2026 - Our View
Hello everyone! Welcome to the February 2026 edition of the Boodle blog. If this is your first visit, we welcome you and if you are a returning member, we thank you for being a part of our journey on the road to financial freedom.
Here at Boodle we believe that the person best qualified to manage your money is you, and we are the best company to help you achieve success.
We have a lot of information to relay to you, including our prediction on the percentage return as measured by the S&P 500 Index.
The Trump Whitehouse
We expect going into 2026, that President Trump will continue to receive massive attention from the media and also from world leaders. Trump as Commander In Chief utilized the US military to remove the dictator, Maduro from office. This action was preceded by weeks of attacks on small boats bringing “drugs” to America. Our military went into Venezuela and removed Maduro and his wife. They are both in US custody.
What boodle will be watching closely is how the uprising in Iran will unfold. As we go to press, explosions have been reported in Iran and President Trump has repeatedly stated that the Mullahs must relinquish power or there will be consequences. Any action taken by the US will reverberate through global markets, and adversely affect everyone’s portfolio. Finally, the removal of Illegal Immigrants from within the borders of the country, will continue to play out in the news and on social media.
The Economy
The Gross Domestic Product, or GDP growth is expected to come in around somewhere between 2% -2.8%. Our best estimate is somewhere around 2.4% growth. A lot of this growth is expected to show up in the a.i. space which is seeing the tech industry spending billions as it builds data centers while using massive amounts of power such as electricity and nuclear. Boodle has always suggested a tech holding in our clients portfolios.
The Federal Reserve
Big changes are coming to the Federal Reserve in 2026 as the current Fed Chair Jerome Powell exits the position on May 15, and President Trump recently named his successor- Kevin Warsh. Warsh is on record as stating that interest rates are too high and should be lowered. Although some Senators have threatened to hold up his confirmation, Boodle believes he will be seated this year.
The Midterm elections
The 2026 election cycle kicks off this spring with the primaries and the general election in November. The midterms offer us a clue as to the type of year that we may expect as investors. Traditionally the party in office (Republicans) will lose seats and possibly one of the 2 houses of Congress (Senate & House of Representatives). Boodle has rarely made financial decisions based on the political party in power, so we will take a neutral stance here. No matter the results, we will find ways for our clients to make money.
What to expect in 2026
Now that we have the month of January under our belt, we can make our analysis on our outlook for 2026 and offer you our view on how you should manage your portfolio. Remember, boodle does not manage client’s money, we only offer you our opinion on what you should be doing with your portfolio based on our 28 years of stock market knowledge and insight.
We are approaching 2026 with caution and expect this year to be somewhat more volatile than 2025. We know that the market does not like uncertainty, and we see plenty of uncertainty as 2026 gets underway. We also see some pale flashes of green too. Let’s start there. The market saw gains in the first month of January as all 3 indexes finished close to or above 1 percent for the month. The DOW added 1.05% while the S&P 500 won the month with a 1.17% advance. The NASDAQ took third place with a 0.95% gain. There is an old saying on Wall Street: As January goes, so goes the market. From our research team, we have no reason to dispute this statement. Boodle is always looking for clarity and we find some in the fact that the Fed nominee, Kevin Warsh is a supply side economist who wants to shake up the Fed. We believe that possible jolts to the economy may include a possible military confrontation between the US & Iran. The a.i. The spending spree is likely to accelerate and we are keeping an eye on this growth in that field.
Our Forecast for 2026
If you want to see how accurate our forecasting has been in the past, check out the 2025 February blog, and read our prediction on the market return for that year. Our numbers speak for themselves.
For 2026, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, we are telling members to adhere to their own portfolio strategy based on their tolerance for risk. Continue to dollar-cost-average into the market and maintain your discipline. Do not be frightened into or out of your portfolio strategy. Continue to read up on the subject of financial literacy.
Our opinion on where the market will be on January 31, 2026 is possibly in the upper single digits (7%-9%) and possibly close to the historical return of 11%.
Enjoy your year and we will see you back here in March. Thank you for choosing Boodle.