This week felt like the real start of 2026 trading: earnings season moved from “coming soon” to “here,” and the market began rotating attention from broad narratives to concrete catalysts and sector-level behavior.
The index can look stable while the internal map changes. This week, leadership was still concentrated, but rotation signals surfaced — especially in how investors treated defensives vs. cyclicals and how the market responded to “policy noise.”
Semiconductors were a focal point as investors leaned into AI-linked demand narratives. That’s an important tell: when the market keeps paying up for the same theme, it’s either strong conviction — or it’s crowding that can unwind quickly if yields jump or guidance disappoints.
This week wasn’t about one datapoint — it was about the market shifting into a higher-signal regime. Next week’s catalyst density is higher, and that’s where fragile trends usually get exposed.