State of the AI Trade 5/8/26

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**Scott Wapner** (1:01)
I'm Scott Wapner and you're listening to Cnbc's Halftime Report, the podcast, the most profitable hour of the trading day. We record this live weekdays at 12 Eastern. Listen in.

**Scott Wapner** (1:16)
Carl, thanks very much. Welcome to the Halftime Report. I'm Scott Wapner. Front and center this hour, the state of the AI trade as the S&P runs towards yet another milestone level.

**Scott Wapner** (1:25)
We'll discuss and debate with the Investment Committee.

**Scott Wapner** (1:28)
Joining me for the hour today, Steve Weiss, Jim Labanthal, Jason Stipe, Rob Sechin. Take you to the market. The level, I'm talking about 7,400 on the S&P. And we are fast approaching that as you see. Not that far away at all. We're green across the board. Once again, it's the NASDAQ show.
The S&P and the NASDAQ, by the way, sixth straight positive week. That's the longest weekly windstreak since October of 24
Michael Hartnett, B of A. Stock gains have rarely been this strong, he points out. The S&P is set for a rare four year streak of double digit gains. We get it, we're only in the early part of May. Anything can happen, but nonetheless, even the technicians are on board, right? The ones who would say, man, this market looks crazy overbought. It's ripe for this, that, the other. Fundstrat's Mark Newton says, near term US equity trends remain technically constructive on price. S&P and the Qs continuing to hold above steep uptrends until prices break. The trend from late March, it won't pay to focus too much on a breakdown just yet. Are you as positive and constructive as seemingly everybody else is?

**Steve Weiss** (2:34)
I am, and I'll tell you why.
Ten years ago, or pick a time frame back then, I'd be worried. The market is just too easy. All you have to do is show up, write a check, put in your account and buy whatever you want to buy that's related to AI.
Values are now, again, inflated, but as we've seen, and there's volatility, but as we've seen with that volatility, that every dip has been a buying opportunity, and not just waiting to buy it like the old days again, but you gotta sort of buy it right away. Yesterday, perfect example. So events that you would think would throw off the market, like high gas prices, things like that, don't matter. And in fact, when you take a look at gas prices, while it's devastating for 60% of the country, they're always living on savings and paycheck to paycheck. For the top 40% that account for most of the GDP production, it's a nuisance, but it's not as devastating for the others. So maybe they make some choices, but really where the wealth is in this country, it just doesn't matter. So that's why it'll keep going. That's why we keep hearing from Uber, from others, no, the consumer's in great shape and it's a consumer led economy. So I'm worried, but I'm always worried. My worries again, 10 years ago, would be different. This is just a different market. A lot of the volatility is driven by algos, and it's an opportunity to get in. Now I think this is going to be the case for the next year or two. So you're on the PT team, PT Jacket. Exactly. So right now you don't have to show ROI on it. What you do have to do is show up and spend. So you don't know if you spend. That doesn't know if all their spends going to yield return or what returnable yields. But they know if they don't do it now, if the others don't do it now, it's an issue. And that trickles down to the companies that we see, like a couple would talk about.