Stocks Rise on Earnings and Hopes for Hormuz Deal

Watch on YouTube ↗  |  August 05, 2026 at 16:38  |  6:33  |  Bloomberg Markets
Speakers
Romaine Bostick — Anchor, Bloomberg
Alicia Levine — Head of Investment Strategy at BNY Mellon

Summary

Stocks rallied to fresh highs on strong earnings and hopes for a Strait of Hormuz deal. Alicia Levine, CIO of BNY Wealth, argues against market timing, sees no recession ahead, and highlights favorable setups in industrials, financials, and technology. She sets a bullish S&P 500 target of 8000 with upside risk.

  • S&P 500 reaches new highs on corporate profits and Hormuz deal optimism.
  • Levine warns that market timing destroys returns, citing best-month effects.
  • No recession expected; banks are performing strongly as a leading indicator.
  • ROI on AI capex validated by accelerating cloud revenue, allowing tech to rally.
  • Industrials are the best sector, driven by CapEx incentives and AI buildout.
  • S&P 500 price target of 8000 with forward earnings growing 30%.
  • Interest rates can rise to 5% without derailing equities.
Ideas
Romaine Bostick Anchor, Bloomberg 0:44
Stay invested to capture best month.
No recession is looming, the economy is healthy, and banks are performing well as a forward leading indicator, making equity market timing futile; equities have returned 14% annualized since 2010 and will continue to rise.
SPY MED
Alicia Levine Head of Investment Strategy at BNY Mellon 2:40
Banks strong, buy financials.
Banks are doing terrific and are a forward leading indicator of the economy; strong bank performance implies no recession and supports owning financials.
XLF MED
Alicia Levine Head of Investment Strategy at BNY Mellon 4:07
AI spending ROI validated, tech rallies.
The ROI question on AI spending has been answered positively as hyperscaler cloud revenue is accelerating, validating the business model even with negative short-term free cash flow; the whole tech complex can rally.
XLK HIGH
Alicia Levine Head of Investment Strategy at BNY Mellon 4:24
CapEx boom drives industrials higher.
Industrials are attractive thanks to a perfect storm: CapEx incentives from the 2022 legislation and massive hyperscaler spending on AI data center hard assets; earnings growth is strong and the sector has been the best performer this year.
XLI HIGH
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This Bloomberg Markets video, published August 05, 2026, features Romaine Bostick, Alicia Levine discussing SPY, XLF, XLK, XLI. 4 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.

Speakers: Romaine Bostick, Alicia Levine  · Tickers: SPY, XLF, XLK, XLI