Outrageous Predictions
Executive Summary: Outrageous Predictions 2026
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London Quick Take – 4 Dec - Bad news is good news for stocks, Q-day cometh for one stock at least and Sydney Sweeney sells
Neil Wilson
Investor Content Strategist
Note: This is marketing material. This article is not investment advice, capital is at risk.
Q-Day cometh? D-Wave Quantum jumped over 11% as Evercore ISI initiated coverage on the quantum computing stock with an “outperform” rating and price target of $44. The bullish call is based on the fact it’s the first quantum company with commercial revenues; it’s a full-stack play, with services, software, and hardware; and the big cash pile to develop its technology and potentially pursue M&A opportunities.
“Each successive Tectonic Shift in Computing surprised investors with new workloads, and created stock performance of 100x-to-1,000x for full-stack ecosystem leaders,” wrote Evercore's Mark Lipacis . “To be clear, with over 40 quantum companies competing and no clear-cut leaders, we expect a shakeout, but to capture full-alpha, history shows you need to get in 10-years before the Tectonic Shift actually happens.”
I looked at the arrival of Q-Day - the moment quantum computing gets round the encryption tech that underpins our entire digital infrastructure - in the annual Outrageous Predictions this week.
Sydney Sweeney sells: American Eagle Outfitters shares leapt yesterday after a “record-breaking Thanksgiving weekend” prompted it to raise its full-year outlook. Shares finished the session up 15% after the company raised its earnings expectations following strong sales in activewear and lingerie off the back of the ad campaigns featuring Sweeney and Travis Kelce, the NFL star engaged to Taylor Swift. CFO Michael Matthias detailed "significant" traffic from those campaigns online. Influencers sell - as John Hardy looked at in another Outrageous Prediction this year, in a world of fake news and post-social media these people become so much more important and can drive global trends and shape the future of companies.
Bad news is good news for stocks – Wall Street stocks rose as ADP reported private payrolls declined by 32k last month, surprising to the downside and reinforcing the view that the Fed is a slam dunk to cut rates this month. A slowdown in orders in the ISM services PMI was also seen as boosting the chances for further easing when the Fed convenes next week. The S&P 500 rose 0.3% to close slap on Friday’s closing level at 6,849. This was a bad-news-is-good-news rate play - small caps led the gains with the Russell 2k up 2%, because lower-quality stocks do well when rates fall, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose just 0.17% as megacap tech languished. Bitcoin rose to $93,000 after Monday was its worst day since March and it was generally a better day for speculative tech than strong balance sheet tech. Crypto adjacent names like Circle and BitMine rallied strongly while Microsoft and Nvidia fell.
European stock markets have broadly firmed but it's not translating much to the FTSE 100 this morning as a strong pound is acting as a weight. Sterling took the cue from dollar weakness to hit its best since October, having its best single session since April. GBPUSD rallied +1% to 1.3350, rising up through its 200-day SMA on a combination of some better-than-expected UK services PMI data and the weaker-than-expected ADP US jobs report. Data was the trigger, but the move was sharp and suggests traders were unwinding some bearish bets on sterling taken ahead of the Budget amid all that pre-event unrest. The weaker USD saw DXY back below 99 and EURUSD rally clean off the 1.160 50-day moving average.
Budget fallout continues...investigations into pre-Budget leaks, energy bills to rise to pay for investment in the grid, an OBR chief has resigned since I last wrote, talk of Rachel Reeves misleading voters and talk of revolt in Scotland among Labour MPs...watch this space.
European stock markets have broadly firmed but it's not translating much to the FTSE 100 this morning as a strong pound is acting as a weight. Sterling took the cue from dollar weakness to hit its best since October, having its best single session since April. GBPUSD rallied +1% to 1.3350, rising up through its 200-day SMA on a combination of some better-than-expected UK services PMI data and the weaker-than-expected ADP US jobs report. Data was the trigger, but the move was sharp and suggests traders were unwinding some bearish bets on sterling taken ahead of the Budget amid all that pre-event unrest. The weaker USD saw DXY back below 99 and EURUSD rally clean off the 1.160 50-day moving average.
Budget fallout continues...investigations into pre-Budget leaks, energy bills to rise to pay for investment in the grid, an OBR chief has resigned since I last wrote, talk of Rachel Reeves misleading voters and talk of revolt in Scotland among Labour MPs...watch this space.
Q-Day cometh? D-Wave Quantum jumped over 11% as Evercore ISI initiated coverage on the quantum computing stock with an “outperform” rating and price target of $44. The bullish call is based on the fact it’s the first quantum company with commercial revenues; it’s a full-stack play, with services, software, and hardware; and the big cash pile to develop its technology and potentially pursue M&A opportunities.
“Each successive Tectonic Shift in Computing surprised investors with new workloads, and created stock performance of 100x-to-1,000x for full-stack ecosystem leaders,” wrote Evercore's Mark Lipacis . “To be clear, with over 40 quantum companies competing and no clear-cut leaders, we expect a shakeout, but to capture full-alpha, history shows you need to get in 10-years before the Tectonic Shift actually happens.”
I looked at the arrival of Q-Day - the moment quantum computing gets round the encryption tech that underpins our entire digital infrastructure - in the annual Outrageous Predictions this week.
Sydney Sweeney sells: American Eagle Outfitters shares leapt yesterday after a “record-breaking Thanksgiving weekend” prompted it to raise its full-year outlook. Shares finished the session up 15% after the company raised its earnings expectations following strong sales in activewear and lingerie off the back of the ad campaigns featuring Sweeney and Travis Kelce, the NFL star engaged to Taylor Swift. CFO Michael Matthias detailed "significant" traffic from those campaigns online. Influencers sell - as John Hardy looked at in another Outrageous Prediction this year, in a world of fake news and post-social media these people become so much more important and can drive global trends and shape the future of companies.
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