Bubble Babble: Why S&P 500 Earnings Growth Still Rules This Bull Market

Bubble Babble: Why S&P 500 Earnings Growth Still Rules This Bull Market

Earnings bubble? Or earnings boom? Wall Street is suddenly worried that profit forecasts are getting too hot, too fast. Lou Basenese has a different take: stock prices follow earnings, and if profits are accelerating, investors should stop whining about “bubble babble” and start looking for the fastest growers. In this episode of The Big Skinny, Lou reunites with the guests from the January stock-picking special — Thomas Hayes, Kenny Polcari, Mike Lee, Adam Johnson, and Kevin Mahn to share their top ideas for 2026 — but with a fresh lens: which names still have the earnings power to keep working in the second half? From the S&P 500’s profit setup to the original 2026 stock picks, Lou cuts through the noise and focuses on what actually matters: growth, revisions, fundamentals, and whether the thesis is still intact.

Did We Nail It? Revisiting Our Top 6 Stock Predictions for 2026

Oil, small caps, biotech, AI, IPOs, prediction markets and the “there’s always a bull market somewhere” thesis are back on trial. In this episode, Lou Basenese and Dodd revisit The Big Skinny’s Top 6 Predictions for 2026 at the halfway mark to see what’s already working, what still needs time, and what investors should do next. From energy’s asymmetric setup and the small-cap earnings breakout to biotech’s next expansion phase, the AI power bottleneck, and the star-studded but doomed IPO class of 2026, Lou grades each call in plain English: nailed it, too early, or dead wrong. And this time, the audience gets a vote. Drop your score in the comments: which prediction will be the biggest winner by year-end — and which one is most at risk of blowing up? No fluff. No fear-mongering. Just a data-driven midyear checkup on where opportunity is emerging, where risk still lurks, and how to position for what comes next.

Every Breadth You Take: Why Mag 7 Lag Is Bullish For Stocks

Mag 7 lag, Meta’s AI cloud questions, biotech breakout signals, and the return of broader market leadership — that’s the point of this episode of The Big Skinny. Lou Basenese explains why investors shouldn’t bemoan the fact that the Mag 7 are lagging. They should embrace it. Why? Because a healthy bull market eventually broadens beyond a handful of mega-cap winners, and that’s exactly what appears to be happening now. Lou breaks down why not every mega-cap tech stock deserves your money right now and where the bigger profit opportunities reside as earnings growth and market breadth improve. Then Barron’s Josh Schafer joins to dig into Meta’s AI cloud ambitions, the risks behind selling “excess compute,” and why Progress Software (PRGS) may be a smarter AI-adjacent opportunity than investors realize. No fluff. No Mag 7 panic. Just a sharper look at why this bull market may be stronger because leadership is broadening.

Buy Every Chip Stock Dip: The AI Top Isn’t Close

Chip bubble calls, AI demand denial, semiconductor selloffs, prediction market hype, and the tippy-top trap. Lou Basenese takes on the insane idea that we’re already near the end of the AI chip cycle – when the world has never seen a technology demand curve like this before. In this episode, Lou breaks down why AI chip demand is still early, why every serious semi dip deserves attention, and why iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) remains the simplest way to stay exposed without overthinking it and over-investing in Nvidia (NVDA) or Micron (MU). Plus, Lou revisits his raw and personal conversation with Louis Ruggiero and the data behind Phil Rosen of ProCap Financial’s conviction the current bull market might have years left to run. He wraps it all up with Dodd and rapid-fire takes on SoftBank’s AI conviction, Big Tech’s AI spending, productivity gains, semiconductor earnings strength, and the next great speculative temptation.

ETFs Gone Wild: How to Find the Few Worth Owning

Too many ETF tickers, too little time. There are officially more ETFs than publicly traded stocks in the U.S., and no normal investor has the time — or the stomach — to sort through thousands of products that all claim to be the answer. That’s the setup for this episode of The Big Skinny. Lou Basenese asks the question everyday investors should be asking: if there’s now an ETF for everything, how do you find the ones actually worth owning? He starts with the big picture — why the ETF boom has gone from useful to absurd, why so many funds are too small to matter, and how to separate real opportunity from ticker clutter. Then, he’s joined by longtime friends and market pros Keith Fitz-Gerald and David Nicholas to spotlight one fund Lou believes cuts through the chaos: the Fitz-Gerald Must Have Portfolio ETF (FITZ). From there, Lou shares insights from his latest interview with Matthew Tuttle of Tuttle Capital Management who says “99% of ETFs suck.” Then Lou and his trusted partner Dodd dish on GLP-1 momentum, Andrew Left’s fraud conviction, what Cushing oil inventories are really signaling, the longevity fundraising boom, and the kind of IPO price-to-sales math that should make investors squirm.