Expect a 3-5% return in the S&P 500 in 2026, says Freedom Capital's Jay Woods

Jay Woods (Chief Strategist) 00:00.229

let me push back consumer confidence hit record blows this past year and what did the financials do they're at all time highs so yes it will hurt confidence but the bottom line is these companies continue to hit it on all metrics and earnings matter so for the financials to pull

Jay Woods (Chief Strategist) 00:17.819

back a little bit i think it will be a great buying opportunity because when financials move they move in cycles and we get nice two three four year runs out of them and i think that's what we're seeing now we have an administration that's very you know financial savvy the the

Jay Woods (Chief Strategist) 00:32.509

the roadblocks the stumbles this year there are two that really have me concerned this scotus ruling whenever this comes out if they deem the tariffs illegal what's that going to cause it's going to cause uncertainty what killed the market earlier this year that tariff

Jay Woods (Chief Strategist) 00:46.219

uncertainty we already have costco having litigation saying look if these are deemed illegal we want our money back and that could have a chain of events that could cause a little trepidation for a month six weeks until we figure it out the administration is going to find it

Jay Woods (Chief Strategist) 01:02.459

work around the companies will figure things out once they know what the exact tariff situation is so that's my one caveat that could cause a big stumble out of the gates and then we're going to have a new fed chair i think jay powells legacy the next three meetings are crucial

Jay Woods (Chief Strategist) 01:17.699

because he's going to want to declare fed independence the fed is independent we have four new voters they're going to want to you know get their names out there because you know we know fed officials now this is a new thing that we know who these voting members are they talk a

Jay Woods (Chief Strategist) 01:31.579

lot more i'd rather just not know who these people LAR and let the fed do their business but it's going to cause volatility in the market and it should be interesting to watch