Ideas
AI drives long-term productivity golden era.
Skousen sees AI-driven technology as the overwhelming driver of the stock market and economic strength, creating productivity and a technology-led golden era. He acknowledges the spending is a short-term cost but keeps a long-term bullish perspective on AI.
Gold and silver hedge permanent inflation.
Skousen views gold as the ultimate inflation and crisis hedge in a permanent inflation environment, and he also recommends gold and silver coins. He warns that physical metal must be stored safely, so he prefers miners/royalty companies for investment exposure.
Watch yen carry trade unwind risk.
Skousen highlights the yen-dollar carry trade as a potential source of crisis: institutions borrow cheap yen and buy higher-yielding U.S. Treasuries while the yen has weakened sharply. He notes Scott Bessent intervened by buying yen to prevent a disorderly unwind, making the yen worth monitoring.
Prefer dividend growers over bonds now.
With interest rates rising and bond prices falling, Skousen avoids bonds and prefers dividend-paying stocks with rising dividends, especially those yielding more than Treasuries or CDs. He argues dividends cushion corrections and continue to provide income even if prices fall.
Tech valuations stretched; correction risk high.
Skousen warns technology valuations are so stretched that tech stocks could fall in half and still be overvalued. He sees huge AI/data-center spending with uncertain near-term payoffs and says investors should be careful about a significant correction.
Financial stocks protect and pay dividends.
Skousen wants protection from stretched technology valuations and likes financial stocks, saying he has always liked Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. He uses financials as a dividend-paying value/protection sleeve within a diversified equity portfolio.
MAIN yields 7% with strong record.
Main Street Capital is a business development company yielding about 7%, paying a monthly and quarterly dividend, investing in private and pre-IPO companies with a strong default record and market-beating history. Skousen calls it a favorite conservative income investment.
High-yield energy stocks cushion corrections.
Skousen favors high-yielding energy stocks as income and correction protection, citing Enterprise Products at 6%-7% and Williams Companies at about 3%. He says their dividends are above the S&P 500 yield, keep paying during downturns, and some even raise dividends.
Avoid double-digit yields; dividends at risk.
Skousen warns investors to stay away from stocks with double-digit dividend yields because those payouts are often unsustainable and likely to be cut during a crisis. He prefers more durable dividend payers with rising dividends.
Fully invested in S&P 500 bull market.
Skousen says the U.S. economy is in fairly good shape, corporate profits and business spending are strong, and the market is in a technology-led bull market that keeps buying dips. He is 100% invested, keeps half his portfolio in an S&P 500 index fund, and intends to stay with the trend until it breaks.
Copper bull market on data centers.
Skousen owns Southern Copper as a copper play and notes copper is at an all-time high. He expects copper demand to benefit from infrastructure and data-center buildout, and he favors selective commodity sector bull markets.
Blockchain ETF leveraged crypto exposure.
Skousen sees Bitcoin coming alive again but prefers not to own it directly. He invests through BLOK, a blockchain and crypto-focused ETF, because the underlying companies are a leveraged way to profit and are outperforming Bitcoin itself.
Nuclear future; uranium prices rising.
Skousen is positive on uranium and nuclear power, calling nuclear the future and superior to expensive wind and solar. He cites smaller nuclear plant development and rising uranium prices as reasons for diversified exposure.
Wind and solar too expensive.
Skousen says nuclear power is a better alternative-energy solution than wind and solar, which he calls extremely expensive. He prefers uranium/nuclear exposure over those renewable sectors.
Biotech innovation requires FDA patience.
Skousen holds biotech because he expects drug companies to develop new medicines and technologies over time. He stresses that investors must be patient through the multi-stage FDA approval process.
Amgen favorite Dow biotech stock.
Skousen recommends Amgen as his favorite Dow stock in biotech, tying it to the broader innovation and AI-adjacent healthcare opportunity. He accepts the need for patience with FDA timelines but likes its long-term potential.
Oil and gas stay elevated.
Skousen is staying with oil and natural gas while the Middle East war continues, expecting elevated prices until nuclear power can help meet data-center energy needs. He is long-term in many energy plays because they have done well and pay rising dividends.
Prefer miners over physical metals.
Rather than owning the physical commodities, Skousen prefers mining equities for gold/silver exposure because mining is earlier-stage and higher-beta, offering more upside but more volatility. He recommends only appropriate sizing.
Franco Nevada conservative royalty play.
Skousen cites Franco Nevada as an example of a conservative royalty company that can provide exposure to precious-metals mining while reducing the high-beta volatility of operating miners. He calls it a great conservative way to make money in volatile markets.
Nibble speculative small caps carefully.
Skousen likes to nibble at speculative small caps because that is where future large winners can be found, comparing them to Nvidia's earlier days. He warns they are highly speculative and should be held in small position sizes.
Drone and missile defense spending grows.
Skousen sees a positive opportunity in small-cap defense technology companies building drones and missiles, which should benefit from elevated defense and war spending. He says investors do not have to own Lockheed Martin to get exposure.
This Wealthion video, published September 18, 2026,
features Mark Skousen
discussing AI-SECTOR, GLD, SILVER, FXY, Dividend-paying stocks, XLK, XLF, MAIN, EPD, WMB, Double-digit yield stocks, SPY, COPPER, SCCO, BLOK, URA, ICLN, XBI, AMGN, WTI, UNG, XLE, GDX, FNV, IWM, Defense drones/missiles.
21 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.
Speakers:
Mark Skousen
· Tickers:
AI-SECTOR,
GLD,
SILVER,
FXY,
Dividend-paying stocks,
XLK,
XLF,
MAIN,
EPD,
WMB,
Double-digit yield stocks,
SPY,
COPPER,
SCCO,
BLOK,
URA,
ICLN,
XBI,
AMGN,
WTI,
UNG,
XLE,
GDX,
FNV,
IWM,
Defense drones/missiles
