Morgan Stanley strategist: Earnings resilience will drive widespread gains in U.S. stocks
He said that the rising trend of U.S. stocks will further spread, and the core driving force is the resilience of the profit performance of most individual stocks. A strategy team led by Mike Wilson wrote that the equal-weighted S&P 500 index has outperformed the market capitalization-weighted index since mid-May, driven by profit restoration across all sectors. The optional consumption and delivery sectors, which the team is optimistic about, have shown relative advantages in terms of earnings upward revision coverage. The research report pointed out that text analysis of corporate financial reports shows that the momentum of the implementation of artificial intelligence continues to increase, which also contributes to the overall spread of market conditions. In the second quarter of 2026, 40% of companies identified as AI application companies mentioned that the implementation of artificial intelligence has brought at least one quantifiable benefit, which is higher than 37% in the first quarter of 2026 and 21% in the second quarter of 2025. About 25% of S&P 500 companies disclosed at least one measurable AI-enabled benefit, a significant increase from 14% last year.