The Biggest Questions Facing Markets in 2026

🎙️ The Voices & The Context

• The Format: This interview between hosts and guest expert dives into 2025 market highs on Christmas Eve, unpacking economic resilience amid volatility through data-driven analysis and forward-looking predictions in a technical, optimistic tone.
• The Format: An interview.
• The Key Players:
  • Guest: Jason Ware, Chief Investment Officer at Albion Financial, interesting for his macro insights on equities, AI infrastructure, and policy risks, drawing from years of public commentary and firm-wide diversification philosophy.

🗝️ Key Themes & Topics

The episode covers four core topics: market resilience driven by economy and earnings, the enduring AI secular theme despite bumps, tariff adjustments and their muted impact, and Fed policy shifts into 2026.

• Topic 1: Market Resilience – Despite tariffs, geopolitics, and volatility, stocks hit all-time highs thanks to strong GDP (Q3 at 4.3%), ~13% earnings growth, tame inflation, and Fed easing; narratives like AI overpower noise.
• Topic 2: AI Buildout and Skepticism – AI remains multi-year transformative with massive CapEx ($400B+ in 2025, scaling to $450-500B), demand outstripping supply 10:1; tech CEOs prioritize spending over short-term returns, though debt at firms like Oracle and CoreWeave creates air pockets like "Deep Seek Monday."
• **Topic 3: Tariffs and