{"slug": "animal-spirits-everything-is-outperforming-the-s-p-500-this-year", "title": "Animal Spirits: Everything is Outperforming the S&P 500 This Year", "summary": "A wave of stocks has seen triple-digit gains in 2026, with the S&P 500's return on equity boosted by the AI capex boom. Retail investors are pouring into U.S. stocks at a record pace, while consumer spending growth hit a four-year high in May. Google invested $75 million in A24 to develop AI-powered filmmaking tools, and a startup raised $140 million to build floating data centers for AI.", "body_md": "|\n|||||||\n\n## Today’s Animal Spirits is brought to you Betterment and YCharts**:**\n\nThis episode is sponsored by YCharts. Visit [https://go.ycharts.com/animal-spirits ](https://go.ycharts.com/animal-spirits)to start a free trial and get 20% off your initial YCharts Professional subscription (new customers only).\n\n## On today’s show, we discuss:\n\n[Triple-Digit Club: A Wave of Stocks Have Seen Huge Gains in 2026](https://www.morningstar.com/markets/triple-digit-club-wave-stocks-have-seen-huge-gains-2026)[The impact of the AI capex boom on S&P 500 return on equity](https://www.gspublishing.com/content/research/en/reports/2026/06/12/50f004d3-b246-4366-9d7d-0bc7e845644b.pdf?utm_source=news.theideafarm.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=stocks-record-roe)[Markets are entering one of the most technically important periods of the year.](https://www.citadelsecurities.com/news-and-insights/global-market-intelligence/july/?series=global-market-intelligence)[America’s Economic Anxiety Is Rising Up the Income Ladder](https://www.wsj.com/economy/americas-economic-anxiety-is-rising-up-the-income-ladder-d77b97d4?mod=e2tw)[The age of the solopreneur](https://www.stripeeconomics.com/p/the-age-of-the-solopreneur?utm_campaign=email-half-post&r=khrn&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email)[“The Tech Stack Is Dead” — Jason Wenk on Rebuilding Advisor Infrastructure](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZv2tqQeOgA)[World Cup visitors are going viral for their reactions to everyday American life](https://www-cdn.abcnews.com/GMA/Living/world-cup-visitors-viral-reactions-everyday-american-life/story?id=133927192&utm_source=chatgpt.com)[Kalshi Plans Workplace Disclosure Rule to Combat Insider Trading](https://www.wsj.com/finance/regulation/kalshi-plans-to-require-users-disclose-where-they-work-to-make-certain-trades-7c6ada99?st=ke92NP&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink)[They Looked Like They Were Getting Rich on Polymarket–but None of It Was Real](https://www.wsj.com/business/media/polymarket-social-media-bets-prediction-market-441cdeb5)[Own the Internet](https://www.notboring.co/p/own-the-internet)[Former New York governor Andrew Cuomo to co-chair joint venture between NYSE owner and crypto exchange OKX](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/crypto/articles/former-york-governor-andrew-cuomo-120045042.html?guccounter=1)[Social Security](https://www.ssa.gov/oact/TR/2026/tr2026.pdf)[Google Invests $75 Million in A24 to Develop AI-Powered Filmmaking Tools](https://variety.com/2026/film/news/google-a24-ai-filmmaking-tools-1236787297/)\n\n## Listen here:\n\n## Charts:\n\n## Recommendations:\n\n## Tweets/Bluesky:\n\nNEW: Retail investors are pouring into U.S. stocks at a record pace.\n\nAccording to Citadel Securities, the day of SpaceX’s blockbuster IPO marked the largest single day of net retail stock buying ever recorded by the firm, which handles roughly 35% of U.S. retail trading volume.…\n\n[pic.twitter.com/KJnCvfviTr]— Frank Chaparro (@fintechfrank)\n\n[June 17, 2026]\n\nPer\n\n[@VandaTrack]:Retail's single-stock net buying has fallen to the lowest (on a 3-day rolling basis) since COVID\n\n[pic.twitter.com/XmXln8sLqI]— Kevin Gordon (@KevRGordon)\n\n[June 15, 2026]\n\nHistory didn't stop at $10 billion.\n\nThe Roundhill Memory ETF\n\n[$DRAM]surpassed $20 billion in AUM in just 54 days, approximately half the time of the previous record holder. Another milestone that further establishes[$DRAM]as the fastest-growing ETF ever launched. *As of…[pic.twitter.com/zqfdLB7E4n]— Roundhill Investments (@roundhill)\n\n[June 18, 2026]\n\nBofAI: Consumer spending momentum is remarkably robust, with total card spending rising 5.1% YoY in May – the strongest growth in nearly four years\n\nNote: this is from BofA Institute. publicly available\n\n[pic.twitter.com/in7DyDulFk]— Mike Zaccardi, CFA, CMT 🍖 (@MikeZaccardi)\n\n[June 11, 2026]\n\nThey are putting DATA CENTERS in the ocean now.