Market Signals for The 2nd Half of 2026

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
Welcome to the Money Tree Investing Podcast. Stock market, wealth, personal finance, value stocks. Invest in your life.

**Kirk Chisholm** (0:11)
Hello, smart money tree podcast listeners. Welcome to this week's show. My name is Kirk Chisholm. I'll be your host. And today, I'm joined with Doug Heagren. Hey, Doug.

**Douglas Heagren** (0:17)
Hey, Kirk. Happy Post Independence Day.
We are now on the 251st year of the great nation. I heard that there was an all-out attack on Washington DC yesterday. I'm not sure if the Russians or Ukraine was involved, but from what I understand, it was the greatest rocket storm we've seen in many, many years. I don't know if it was friendly fire though.

**Kirk Chisholm** (0:43)
I love your sense of humor, Doug. By the way, happy Independence Day, everybody.
I have to say, for the last week, I've been trying to figure out what to do in honor of this 250th, and locally here, I was coming up a little bit dry. I would have thought that we'd have a lot more things going on, but locally, and I live close to some of the origins of the country in Lexington and Concord in that area, and I would have thought there'd be more to do, and come to find out that the big celebrations were on Patriots Day, not on the 4th, so they made a bigger deal about Patriots Day than the 4th. It was nice, it was a nice weekend, it was nice and quiet, and it was great to watch the World Cup. I don't know if you've been following that, Doug, but I have to say the-

**Douglas Heagren** (1:29)
Absolutely, and I know it's in your backyard.

**Kirk Chisholm** (1:32)
The preliminary rounds, it's hit or miss, but I have to say the quarterfinals were awesome. Every single game I watched was exciting and fun to watch.
The earlier games, the first half is usually boring. They just keep pace and every once in a while they get a shot. But some of these games, amazing. The England versus Mexico game, wow.

**Douglas Heagren** (1:54)
Maybe one of the best games I've ever seen in my life. Those three goals in a matter of minutes, and then just the controversy, the energy, Mexico making noise outside of where the English were staying. I mean, there was so much around this and the Mexicans hadn't lost in Aztec in 13 years.

**Kirk Chisholm** (2:11)
Incredible game. And England played the second half of the man down.

**Douglas Heagren** (2:14)
Yeah, absolutely. Which again, I'm a US certified soccer referee. Lots of thoughts on the red card situation, US this that. I'm not getting into it here. But I will tell you that certainly added another element of controversy and conversation to that game. It was incredible. And that came off a game earlier in the day where Norway, you know, upset Brazil. And this is an older Brazil team. They weren't really favored. But my goodness gracious. Erland Haaland, unbelievable. Six-five build, incredible physique, talent, but plays the game so efficiently, so smart, and the goalie for Norway. Oh my goodness. I mean, he won that game for them. I mean, forget the goals. That goalie saved the game early on with some amazing stops.

**Kirk Chisholm** (3:01)
It was awesome. I have to go see that game. I was out at the lake with the kids swimming, so I missed that first game, unfortunately, because I heard it was really good.

**Douglas Heagren** (3:08)
Just go with the highlights of the goalie. The momentum he got on a penalty save against Brazil early in the game. Brazil could have easily been up two to three goals to nothing early in the game. He is the reason they weren't. Even when he didn't actually touch the ball, his positioning and his attack on coming out forced Brazil to shoot some shots wide after they broke the D.
Again, Brazil could have won that game if not for him. I know Erland Haaland, amazing, the two goals at the end. Obviously, he is the future of soccer or football. I'll tell you, that goalkeeper, and for those who don't know, my daughter, she's going to play college as a goalkeeper, most likely. She's been recruited. So that's near and dear to me. He was a goalkeeper.

**Kirk Chisholm** (3:51)
I was a goalie as a kid. I feel like the rules have changed.
I loved watching England play defense, which was just absolutely amazing, unbelievable. And the goalie played well. And that one call that they got a penalty shot when the goalie, I don't know if he went to the other player or what the deal was, but some of the rules seems to have changed. I remember goalies pretty much do whatever the hell they want in pursuit of the ball. But there have been a few plays throughout the tournament that I've seen. I'm just like, really? That's a penalty? That's weird. But anyway, I'm going to get into it because I'm not Doug. You know a lot more about the rules than I do now.