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One theme is becoming prevalent as the new year approaches: The technology giants that have been shouldering this bull market will no longer be running the show.Wall Street strategists at firms including Bank of America Corp and Morgan Stanley are advising clients to buy less popular pockets of the market, placing sectors like healthcare, industrials and energy at the top of their shopping lists for 2026 over the Magnificent Seven cohort that includes Nvidia Corp and Amazon.com Inc.For years, investing in Big Tech firms has been a no brainer, given their stalwart balance sheets and fat profits. Now, there’s increasing skepticism over whether the sector — which has surged some 300% since the bull market began three years ago — can keep justifying its lofty valuations and ambitious spending on artificial intelligence technology. Earnings readouts from AI bellwethers Oracle Corp. and Broadcom Inc. that failed to meet lofty expectations amplified those concerns this week.Worries around the red-hot trade come amid rising optimism over the broader US economy in the new year. The setup may push investors to pile into the lagging groups in the S&P 500 at the cost of megacap tech.“I’m hearing about people taking money out of the Magnificent Seven trade, and they’re going elsewhere in the market,” said Craig Johnson, chief market technician at Piper Sandler & Co. “They’re not just going to be chasing the Microsofts and Amazons anymore, they’re going to be broadening this trade out.”There are already signs that stretched valuations are beginning to curb investors’ interest in once-unstoppable tech behemoths. Flows are rotating into undervalued cyclicals, small-capitalisation stocks and economically sensitive segments of the market as traders position to benefit from the anticipated boost in economic growth next year.Since US stocks hit their near-term low on November 20, the small-cap Russell 2000 Index has gained 11% while a Bloomberg gauge of Magnificent Seven companies posted half of that advance. The S&P 500 Equal Weight Index, which makes no distinction between a behemoth like Microsoft Corp and relative minnow like Newell Brands Inc, has been outperforming its cap-weighted counterpart over the same period.Strategas Asset Management LLC, which prefers the equal-weighted version of the S&P 500 over the standard gauge, sees a “great sector rotation” into this year’s underperformers like financials and consumer discretionary stocks in 2026, according to Chairman Jason De Sena Trennert. It’s a view shared by Morgan Stanley’s research team, which emphasised broadening in its year-ahead outlook.“We think Big Tech can still do OK but will lag these new areas, most notably consumer discretionary — especially goods — and small- and mid-caps,” said Michael Wilson, chief US equity strategist and chief investment officer at Morgan Stanley.Wilson, who correctly predicted a rebound from April’s rout, says the market widening could be supported with the economy now in an “early-cycle backdrop” after troughing in April. This tends to be a boon for laggards like lower-quality, more cyclical financials and industrials. Bank of America’s Michael Hartnett said on Friday that markets are front-running a “run-it-hot” strategy in 2026, rotating into “Main Street” mid-caps, small caps and micro caps from Wall Street megacaps.Earlier in the week, veteran strategist Ed Yardeni of his eponymous firm Yardeni Research effectively recommended going underweight Big Tech versus the rest of the S&P 500, expecting a shift in profit growth ahead. He was overweight information technology and communications services since 2010.Fundamentals are also on their side. Earnings growth for the S&P 493 is projected to accelerate to 9% in 2026 from 7% this year as the earnings contribution from the seven largest companies in the S&P 500 is set to fall to 46% from 50%, according to data from Goldman Sachs Group Inc.Investors, will want to see evidence that the S&P 493 are meeting or beating earnings expectations before getting more bullish, according to Michael Bailey, director of research at FBB Capital Partners. “If jobs and inflation data remain status quo and the Federal Reserve is still easing, we could see a bullish move in the 493 next year,” he added.The US central bank cut interest rates for the third consecutive time on Wednesday and reiterated its view for another reduction next year.Utilities, financials, healthcare, industrials, energy, and even consumer discretionary are solidly up this year, evidence that the broadening is already happening, points out Max Kettner, chief cross-asset strategist at HSBC Holdings Plc.“For me, it’s not about whether we should buy tech or the other sectors, but more about tech and the other sectors participating too,” Kettner said. “And in my view, that should continue in the coming months too.” 

Ooredoo announced a strategic partnership with Rafay Systems to deliver an enterprise-grade, Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) powered by Nvidia accelerated computing to organisations across the country, building on its recent deployment of Nvidia AI infrastructure in Qatar.The collaboration enables enterprises to build, train, and deploy AI and GenAI applications faster and more securely, all within Qatar’s sovereign AI cloud. From banks running real-time fraud detection to hospitals adopting AI diagnostics locally to energy firms using predictive maintenance, organisations in Qatar can now access the compute power, generative AI models, and tools they need without compromising data sovereignty.Sheikh Ali bin Jabor bin Mohammad al-Thani, CEO of Ooredoo Qatar, said: “Our partnership with Rafay brings the power of GPU-accelerated AI directly into the hands of Qatar’s businesses. Customers can now tap into secure, on-demand AI infrastructure that shortens time-to-innovation while keeping data fully sovereign.”Through Rafay’s platform, Ooredoo’s enterprise customers gain self-service access to GPU resources, AI tools, and model workbenches for training, fine-tuning, and deploying AI and GenAI applications. The platform includes built-in governance, cost transparency, and full compliance support, ensuring enterprises can safely innovate within Qatar’s borders. 

