Macro & Rates Outlook
Futures markets are currently pricing in two quarter-point interest rate cuts in 2026, providing a potential tailwind for equities.
Despite optimism, stocks are expensive. Bank of America strategist Savita Subramanian notes the S&P 500 is highly valued on 18 of 20 metrics she tracks and projects the index to end 2026 at 7,100, implying just 3.8% upside.
She warns that AI-driven job cuts could slow the labor market but still sees health care and real estate as relative value pockets due to improving earnings revisions and recent outperformance.
Technology & AI Developments
Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, is expected to influence AI sentiment when he speaks at CES 2026 (Jan. 6–9). Investors are looking for more practical AI use cases and clearer differentiation between winners and losers.
Oversold S&P 500 names include Lamb Weston, Marathon Petroleum, CrowdStrike, and AutoZone.
Bank of America: 2026 Stock & Dividend Picks
Amazon: Seen as undervalued with upside driven by improving AWS capacity, accelerating cloud revenue, and exposure to AI, quantum computing, and custom silicon. Buy rating, $303 target.
Dollar General: Expected to benefit from higher tax refunds and inventory optimization. Buy rating, $160 target; shares up over 80% year over year.
Boeing: Stabilizing aircraft production and improving operations are restoring confidence. Buy rating, $270 target.
BofA expects dividend growth to accelerate to 8% in 2026, up from 7% in 2025. Attractive yield names include:
Reynolds Consumer Products
EOG Resources
Brookfield Renewable
Macy’s
Constellation Brands
Ally Financial
American Electric Power
Prologis
Lockheed Martin
Exxon Mobil
Weather-Driven & Cyclical Opportunities
Douglas Dynamics is a top winter-weather beneficiary as snowfall in the Northeast and Midwest is far above last year. Shares are up 38%, but D.A. Davidson sees more upside with 2026 EBITDA potential of $84M vs. a $59M estimate.
Other cold-weather beneficiaries:
Toro Co. – Strength across snow, golf, and construction; potential to beat FY26 expectations.
Aebi Schmidt – Newly public; analysts see 20%+ EBITDA growth as conservative.
Semiconductors: Broadening Beyond AI
Loop Capital expects the chip rally to continue in 2026, expanding into automotive and industrial semiconductors.
Synopsys: Price target raised to $600, implying ~28% upside, driven by AI-enhanced EDA tools and a $2B Nvidia investment.
ON Semiconductor: Target of $75 implies ~39% upside, supported by improving utilization and a shift toward higher-margin products.
Major Corporate Catalysts
Elon Musk confirmed plans to take SpaceX public, with valuations rumored near $1.5 trillion, potentially the largest IPO ever.
SpaceX dominates low-Earth orbit, launching over 3,200 satellites in 2025, and could benefit from future space-based data centers supporting AI.
Baidu: Jefferies sees ~39% upside after raising its target to $181, driven by a planned Hong Kong spinoff of its AI chip unit Kunlunxin.
Wayfair: Mizuho sees ~29% upside after tariff hikes were delayed one year, easing margin pressure. Shares are already up 118% year over year.
Mega-cap tech stocks powered much of the U.S. market’s gains in 2025—and their executives took advantage by selling over $16 billion in shares, largely through pre-arranged 10b5-1 plans.
The biggest seller was Jeff Bezos, who sold $5.7 billion of Amazon stock. Other major sellers included Safra Catz of Oracle, Michael Dell of Dell Technologies, and Jensen Huang of Nvidia, whose sales topped $1 billion amid the AI-driven rally.
Other notable insider sellers were Jayshree Ullal (Arista Networks), Mark Zuckerberg (Meta Platforms), Frank Slootman (Snowflake), Nikesh Arora (Palo Alto Networks), and Baiju Bhatt (Robinhood Markets).
Pan-United’s technology subsidiary AiR Digital Solutions will debut its AI-powered operations management system for ready-mix concrete at World of Concrete in the USA from Jan 20 to Jan 22.