\n\nPanthalassa, a startup from Portland, just raised $140 MILLION.\n\nwhat they do: build floating platforms that sit out at sea and run AI. no power grid needed. the ocean waves make all the electricity. the seawater keeps the chips…\n\n[pic.twitter.com/iv2cOj2uza]— shirish (@shiri_shh)\n\n[June 18, 2026]\n\nA technical dive inside our new \"Midjourney Scanner\"\n\n[pic.twitter.com/wJBHz2O7ro]— Midjourney (@midjourney)\n\n[June 18, 2026]\n\nThis is the primary source of prediction market nihilism.\n\nTwo years ago, prediction market volume was > 90% Politics + Economics.\n\nToday, those same categories are under 6% of total volume.\n\nThe onus is on venues to create novel products that surface novel + useful information.\n\n[pic.twitter.com/bZt2Sw7r31]— Ryan Chern (@ryanchern)\n\n[June 21, 2026]\n\nWhen do home sales finally return to normal?\n\nHow long does lock-in prevent home sales?\n\nWhat happens to home sales if rates stay at 6.5%?I get asked these a lot so I worked with Compass economist\n\n[@JonahCoste]on the model for the next few years.Two illustrations:\n\n[pic.twitter.com/FhSNMVrg8D]— Mike Simonsen 🐉 (@mikesimonsen)\n\n[June 17, 2026]\n\nBOX OFFICE: Pixar’s\n\n[#ToyStory5]opens with $160M (domestic). That is…\n\n– The biggest opening of 2026\n\n– The biggest opening for a Toy Story movie\n\n– The 2nd biggest opening ever for an animated movie\n\n– The 2nd biggest opening ever for Pixar behind The Incredibles 2, which has a new…[pic.twitter.com/BERW8fWRJR]— Erik Davis (@ErikDavis)\n\n[June 21, 2026]\n\nFollow us on [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/animalspiritspodcast/?ref=settings), [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/animalspiritspod/?hl=en), and [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBRpqrzuuqE8TZcWw75JSdw).\n\nCheck out our t-shirts, coffee mugs, and other swag [here](https://idontshop.com/).\n\nSubscribe here:\n\n*Nothing in this blog constitutes investment advice, performance data or any recommendation that any particular security, portfolio of securities, transaction or investment strategy is suitable for any specific person. Any mention of a particular security and related performance data is not a recommendation to buy or sell that security. Any opinions expressed herein do not constitute or imply endorsement, sponsorship, or recommendation by Ritholtz Wealth Management or its employees. *\n\n*The Compound, Inc., an affiliate of Ritholtz Wealth Management, received compensation from the sponsor of this advertisement. Inclusion of such advertisements does not constitute or imply endorsement, sponsorship or recommendation thereof, or any affiliation therewith, by the Content Creator or by Ritholtz Wealth Management or any of its employees. Investing in speculative securities involves the risk of loss. Nothing on this website should be construed as, and may not be used in connection with, an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy or hold, an interest in any security or investment product*", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/animal-spirits-everything-is-outperforming-the-s-p-500-this-year", "canonical_source": "https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2026/06/animal-spirits-everything-is-outperforming-the-sp-500-this-year/", "published_at": "2026-06-24 11:15:28+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-24 12:20:21.335603+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-infrastructure", "ai-products", "ai-startups", "ai-tools"], "entities": ["Google", "A24", "S&P 500", "Citadel Securities", "BofA", "Panthalassa", "Roundhill Investments", "YCharts"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/animal-spirits-everything-is-outperforming-the-s-p-500-this-year", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/animal-spirits-everything-is-outperforming-the-s-p-500-this-year.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/animal-spirits-everything-is-outperforming-the-s-p-500-this-year.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/animal-spirits-everything-is-outperforming-the-s-p-500-this-year.jsonld"}}