On Friday, the first trading day of 2026, the three major U.S. stock indices collectively opened higher, with the Nasdaq index climbing over 1%. Leading technology stocks experienced broad-based gains, with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.US) surging nearly 5%. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM.US) rose more than 3%, while NVIDIA (NVDA.US), Alphabet (GOOGL.US), and Broadcom (AVGO.US) each gained over 2%. Amazon.com (AMZN.US) and Apple (AAPL.US) saw increases of nearly 1%.
Regarding market catalysts, U.S. economists at Barclays stated in a report that the firm maintains its expectation for the Federal Reserve to implement two interest rate cuts in 2026, each of 25 basis points in March and June. They believe the risks surrounding this baseline forecast are skewed towards a later start for the rate cuts. These economists noted that the minutes from the Fed's December policy meeting, where it cut rates by 25 basis points, align with Barclays' expectation for no action at the January meeting, "as the FOMC needs time to assess the impact of the recent rate cut."
Scott Chronert, U.S. equity strategist at Citigroup, believes the current market is in a "boom phase" rather than a "bubble phase." Looking ahead to the new year, he remains optimistic about the market outlook, basing his view on strong earnings expectations and an anticipated broadening of sector participation.
