Leaders at the Bell with Stephanie Link, Chief Investment Strategist and Portfolio Manager at Hightower Advisors, Jul 28, 2026

Stephanie Link of Hightower Advisors discusses the market's surprising resilience in 2028, noting the S&P 500 is up 8 percent despite significant headwinds including the Venezuela situation, private credit concerns, SCOTUS overturning tariffs, and ongoing geopolitical conflict. She attributes this strength to consumer resilience, with employment and wage growth supporting consumption across income levels, not just in a K-shaped pattern. The AI investment cycle continues to drive growth beyond semiconductors, extending to data centers, power grids, and utilities. Corporate earnings growth is running at 69 percent year-over-year, though concentrated in technology and communications services, with financials showing 30 percent growth and strength emerging across materials and healthcare sectors.

Link recommends diversification across technology including semiconductors like NVIDIA and Broadcom, both trading at attractive valuations and underperforming peers by 50 percent year-to-date. She favors memory companies due to supply constraints, cybersecurity, and mission-critical software names like ServiceNow despite concerns about AI disrupting the sector. The financials offer compelling value with strong balance sheets and $200 billion in buyback capacity among major banks, positioned to benefit from deregulation. Her primary risk concern centers on potential declines in hyperscaler capital expenditures, which would impact the entire AI infrastructure ecosystem. She advocates dollar-cost averaging given market timing difficulties and maintains a bullish long-term outlook.