Editor's Note: If you don't know Marc Chaikin, he's a living Wall Street legend that famous investors like Steve Cohen owe a huge debt of gratitude to for helping them build billion-dollar businesses. He's even been nicknamed "The Billionaire Maker." So, when he comes out with a new stock recommendation, I pay attention. The one below is so promising, I had to share it with you today. And if you click any of the links in Marc's e-mail below, you'll get the name and ticker of the company he's pounding the table on absolutely free.
Dear Reader,
In 2023, my system flashed bearish on an automotive company virtually no one had yet heard of.
Soon after, the stock crashed 35%.
But today, that stock's outlook has made a full 180-degree turnaround.
Check it out:
My system now rates this company "Very Bullish," with extremely high marks across the most critical factors in my stock analysis.
Because the very same company my system warned about in 2023 just formed a groundbreaking partnership with the king of AI, Nvidia.
See, Nvidia has built what is essentially the brains of the AI-powered cars of the future.
But getting that brain inside vehicles and operating safely is an enormously complex job.
That's precisely the job that went to this company. (Get the name and ticker FREE right here.)
That partnership basically hands this barely-known company the keys to the self-driving kingdom on a silver platter.
So, if you want to benefit from a company quickly becoming the center of the massive autonomous-vehicle trend, forget Tesla and get this stock's ticker before it becomes a household name...
Sincerely,
Marc Chaikin
Founder, Chaikin Analytics
P.S. Autonomous cars are the future, and too many people make the mistake of thinking Tesla stock is the best way to profit. Not even close! Watch right here where I compare Tesla side by side with the company I'm talking about above and you'll see why it’s time to dump Tesla and buy this stock instead.
Goldman’s S&P 500 Target Looks More Reachable After the Latest Rally
Reported by Jessica Mitacek. Article Posted: 6/16/2026.
Key Points
- Goldman Sachs raised its 2026 year-end S&P 500 price target from 7,600 to 8,000, implying roughly 6% upside from current levels.
- Broad earnings growth supported the bullish outlook, with approximately 85% of S&P 500 companies reporting earnings beats in Q1 2026.
- SpaceX's June 12 IPO at $135 per share, along with confidential S-1 filings from OpenAI and Anthropic, signals a renewed IPO pipeline that could draw fresh capital into markets.
- Special Report: SpaceX is offering you shares. Don't take them.
The markets have chopped around and traded mostly sideways over the past month, with the S&P 500 remaining largely flat after rebounding on June 11, when President Donald Trump announced that he was halting attacks on Iran.
But before that social media post, the benchmark index was on the verge of a pullback, having fallen 4.5% from its one-month high. Conditions remain volatile, though, with the Chicago Board Options Exchange’s CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) reaching its highest level since early April.
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Nvidia's CEO has called it 'the next biggest opportunity after AI,' with potential lifetime sales reaching $20 trillion. A launch date of July 22nd is on the radar for early investors positioning ahead of the announcement.
Get the full details on this opportunity before the launch date arrivesStill, that has not dissuaded Goldman Sachs from maintaining its bullish outlook. In late May, the investment bank and financial services firm raised its 2026 year-end price target for the S&P 500 from 7,600 to 8,000. From where the benchmark index is trading today, that implies potential upside of about 6% for the rest of the year.
Record Highs Are Almost Always Followed by Selloffs
The strong performance of the S&P 500 is being driven by a large number of stocks having recently hit their 52-week highs. Meanwhile, the market rotation out of higher-risk tech names and into overlooked—but outperforming—sectors like industrials and materials is helping drive a broader and more sustainable rally.
That trend showed up in Q1 2026 earnings. Roughly 85% of companies in the index reported earnings beats, with about 80% also surpassing revenue expectations. That broadening of earnings growth is a trend Wall Street expects to continue through the rest of the year and into next year.
Goldman’s decision to raise its year-end target for the S&P 500 is based on numerous factors, but one major contributor is its strategists’ belief that earnings per share (EPS) will continue to grow throughout 2026. The bank projects EPS of $340 this year, which would mark a 24% increase from the prior year, and $385 for 2027, which would represent growth of 13%.
Additionally, a 6% gain from current prices does not seem far-fetched. Q1 earnings season is in the rearview mirror, with companies still having three quarters of earnings to report.
While the war in Iran pushed oil prices higher and lifted the energy sector earlier this year, crude has started to pull back after an initial U.S.-Iran agreement to extend the ceasefire and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. If the agreement holds, lower energy costs could help ease inflation pressure and support investor risk appetite.
