, this setup looks extremely bullish for risk assets into Q1.

But there’s a catch – AI is rewriting the rules on “forever stocks” so a Q1 surge may not lift all boats

Technology has always reshaped markets.

But in past decades, innovation moved slowly enough that dominant companies could remain leaders for years – even generations – rewarding patient, buy-and-hold investors.

According to our macro investing expert Eric Fry of Fry’s Investment Report, that old playbook is breaking down – and AI is the reason.

Companies are living, breathing organisms – they just so happen to subsist on a steady diet of market share gains and/or expanding profit margins.

And also, much like us fragile humans, companies enjoy a lifetime of indeterminate length. But their lifespans do eventually come to an end.

Most investors ignore or overlook this important reality. They tend to think of their core investments as “forever stocks.”

But that sort of perspective can be a dangerous one – especially now that artificial intelligence is running amok in the global economy.

AI is spawning thousands of such companies, many of which will conquer and replace established companies that may seem indomitable today, if not immortal.

The truth is that companies that fail to leverage AI for efficiency gains risk displacement by competitors who do. And the pace of disruption has accelerated beyond anything we’ve seen in previous technology cycles.

Given this, Eric urges investors to pressure-test both new investment ideas and existing holdings in 2026 by asking two critical questions (both related to AI):

• Is this company introducing a significant efficiency boost, relative to the established, market-leading product or service?
• Is this company applying new technologies to boost the efficiency of its operations?

And at the core of both questions lies one thing: earnings.

Which brings us directly to what may be the defining theme of the new year.

The shift from “how fast?” to “how profitable?”

When it comes to AI, we’ve crossed a threshold. Companies will either leverage AI effectively or no longer be able to compete in today’s marketplace.

But – critically – the stage where all AI-related stocks rise is behind us. We’ve reached a new market environment that requires evidence that AI is boosting bottom lines.

Here’s how our technology expert Luke Lango of Innovation Investor frames this shift:

The first phase of the AI Boom was about one question: How fast can we get compute online?

The 2026 phase becomes: How much profit does this compute generate?

That shift doesn’t kill AI spending. It just concentrates it.

Like Eric, Luke says that the companies that effectively leverage AI for efficiency will be the winners this year, writing that they deliver…

Less waste, more returns, and more earnings concentration…

The punchline is simple: AI becomes the dominant engine of U.S. growth … and the stock market becomes even more concentrated around whoever owns that engine.

So, the question for investors looking ahead to 2026 becomes “how do we identify which companies will be at the center of this concentration?”

The fingerprints of fundamental strength

This is where legendary investor Louis Navellier, editor of Growth Investor, provides us with a practical framework.

Louis has built his career around quantitative, fundamentals-driven stock selection. And in a recent issue of his free newsletter Market 360, he laid out exactly what investors should look for in fundamentally strong companies positioned to benefit from AI-driven efficiency:

• Invest in high-margin companies that dominate their business
• Along these lines, companies that have margin expansion tend to post bigger earnings surprises.
• Invest in companies with strong forecasted sales and earnings.
• Look for companies that see positive analyst revisions in the past three months, as these typically post earnings surprises.

These factors consistently point toward companies with durable earnings power – the kind best positioned to benefit from AI-driven efficiency gains.

So, if 2026 is about “show me the money” like Luke suggests, then Louis’ quantitative approach that identifies companies already demonstrating that profitability will be more important than ever.

If you want help evaluating your own holdings through this earnings lens, Louis’ Stock Grader is a great tool (a subscription to one of Louis’ services is required). You simply plug in your stocks, and it will instantly grade them from A to F based on Louis’ quantitative system.

If you have a Stock Grader account, log in here.

But even with the right stocks, brace for a wild ride

Finally, despite the bullish outlook, none of our experts expect a smooth ride in 2026.

Back to Luke:

Even if the S&P rips higher, 2026 is likely a stomach-churner. Not because the bull case is wrong … but because the market is entering the phase where everything matters again…

The market doesn’t need a recession to correct 10–15% when valuations are elevated.

It just needs a cocktail of rates backing up, one hyperscaler pausing a project, a financing headline, or a “profit margins are peaking!” panic from someone with a chart and too much confidence.

History backs this up.

In a typical year, markets experience at least one 10% correction. But Luke reminds us that during the late-1990s tech boom, the Nasdaq endured six separate 10%+ pullbacks – even as it marched higher overall.

Here’s Luke again:

We should assume multiple corrections [this year] because that’s just what happens at this point in the cycle. You get big steps forward and big steps backward.

Here’s the bigger point: volatility isn’t the enemy of the bull market. It’s the admission price.

Jonathan stressed this same takeaway in his 2026 forecast:

There will be scares, dips, ugly candles, and scary headlines along the way. That’s the cost of admission…

[But I’m] incredibly bullish into Q1 2026.

Coming full circle: what 2026 will bring

When you connect the threads from Jonathan, Eric, Luke, and Louis, a clear picture emerges.

There will be real opportunity to make money in 2026 – but likely in fewer stocks, and with more nerve-rattling price action along the way.

Expect the market to reward AI-driven efficiency, concentrating gains among a smaller group of companies that can demonstrate expanding margins and earnings power.

But brace yourself for sharp corrections that will shake out anyone expecting a straight line higher.

Luke captured many of these themes as he wrapped up his 2026 forecast, so I’ll let him take us out today:

The 2026 stock market in one sentence…

“The S&P rips higher on AI-led earnings and supportive policy — but it does it while violently shaking out anyone who expects a straight line.”

So, the correct emotional posture for 2026 is not “calm confidence.”

It’s more like: helmet on, eyes open, dry powder ready, and don’t confuse volatility with the thesis breaking….

2026 will reward the investor who understands the map… and can keep their hands on the saddle while the market tries to throw them off.

Have a good evening,

Jeff Remsburg