The outlook for ETF investing in the remainder of 2026
Speakers
Jon Maier
— Chief ETF Strategist, JPMorgan Asset Management
Summary
JPMorgan's chief ETF strategist Jon Maier discusses the strong start to earnings season, highlighting robust bank results and a resilient consumer. He identifies technology, particularly the AI ecosystem, as the sector with the most upside for ETF investors, driven by hyperscaler capex feeding into multiple subsectors.
- Earnings season has started strong, with 20% year-over-year EPS growth and many beats; expectations remain high.
- Bank earnings have been fantastic, indicating a resilient consumer and increasing capital markets activity.
- Technology is the easiest sector to favor for outperformance, with the AI ecosystem driving earnings.
- Hyperscaler capex is very strong and is feeding into AI models, applications, memory, energy, and industrials.
- The AI capex cycle creates a multi-layer opportunity across technology and adjacent sectors like energy and industrials.
Ideas
Technology leads on AI capex cycle.
Technology is still the easiest sector with the most opportunity to outperform, driven by strong earnings from AI-related companies and the AI ecosystem. Hyperscaler capex is very strong and feeds into multiple layers of the AI stack, including models, applications, memory, energy, and industrials, with AI requiring significant energy and industrial inputs.
