The Market Bull Run Continues: The Committee's Next Move 8/11/26

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**Scott Wapner** (1:00)
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.
Carl, thank you. Welcome to the Halftime Report. I'm Scott Wapner, front and center this hour, State of the Markets, has Investors Wait on tomorrow's CPI print. We discuss, we debate with the Investment Committee. Bullishness seemingly abounds on the street. Joining me for the hour, Joe Terranova, Brian Belsky, Rob Seachen and Josh Brown. Take you to the markets and show you exactly what we're doing as we come on the air. This looks like a wait and see tape to me. You're not really doing a whole lot. Yields are a little lower, oils off the highs.
The story, though, to me, is the bullishness on the street. Targets go up, earnings estimates keep going up. I want you to listen to Goldman's Global Head of Hedge Fund Coverage, Tony Pascarello, with me on Closing Bill, on why he's so positive and why so many are.

**Brian Belsky** (2:04)
I think the foundation of the market is solid. Why do I say that? I think the economy's proven again to be very durable, running around trend. Earnings growth has been superb.

**SPEAKER_5** (2:13)
I think the flow of funds is still very favorable, particularly in the month of August.

**Brian Belsky** (2:17)
And then we have a trillion dollars of AI, CapEx, working its way through the system.

**Scott Wapner** (2:22)
Those are just a few, Josh, of many reasons why, as I said, bullishness abounds, targets go up, optimism continues to rise.

**Josh Brown** (2:31)
Yeah, that's right. And I think part of the optimism is just a function of how far through earnings season we now are. We've basically heard from almost all of the most important growth, earnings growth stories, and then we're just getting such a panoramic virtuous cycle. It's every way you look is we beat, we're raising the lower end of the forecast, etc., etc.
So we're through 80% of the S&P 500 by market cap. Like we've got almost everything. I know Nvidia is still out there, but if you take the actual and then you blend that with what we're still expecting, so these are still estimates. Even if you pull tech out, you're looking at 28.3% earnings growth.
If you add tech back, it's 32%. It's outrageous. The net income margin has been revised up during the course of this season to 15.6% from 15 So margin is ahead of expectation. Then you look at sales growth, and that's better, 15.2%. That's 300 plus basis points above what was expected as recently as two months ago. 10 out of 11 sectors were getting profit growth. So a lot of the narratives about it's all AI, or it's so narrow, it's concentrated, throw them all in the garbage. They're money losing narratives. The reality is corporate America, the current management of companies in every sector, look at what they've had thrown at them over the last five or so years. Whether we're talking about record inflation spike, or we're talking about the pandemic itself, and all the difficulty in hiring people, and then the tariff stuff. These are like absolute warriors, the people running these companies, and they just continue to find more and more and more earnings growth, more margin, more upside to estimates. And in that environment, is 20 times earnings cheap? No, but why would it be less?
Why would the multiple on this particular crop of companies be 16 times earnings, because it was in 1994? It makes no sense. These companies are, it's the Michael Jordan of every sector. So I think that's what people are reacting to. And there are great stories everywhere I look.

**Scott Wapner** (4:55)