New Year, New Stocks… Or Just the Same Old AI Hype?

New year, same story: AI stocks are partying, and the rest of Wall Street is just trying to keep up.

On Friday, the Nasdaq barely budged, the S&P 500 crept 0.1% higher, and the Dow added a respectable 250 points — which, these days, barely qualifies as excitement. The real action? Artificial intelligence. Again.

The great “AI Boom of 2025” apparently didn’t get the memo about taking weekends off. Chipmakers like Nvidia, Broadcom, Intel, and Micron all jumped after news of fresh AI IPOs in Asia and a new research paper from China’s DeepSeek, which basically said, “Here’s how to make AI smarter… and cheaper.”

Analysts are, unsurprisingly, feeling chipper. Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid summed it up: “Everything made money last year — stocks, bonds, even emerging markets — thanks to AI hype and central banks slashing rates.” Translation: robots printed money while humans pretended to understand it.

Pretty much every Wall Street analyst thinks the S&P 500 will rise again in 2026, with average forecasts around 9%. (Zero analysts predict a loss, because apparently optimism is back in fashion.)

Meanwhile, gold and silver tried to sparkle but couldn’t keep the shine, and oil prices slipped, which is great news for everyone finally seeing gas below $3 a gallon.

Overseas, things looked even flashier: South Korea’s market exploded 76% in 2025, led by chip giant SK Hynix, while Japan’s Topix soared thanks to one AI-fueled stock that rocketed 540%.

So yes — AI is still driving the financial bus. Everyone else is just along for the ride, munching popcorn and hoping it doesn’t crash.

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