US President Donald Trump announced that he has approved the export of an advanced artificial intelligence chip produced by US technology giant Nvidia to China, under strict national security conditions.In a post on social media on Monday, Trump said Nvidia will be permitted to sell its H200 processors to China, stressing that the move would be subject to rigorous safeguards to protect US national security. He added that he has informed Chinese President Xi Jinping of the decision, noting that Xi responded "positively."Trump said the US Department of Commerce is finalizing the details of the arrangement, adding that the same framework would apply to other major US semiconductor companies, including AMD and Intel.The H200 chip, unveiled two years ago, features higher-bandwidth memory than its predecessor, the H100, enabling significantly faster data processing. Reports indicate that allowing its export would enable Chinese AI laboratories to build supercomputers with performance comparable to leading US artificial intelligence systems, albeit at a higher cost.Trump, however, confirmed that the export of Nvidia's latest Blackwell chips will remain prohibited."We will protect national security, create American jobs, and keep America's lead in AI," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "Nvidia's US customers are already moving forward with their highly advanced Blackwell chips, and soon Rubin, neither of which are part of this deal."For its part, Nvidia welcomed the decision, saying in a statement: "Offering H200 to approved commercial customers, vetted by the Department of Commerce, strikes a thoughtful balance that is great for America."  

Turbulence in technology stocks could ratchet higher in the coming week as investors react to the quarterly report from Nvidia Corp, the world's largest company by market value that is at the heart of Wall Street's artificial intelligence trade. On Thursday, the benchmark S&P 500 equity index gave up gains from earlier in the week, as uncertainty about the economic outlook and path for US interest rates undercut optimism over the end of the longest-ever US government shutdown. Investors remained skittish about vulnerability to technology shares, which stumbled this month on concerns AI exuberance has driven up valuations to expensive levels. With its AI chips, semiconductor giant Nvidia has been a bellwether for the theme that has lifted shares of an array of tech names as well as other companies involved in the vast infrastructure expansion to support AI use. Nvidia is the "epicentre" of the build-out of AI, so its results after the bell on Wednesday will be important to the tech sector as well as areas such as industrials and utilities, said Matt Orton, chief market strategist at Raymond James Investment Management. "If you don't see the growth that I think the market is expecting around Nvidia or the positive commentary that we are likely to get from Nvidia going forward, I think you're going to see more of a dent to those sorts of trades," Orton said. Nvidia shares have soared about 1,000% since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022. This includes a year-to-date gain of nearly 40% that made Nvidia the first company to surpass $5tn in market value last month. That market heft means the stock's moves can sway equity indexes. Nvidia carries an 8% weight in the S&P 500 and a roughly 10% weight in the widely followed Nasdaq 100. **media[381893]** Analysts on average expect the company to post a 53.8% year-over-year rise in fiscal third quarter earnings per share, on revenue of $54.8bn, according to LSEG. Analysts have also been getting more bullish about the company's future performance, with expectations for the company's fiscal 2027 revenue rising 15% since late May to about $285bn currently, according to LSEG data. "The assumptions that the market is making are positive, it's getting priced into the stock, and how the company guides will be very important," said Melissa Otto, head of research at S&P Global Visible Alpha. Investors will also focus on commentary from Nvidia related to demand or spending trends. Capital expenditures from hyperscalers such as Microsoft and Amazon earlier in the reporting season indicated no signs of slowing in the build-out of data centres and other AI infrastructure. "You're not supposed to have any weakness given all the capital spending commitments from various companies," said Jimmy Chang, chief investment officer of Rockefeller Global Family Office. "Demand should still be looking pretty solid in the current environment." Nvidia's report is one of the biggest remaining market catalysts in 2025. The S&P 500 is logging a roughly 15% year-to-date gain, but Wall Street is wary of concerns stocks are in an "AI bubble." Investors appear to be bringing more scrutiny to AI investment announcements, said James Ragan, co-CIO and director of investment management research at DA Davidson. **media[381894]** "We're moving into a stage where investors are going to demand a little bit more proof of concept in terms of what are the returns, what are the cash flows," Ragan said. Aside from Nvidia's results, quarterly earnings from retailers are due in the coming week including from Walmart and Home Depot. There could also be a batch of economic data releases that were delayed during the shutdown. While the S&P 500 tech sector has struggled so far this month, other sectors are logging solid gains in that time, including healthcare, materials and financials. "There's a realisation that for investors, maybe that AI is not the only game in town," Ragan said.