WCG's Leger: With tailwinds to overpower worries, the S&P will hit 8,500 in '26

Talley Leger, chief market strategist at The Wealth Consulting Group, says the market is facing seven different headwinds, but that it has 10 tailwinds, all blowing to overcome potential troubles to where he expects the Standard & Poor's 500 to reach 8,500 this year. That would make 2026 the fourth consecutive year with double-digit market gains, but Leger is confident in his pick, noting that easing financial conditions — including a few more rate cuts from the Federal Reserve — should support economic re-acceleration to let the rally roll on.

Leger is not the only one who is optimistic, as the latest Business Conditions Survey, released today by the National Association for Business Conditions, showed that the nation's economists have mostly factored recession out of the picture for this year. While the economists do see potential overhangs from tariffs and other policies impacting business, they say that spending plans in their companies — but more broadly for the economy at large — should fuel continued growth.

Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, is also optimistic for the future, coming off of the World Economic Summit at Davos — where he says the lesson was to keep watching geopolitics without over-reacting to them by overhauling your portfolio. Further, in "The Week That Is," he discusses how the market is reacting to feelings rather than fundamentals in the current earnings season, and how it's still not too late for investors to reconsider their commodities holdings, even after gold and silver popped again last week, with silver reaching fresh highs above $100.

David Trainer, founder and president at New Constructs, puts five different technology stocks — including Magnificent Seven member Meta Platforms and tech giant Oracle — in "The Danger Zone," noting that they have troubling balance sheets that have created significantly misleading stock valuations, which he says will not hold up once the market recognizes the potential for trouble.