The latest stock-moving White House policies... Defense spending could jump more than 70%... Limits on investment properties... An AI red flag to watch in 2026... Stansberry Investor Hour: Your job vs. AI...
It's a familiar story...
As we look ahead to 2026 – and years beyond – you can bet on one thing with near certainty: more government spending...
Late yesterday, President Donald Trump went to Truth Social and announced the latest example: an extra half-trillion dollars for U.S. military spending in 2027. His post on the Truth Social platform read...
After the long and difficult negotiations with Senators, Congressmen, Secretaries, and other Political Representatives, I have determined that, for the Good of our Country, especially in these very troubled and dangerous times, our Military Budget for the year 2027 should not be $1 Trillion Dollars, rather $1.5 Trillion Dollars...
That's a 70%-plus increase over the 2025 defense budget. He added, "This will allow us to build the 'Dream Military' that we have long been entitled to, and, more importantly, that will keep us SAFE and SECURE, regardless of foe."
Today, the news also sent shares of U.S. defense stocks higher. Lockheed Martin (LMT) was up about 4% and Northrop Grumman (NOC) was 2% higher, among other gainers in the industry. They've become the latest "winners" tied to recently dictated White House policy.
And here's maybe a group of 'losers'...
Earlier yesterday, Trump said he's looking to limit institutional buying of single-family homes – a long-discussed trend contributing to tight housing supply and rising home prices. Specifically, Trump wrote (again) on Truth Social...
I am immediately taking steps to ban large institutional investors from buying more single-family homes, and I will be calling on Congress to codify it. People live in homes, not corporations.
It's hard to know for sure what will constitute "large" or how limits would be implemented. But some real estate investment trusts ("REITs") and investing firms like Blackstone (BX) have significant holdings of single-family homes and apartments.
Shares of Blackstone fell more than 5% yesterday... And Invitation Homes (INVH), the largest renter of single-family homes in the U.S., saw its shares drop 6%. (Both were up around 1% today.)
Companies like these have become increasingly influential in the residential market in certain cities and regions. Nationally, investors were fewer than 20% of America's homebuyers in 2019, yet they neared 30% last year.
And in a November report, Realtor.com found that institutional investors are paying up to 35% above the median home sales price. So they're outbidding individual homebuyers and keeping a floor on home prices.
Of course, real estate is local, so this behavior affects some parts of the country more than others. In Atlanta, Georgia and Jacksonville, Florida, for instance, institutional investors own more than 20% of the single-family rental market.
Trump isn't proposing that firms would have to sell their existing housing portfolios. But they'd have to stop buying more.
Moving on, we're also watching the AI story in 2026...
Just like last year, we're willing to bet that AI remains at the forefront of investors' minds in 2026. This will include the Magnificent Seven stocks' capital expenditures ("capex"), along with potential AI startups' initial public offerings ("IPOs").
Things look fine for AI now, but that doesn't mean this boom is devoid of any cracks...
Last year, we highlighted that Oracle (ORCL) could be the "canary in the AI coal mine."
Put simply, Oracle has weaker financials than some of the other Big Tech firms – like Alphabet (GOOGL) and Microsoft (MSFT) – but it's trying to keep up with them in AI spending plans.
Investors aren't so sure. And Oracle stock is down more than 40% from its all-time high in September.
Over the weekend, we saw another potential red flag in AI...
Don Johnson, chief economist at the research firm MacroEdge, shared the below chart and this post on the social platform X...
If Johnson's projections for 100 more cancellations or postponements in the next six months are realized, it will be bad news for the AI boom...
This year alone, Goldman Sachs estimates that hyperscalers will spend $539 billion in capex – up 35% from the $398 billion they spent in 2025. But the only way that spending makes sense is if the companies think these investments will eventually be profitable.
And if they're pulling back on building out data centers for their AI goals, it could indicate that they're rethinking the usefulness of AI. That could be what eventually pops the AI bubble down the road.
For now, the bulls are in control...
This week, at the CES electronics show, tech companies are showing off their latest innovations. AI is everywhere.
So far, we've seen a humanoid factory robot from Boston Dynamics (which was also highlighted on 60 Minutes on Sunday)... an AI assistant to help folks operate and maintain equipment from Caterpillar (CAT)... and even plans for an Nvidia (NVDA) self-driving car in a partnership with Mercedes.
(The Associated Press recapped some of the "coolest" things from Day 1 of the conference here. One highlight is a lollipop that plays music while you eat it, using something called "bone induction technology.")
Of course, there's been a lot more than that. And AI darlings – like Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) – have even used their platforms this week to talk about the broader AI landscape. Starting with Nvidia...
The leading AI chipmaker unveiled its newest AI platform, called the Rubin platform. Rubin is made up of six of its next-generation chips and will cut down on the cost and time it takes to train AI models, the company said.
And it couldn't come at a better time, according to CEO Jensen Huang. As he said in a statement...
AI computing demand for both training and inference is going through the roof.
AMD CEO Lisa Su said more of the same...
In an interview with Bloomberg News on Tuesday, Su said that "AI is not just hype." She added that computing power will have to increase 100-fold over the next five years to meet AI demand. And that means we're still in the "early innings" of AI, according to Su.
If these dominant AI chipmakers are correct, it sounds like any "cracks" that we described above will continue to be small for now.
In last week's Stansberry Investor Hour, GAI Insights' Dr. John Sviokla joined the show for a fascinating discussion on AI, the parts of the industry that make worthy investments, and how you can keep a job in an AI world...
Click here to watch our entire interview on our YouTube page... or listen to the audio version on our website or wherever you listen to podcasts, like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Audible. Just search "Stansberry Investor Hour" and subscribe to get more episodes when they go live.
New 52-week highs (as of 1/7/26): ProShares Ultra Nasdaq Biotechnology (BIB), Alpha Architect 1-3 Month Box Fund (BOXX), Ciena (CIEN), WisdomTree Japan SmallCap Dividend Fund (DFJ), Enel (ENLAY), Cambria Emerging Shareholder Yield Fund (EYLD), Fanuc (FANUY), FirstCash (FCFS), Comfort Systems USA (FIX), Genmab (GMAB), iShares Biotechnology Fund (IBB), Ideaya Biosciences (IDYA), Illumina (ILMN), IQVIA (IQV), Kinross Gold (KGC), New York Times (NYT), Invesco Oil & Gas Services Fund (PXJ), Roche (RHHBY), ProShares Ultra Health Care (RXL), Vale (VALE), and State Street Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLV).
In today's mailbag, feedback on yesterday's Digest that discussed investment in nuclear energy... Do you have a comment or question? As always, e-mail us at feedback@stansberryresearch.com.
"Hi folks, Nuclear sounds great in so many ways but I didn't see anything written about how to dispose of the waste. This stuff is going to be toxic for millennia, long after our civilization is gone. Not the sort of thing we want to be leaving for our descendants far down the line. Just wanted to bring that up." – Subscriber Charlie L.
All the best,
Corey McLaughlin and Nick Koziol
Baltimore, Maryland
January 8, 2026
