Investing in small-cap stocks could prove a winning strategy in 2026, <a href="https://www.barrons.com/articles/small-cap-stocks-earnings-interest-rates-2f7c13f7?mod=RTA">writes</a>&nbsp;<i>Barron’s</i>. Over the past month, the <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%5ESP600/">S&amp;P SmallCap 600 index</a> has outperformed the large-cap <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%5EGSPC/">S&amp;P 500</a> by a wide margin. Analysts believe small-cap momentum could continue next year, supported by potential further Fed rate cuts, lower borrowing costs, and stronger economic activity.

'Let the good times keep rolling': Barron's highlights drivers for small caps in 2026

NVIDIA Corporation

Oracle Corporation

BlackBerry Limited

NIKE, Inc.

KB Home

FedEx Corporation

Apple Inc.

Accenture plc

lululemon athletica inc.

Woodside Energy Group Ltd

Cintas Corporation

Daily review and forecast of events on the U.S. stock market from Mikhail Denislamov, Deputy Director of Freedom Capital Markets Research.

New York morning: 'witching days' provoke turbulence

Micron Technology, Inc.

The main U.S. index S&amp;P 500 returned to growth after four consecutive days of decline due to the fact that the data on inflation was not as bad as the market expected, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/17/stock-market-today-live-updates.html">writes</a> CNBC. This strengthened investors' hopes for further easing of monetary policy by the Federal Reserve in 2026. Micron's report also gave confidence to the technology sector.

The S&amp;P 500 rose for the first time after four days of declines thanks to inflation data and Micron

MillerKnoll, Inc.

Enerpac Tool Group Corp.

Tesla, Inc.

Udemy, Inc.

General Mills, Inc.

Paramount Skydance Corporation

Morning in New York: macro statistics in focus

Broadcom Inc.

The Nasdaq Composite Technology Index plunged nearly 2% on December 17 as Oracle's stock plunged, pulling other AI-related securities with it. The FT reported that Oracle lost an investor in one of its data center projects: this triggered a new wave of fears on Wall Street about the AI bubble. Investors decided to bet on more reliable "value stocks" and take a more defensive stance at the end of the year, analysts said.

Nasdaq collapses 1.8%: Oracle has forced tech sector investors to seek protection

Periods of such rosy market expectations have been seen only eight times in the 21st century 

BofA: investor optimism ahead of 2026 hits highest in nearly five years

Citigroup Inc.

Citigroup has set its target for the S&amp;P 500 Index at 7,700 points by the end of 2026, which implies a 12.8% increase from current values. Analysts expect investments in artificial intelligence to remain the key theme of the year, but the focus will shift from "companies that provide AI solutions to their users" - that is, to companies that are able to integrate AI tools into their business practices and, as a result, increase their productivity, Reuters <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/citi-sets-2026-sp-500-target-7700-expects-ai-remain-key-theme-2025-12-15/">reports</a>.

Citi expects the S&amp;P 500 to rise nearly 13% at the end of 2026. Who will be the driving force?

Apollo Global Management, Inc.

Apollo is not the only investment giant that has seen a threat to the business models of many B2B software vendors

Apollo has taken a bearish stance on enterprise software developers. What threatens them?

U.S. stocks fell sharply on Friday, December 12, amid the ongoing sell-off of securities related to artificial intelligence. The main catalysts of the sector's decline were Oracle, which became a kind of indicator of the boom in the AI-industry, and rival Nvidia chipmaker Broadcom, whose order volume turned out to be worse than some investors expected. Doubts about the prospects of the two companies have brought concerns about the valuation of the tech giants back to the market.

"The AI bubble is deflating but not bursting": major US indices collapsed on Friday

Reddit, Inc.

Lululemon CEO Calvin McDonald will leave the company after a period of weak growth and pressure from the founder. The U.S. SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) takes a step towards digitalization by allowing the U.S. central depository to "tokenize" some stocks and bonds. About these and other topics - in our review of key events for the morning of December 12.

Highlights for this morning: Lululemon CEO departure, blockchain for Wall Street, Reddit vs. Australia

Visa Inc.

The company's weak report pulled the entire AI sector down, but Wedbush analysts see it as a buying opportunity on the downturn 

S&amp;P 500 and Dow Jones indexes jumped to records. What does this have to do with Oracle's collapse?

Fundstrat's Tom Lee has no doubts about the US stock market's ability to rise again after three consecutive years of gains