Other tailwinds that contributed to numerous all-time highs this year remain in place, including:
The global memory chip shortage, which is expected to last at least until 2027, suggests that the AI trade has staying power.
Consumer spending is proving resilient despite inflation rising to a three-year high.
Essentially, the market’s macro backdrop could continue pushing the S&P 500 higher. The current selloff in AI and software names is a natural part of a healthy cycle, and the index was overbought heading into June and due for a pullback. Structurally, the bull run remains intact. Even so, there are additional catalysts that could help the benchmark reach 8,000.
IPO Euphoria Will Continue to Drive Institutional and Retail Inflows
IPO fever has also gripped the markets.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX) went public on June 12 after pricing its IPO at $135 per share, giving public-market investors direct exposure to one of the most closely watched private companies in the world. The successful debut placed SpaceX among the largest publicly traded companies and provided a major validation point for the IPO market.
SpaceX’s debut could help clear the path for the next cohort of mega-cap AI and technology companies eyeing public listings. OpenAI announced on June 8 that it had confidentially submitted a draft S-1 to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, while Anthropic filed on June 1. Both filings point to a public-market pipeline that could keep IPO enthusiasm alive beyond SpaceX.
While neither company is likely to match SpaceX’s valuation, the revival in IPO activity matters for the broader market. Large public debuts can draw in new capital, reinforce investor confidence in growth stocks, and give Wall Street fresh benchmarks for valuing companies tied to artificial intelligence, cloud infrastructure, and next-generation technology.
In addition, Nasdaq recently updated its Nasdaq 100 methodology to allow certain large new listings to qualify for faster entry, while FTSE Russell introduced a fast-entry rule that allows eligible large IPOs to join Russell U.S. indexes after the fifth trading day. MSCI already has fast-track rules for large IPOs in place. If SPCX qualifies for early inclusion, it could pave the way for other companies—like OpenAI and Anthropic—to bypass traditional seasoning rules and be fast-tracked into major indices.
It is worth noting, however, that SpaceX is not getting the same fast-track path into the S&P 500, where S&P Dow Jones Indices has kept its existing seasoning, financial viability, and minimum investable weight factor requirements in place.
Investor Confidence Is Being Tested, Not Broken
Investor sentiment is not uniformly bullish, but that may actually strengthen the case for a measured year-end rally. The latest American Association of Individual Investors sentiment survey shows individual investors are still cautious, with bullish sentiment below its historical average and bearish sentiment elevated. The Fear & Greed Index has also remained in “fear” territory, suggesting the market has not returned to the kind of broad euphoria that often marks a more fragile rally.
Between AI’s CapEx supercycle, ongoing and projected broad earnings growth, and the wave of IPOs coming to market, it remains probable that the S&P 500 will be able to hit Goldman Sachs’ year-end projection.
Flying Under the Radar: Lockheed Martin's $2.8B Stealth Setup
Reported by Jeffrey Neal Johnson. Article Posted: 6/17/2026.
Key Points
- Lockheed Martin secures massive recurring sustainment contracts that completely insulate its cash flow from unpredictable global geopolitical fluctuations.
- The underlying backlog of existing orders is phenomenal and heavily outweighs the current market capitalization, providing tremendous fundamental business value.
- Patient shareholders receive an attractive yield through dynamic capital allocation while institutional desks aggressively accumulate shares.
- Special Report: SpaceX is offering you shares. Don't take them.
Headline-driven capital flight from defense equities routinely creates textbook fundamental mispricings.
When news of a framework for a Middle East peace agreement recently hit the wires, algorithm-driven selling accelerated the rotation, triggering a sharp flight from defense and crude oil. The logic may seem sound to a passive observer: fewer active regional conflicts should mean reduced defense spending.
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See the 5 stocks to avoidThat surface-level assumption completely ignores the mechanical realities of the defense industrial base. The broader market selloff hit legacy contractors indiscriminately, dragging Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) shares down toward the $529 level.
Wall Street exacerbated the slide by fixating on the first-quarter earnings report, in which Lockheed Martin reported earnings per share of $6.44, below consensus estimates of $6.79.
Markets incorrectly conflated this temporary margin compression with long-term demand destruction. Lockheed Martin’s current valuation appears to reflect an overreaction to geopolitical headlines, masking a structural backlog that is less directly tied to near-term peace developments than the stock’s move suggests.