Raffles Education receives approval in-principle to list 241.1 mil shares on Mainboard Chew had subscribed for a total of $11.8 million in bonds and as at Oct 30, around RMB21.2 million ($3.8 million) of the principal amount of Chew’s loan to Tonghui remains outstanding. In total, $15.5 million owed to Chew will be subject to the proposed conversions, pending approval at the EGM.Each conversion share will be priced at 6.44 cents, which represents a discount of 5.8% to the volume weighted average price (VWAP) of 6.84 cents per share for trades done on the SGX on Oct 29, after excluding the special dividend of 0.4 cents per share. The company said the conversion price reflects the theoretical ex-dividend share price and is based on prevailing market prices.Under the scheme, shareholders may elect to receive fully paid new shares in lieu of a part of, or all of the cash amount of the qualifying dividend.
Civmec secures new contracts and extensions with combined value exceeding A$400 mil
Nio achieves new quarterly record with 4Q2025 deliveries up 71.7% y-o-y
Mandarin Oriental confirms special dividend of 60 US cents per share from One Causeway Bay sale
Coliwoo completes acquisition of 1 King George’s Ave via JV with Macritchie Developments
Keppel REIT completes acquisition of one-third stake in MBFC Tower 3
Earlier, in a Dec 26 bourse filing, Keppel REIT says it is launching an $886.3 million preferential offering for over 923 million new units. Entitled unitholders will be offered 23 new units at an issue price of 96 cents each for every 100 existing units. The offering will close on Jan 9, and the new units will commence trading on Jan 19.
CapitaLand Ascott Trust extends hotel management agreement for The Cavendish London
CSE Global secures major contract variations worth US$143.5 mil for data centre projects in US
CLI raises $150 mil for India data centre fund, acquires 20.2% stake in three data centres for $99.73 mil
IFA Zico Capital recommends Low Keng Huat shareholders to accept ‘not fair’ but ‘reasonable’ offer
Zijin Mining Group Co is planning double-digit growth for its gold and copper production in 2026, after surging prices and expanding operations propelled annual profit to another record.
Concord New Energy (CNE), a renewable energy business listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX), is seeking a secondary listing on the Singapore Exchange (SGX). It has already received a letter of eligibility from the SGX.
According to CNE’s introductory document, the company was founded in 1997. Following the acquisition of a renewable energy business in 2007, the company was renamed to China WindPower Group Ltd and was listed on HKEX in the same year.
The company was rebranded under its present name in 2015 and shifted its headquarters to Singapore in 2023. It operates two business segments, namely power generation and “others”.
Under its core power generation business, CNE operates and invests in wind and solar plants under the build-own-operate (BOO) or build-transfer (BT) models. The power generation segment generated 91.4% and 95.4% of our total revenue in FY2024 and 6M2025 respectively.
The “others” segment comprises provision of design, technical and consultancy services; engineering , procurement and construction (EPC) of power plants; and finance leasing to the company’s existing customers. CNE says it is “in the process” of winding down the finance leasing sub-segment.
CNE says that it has a portfolio of “premium quality assets” that enables the company to “exceed” its estimated minimal rate of return on investment. As at 30 June 2025, CNE has equity interests in 91 grid-connected wind and solar power plants, with a total installed capacity of 6.025 GW and attributable installed capacity of around 4.78 GW.
CNE adds that it has wind power resources reserves of over 5.9 GW and solar power resources reserves of over 3.55GW which are suitable for future development with a prospective capacity.
CNE aims to advance the energy transition by providing clean energy and low-carbon service solutions. It says that it is “committed to delivering high-quality clean energy and professional services to foster sustainability and promote the harmonious development of both people and nature”.
According to a report by Asian Power, CNE is planning to spend more than $1 billion over the next 5 years for expansion. It says that it is working with banks on funding and aims to diversify funding sources by issuing real estate investment trusts or REITs.
For FY2024, the company reported 6.3% y-o-y revenue growth to around RMB 2.75 ($0.505) billion and a 8.2% decline in profit attributable to equity holders to RMB805 million. For the six months ended June 30, the company reported unaudited y-o-y revenue decline of 6.6% to RMB 1.4 billion and y-o-y decline of 43.7% in profit attributable to equity holders to RMB 282 million.
Warner Bros plans to reject Paramount offer next week, Bloomberg reports
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