Money Show in Miami with Kathryn Rooney Vera, Chief Market Strategist at StoneX

Kathryn Rooney Vera, Chief Market Strategist at StoneX, discusses the market recovery following what she describes as a pivotal week of tariff de-escalation with China and expanding AI opportunities in the Middle East. After difficult days in early April, she believes new highs for technology stocks could be on the horizon in 2025 as the AI revolution continues to unfold. While acknowledging that tariff policy remains uncertain and that even reduced tariffs of 30 percent on Chinese goods will likely drive consumer price increases in coming months, she views the anticipated inflation uptick as transitionary. With the Federal Reserve's hands tied until later this year, she expects the ten-year yield to factor in near-term inflation pressures before potential rate cuts materialize, creating a bullish scenario for technology.

Rooney Vera identifies strong opportunities across the AI ecosystem, predicting Palantir could reach a trillion-dollar market capitalization within two to three years. She highlights NVIDIA as the foundational player alongside hyperscalers like Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet, while naming Salesforce and Tesla as key software and autonomous robotics beneficiaries. The cybersecurity sector represents a golden age opportunity as data migration to the cloud accelerates, with names like CyberArk, Palo Alto, Zscaler, and CrowdStrike positioned as core holdings. She notes that more data centers are currently under construction than are actively operating, underscoring massive infrastructure investment to support AI development. For the S&P 500, she projects a year-end range of 6,500 to 7,000, contingent on continued tariff de-escalation and successful trade negotiations with countries including India, South Korea, and Vietnam.