Refueling Mid-Air: A $2.8 Billion Sustainment Win
Military spending operates on decades-long modernization cycles, not daily news cycles.
The United States military is executing a massive, structural upgrade of its air fleet regardless of temporary geopolitical truces. Right in the middle of the sector-wide drawdown, the Department of Defense awarded Lockheed Martin two contracts totaling $2.8 billion.
The primary agreement is a $2.29 billion cost-plus-incentive-fee contract for F-35 Lightning II sustainment. In the defense sector, procurement is only the first step in the revenue cycle. Sustainment covers site activation, fleet management, and ongoing reliability improvements. The Department of Defense operates on a recurring revenue model with major contractors. Selling the initial aircraft provides a baseline margin, but decades of required maintenance, software upgrades, and parts replacements drive true long-term profitability for Lockheed Martin.
This sustainment revenue is supported by a severe readiness deficit within the United States military. A recent Government Accountability Office report revealed that F-35 full mission capability rates dropped to a concerning 25%. To arrest this decline, the Pentagon submitted a funding request for an additional $13.7 billion through 2031 to address spare part shortages and maintenance backlogs. Aircraft readiness functions completely independently of active combat deployments.
The Department of Defense also awarded the Sikorsky Aircraft subsidiary of Lockheed Martin a secondary firm-fixed-price contract worth $525 million for the development and modernization of the CH-53K heavy-lift helicopter program. These logistical upgrades highlight exactly how structural spending acts as a financial moat against sector volatility.
Cruising Altitude: Lockheed Martin's $194 Billion Backlog
Understanding the severe disconnect between Lockheed Martin's current share price and its intrinsic value requires a close look at its underlying valuation metrics. Lockheed Martin trades at a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of nearly 18. The forward P/E ratio measures a company's current share price relative to its projected per-share earnings. Trading at an 18 multiple is attractive for a business generating $75.05 billion in annual sales and with a near-monopoly in fifth-generation fighter production.
A price-to-earnings-to-growth ratio of 0.98 signals that shares are priced at parity with projected growth rates. Finding a blue-chip industrial trading at a discount to its growth curve remains a rare anomaly in the current macroeconomic environment.
More importantly, Lockheed Martin has a $186 billion total backlog, which acts as a massive financial shock absorber. A backlog is a list of orders that have been received but not yet fulfilled. When Lockheed Martin's backlog exceeds its entire market capitalization of nearly $124 billion, the downside risk profile narrows significantly.
Current options chain dynamics support this technical floor, indicating a sharp contraction in implied volatility for near-term out-of-the-money puts. Institutional hedging reflects rigid support near the $525 to $530 range, effectively limiting downside risk for Lockheed Martin.
Safe Landings: Yield Support in a Turbulent Market
Capital rotating into Lockheed Martin during this drawdown receives immediate, tangible yield. Lockheed Martin approved a second-quarter dividend of $3.45 per share, payable on June 26, rewarding patient capital while the broader market digests the geopolitical headlines.
Institutional desks clearly see the value proposition and are aggressively accumulating shares of Lockheed Martin.
Korea Investment Corp increased its position in Lockheed Martin by 17.1% during the fourth quarter. Top-tier analysts diverge sharply from the broader market's cautious sentiment.
Although the broader analyst consensus remains Hold, with an average price target of about $620.68, Susquehanna maintains a massive $700 price target, and Morgan Stanley holds firm at $653.
These targets imply healthy upside and reflect deep institutional confidence in Lockheed Martin's underlying business fundamentals.
Short sellers hold an anemic 1.15% of the free float, confirming the lack of meaningful downward institutional pressure against Lockheed Martin.
The industrial base is actually expanding capacity to meet structural demand, even as the stock market sells the defense sector on peace news. General Motors (NYSE: GM) is currently in talks to manufacture commonly used weapons parts for Lockheed Martin, aiming to clear persistent munitions bottlenecks driven by recent global inventory depletion.
Final Approach: A Defense Modernization Play
The market fundamentally misprices legacy defense contractors by tying them solely to active regional conflicts. Predictable sustainment programs and structural modernization upgrades constitute a durable financial moat for Lockheed Martin. The recent $2.8 billion in targeted contract awards proves that baseline military infrastructure spending remains incredibly robust.
Investors watching the headline-driven capital flight might consider evaluating how Lockheed Martin's high-visibility Department of Defense cash flow and attractive forward multiple position it for resilient, long-term outperformance.
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