As 2025 nears its final 100 calendar days, market focus is already beginning to turn forward and attempt to reconcile what market drivers could remain in place, and what could change in the first year of the new half-decade. While not an exhaustive list, here’s some of our early keys to 2026.

AI-related business investment is rapidly becoming a cornerstone of U.S. economic growth, marking a structural shift in how expansion is financed and sustained. In the first half of 2025, investment in information-processing equipment and software — largely driven by AI infrastructure — is a small yet mighty slice of the economy, yet contributed a majority to economic growth during that period.