Wall Street strategist bets resilient US growth and AI gains can push the S&P 500 to fresh highs by 2026
A Wall Street strategist is betting the S&P 500’s artificial intelligence “supercycle” still has room to run.
JP Morgan’s head of global markets strategy, Dubravko Lakos-Bujas, set a year-end 2026 target of 7,500 for the S&P 500, implying a 10.9 percent gain from Tuesday’s close of 6,765.89, according to Reuters.
He tied the call to what he described as a resilient US economy and sustained, double-digit earnings growth powered in part by AI.
Lakos-Bujas expects S&P 500 earnings to grow 13–15 percent annually for at least the next two years, Reuters reported, while analysts tracked by LSEG forecast 14.3 percent year-over-year earnings growth in 2026.
He wrote that “the US is set to remain the world's growth engine,” framing the backdrop as supportive for risk assets.
Reuters said the JP Morgan outlook assumes two more US Federal Reserve rate cuts “followed by an extended pause.”
Lakos-Bujas added that “should the Fed ease policy further” than that base case, the S&P 500 could top 8,000 in 2026, which CNBC noted would be about 18 percent above Tuesday’s level.
The rally remains heavily tied to artificial intelligence themes.
CNBC reported that the S&P 500 is up 15 percent year to date as investors have piled into AI-linked names. Those stocks recently sold off on valuation worries, but most remain sharply higher for the year.
Lakos-Bujas acknowledged those concerns, writing that “despite AI bubble and valuation concerns, we see current elevated multiples correctly anticipating above-trend earnings growth, an AI capex boom, rising shareholder payouts, and easier fiscal policy.”
He argued that the market still underestimates how deregulation and broader AI-driven productivity gains could lift earnings.
Positioning for that theme, CNBC said JP Morgan has compiled an AI/datacentre “beneficiaries” basket it believes can outperform in 2026, including Amazon, Nvidia and Google-parent Alphabet.
Amazon shares are up 4.7 percent this year, lagging the S&P 500, Nvidia has climbed more than 32 percent in 2025 despite a pullback in November, and Alphabet has risen more than 70 percent this year after nearly doubling in the past six months.
