Wall Street loves a good narrative, but it turns out the best market predictor might not be a Fed chair—it might be a stable.
As Tuesday marks the beginning of the year of the Horse, investors are leaning into a quirky but historically consistent trend: the Chinese Zodiac's four-legged alpha.
NVDA stock is moving. See the chart and price action here.
The Four-Legged Factor
Data suggests that the stock market has a distinct preference for animals that walk on all fours, as Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group, highlighted on X.
Year of the Horse starts next week. 🐴
Turns out, animals that walk on four legs are historically better for stocks.
The strongest five zodiac signs walk on four legs, while the worst two don't. pic.twitter.com/O00snPQ8Xm
— Ryan Detrick, CMT (@RyanDetrick) February 13, 2026
According to historical S&P 500 performance data, the Horse, Goat, Ox, Pig and Dog represent the strongest performing years in the 12-year cycle.
Conversely, two-legged signs—the Rooster and the Monkey—have historically sat at the bottom of the returns pile.
Historically, Horse years have delivered double-digit gains, fueled by the galloping energy the sign represents.
There is a humorous irony in the fact that the most bullish years come from animals with four legs, while years represented by animals with two legs or no legs tend to struggle.
Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang recently noted that the Horse is synonymous with speed, strength and forward momentum.
“This year is the year of the Horse. So, it's going to be a very good year," Huang said.
"This year is the year of the Horse. So, it's gonna be a very good year" – Jensen Huang pic.twitter.com/EGvx1jG78l
— Geiger Capital (@Geiger_Capital) February 2, 2026
Animal Spirits
While serious analysts point to interest rates and earnings, the Zodiac effect taps into a psychological phenomenon.
When a tech titan like Nvidia's Huang aligns a company's outlook with cultural symbols of prosperity, it bolsters sentiment, and believing the year of the Horse will be profitable can become a self-fulfilling prophecy in a market ruled by animal spirits.
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In Asia, China’s GDP growth is expected to moderate, mainly on account of easing exports growth as economic growth in China’s key trading partners softens and trade barriers continue to rise. Meanwhile, GDP growth in the key Southeast Asian economies is projected to be supported by consumption and investment growth amidst fiscal and monetary policies. Nonetheless, growth is expected to ease relative to that in 2025 for most of these economies as softening commodity prices, the U.S. tariffs and slower global trade growth are likely to weigh on their exports.
The global economic outlook is subject to both upside and downside risks. On the one hand, stronger-than-projected upswing in the AI investment cycle could provide a greater boost to electronics demand and drive further gains in equity markets. The former would have positive spillovers on global trade, while the latter could lift global consumption from wealth effects. On the other hand, a renewed escalation in tariff actions or flare-ups in geopolitical tensions could lead to a resurgence in economic uncertainty, which would weigh on the sentiments of businesses and households. This could then dampen business investments and hiring.
Furthermore, an escalation in risk-off sentiments or a sudden pullback in global AI-related capital spending could trigger sharp corrections in global financial markets, with spillovers to a broader economic activity.
Against this backdrop, the 2026 growth outlook for the manufacturing and trade-related sectors in Singapore has improved since November. Within the manufacturing sector, the electronics cluster is projected to grow at a stronger pace than previously expected, supported by robust demand for semiconductor chips in the data centre end-market due to the AI investment boom. This will have positive spillover effects on the pricesion engineering cluster and the machinery, equipment & supplies segment of the trade sector. At the same time, strong order books in the aerospace and marine & offshore engineering segments should continue to drive growth in the transport engineering cluster.
Meanwhile, key outward-oriented services sectors are also projected to register healthy growth. In particular, the information & communications sector will be supported by sustained enterprise demand for AI-enabled and other digital solutions, while the finance & insurance sector will be bolstered by supportive macroeconomic and financial conditions.