There is more to like than fear in 2025 stocks, expert predicts

Welcome back. Here's a look at where markets ended this holiday shortened trading week to kick off the new year. But the S&P 500 is coming off its best two-year performance since 1998. My next guest says get ready for another year of gains. Joining me now, Bullseye American Ingenuity Fund portfolio manager Adam Johnson. Great to have you with us. So tell me why this market's going to just continue to rally. Well there are a number of reasons. We already have an economy growing three percent. We already have inflation that is coming back down to where we want it to be. Two percent's the Fed's target. It's running about two and a half percent right now if you average all the inflation gauges. We have the most number of people ever making the highest gross adjusted income ever spending the most ever. That's generating earnings growth for the S&P 500 that I think will accelerate to double digits. And now we have an incoming administration that is finally business friendly. Fewer regulations, lower taxes, drill baby drill means lower oil prices for everybody. And I think what it really boils down to for me Jackie as someone who runs the American Ingenuity Fund is this is an administration that supports American ingenuity, American resilience, American strength, American security. And I think all those reasons are going to produce new highs. Are you worried at all if the tax cuts not only just for individuals, small businesses and corporations aren't passed in the first CR, if they're delayed that that's going to hamper the speed of things? No, I think there are other priorities. We need to secure the border. We need to be strong to the eyes of the world which are upon us. We need to unleash drilling. We need to get rid of all the regulations that are holding American businesses back. We can get to taxes and we will. But I think it's it's about priorities. Taxes will come. So if it has to be two different packages, then let it be two packages. We'll get there. OK. Tech and A.I., they drove us forward last year. Is that going to be the story in 2025 or do you see anything else up and coming? Oh, it's one of the big stories. I have right now more semiconductors in the portfolio than I've ever had because the A.I. theme, because the compute theme, in other words, we need to figure out how to be able to do more with more to generate more. And the way you do that is by increasing the power of computers from semiconductors to the wiring, to the data storage that's behind it. So that's an incredibly powerful theme. Robotics, an incredibly powerful theme that ties into artificial intelligence. Just look at what's with logistics. One of the companies that we own in the portfolio, Symbotic, is converting all of Walmart's 47 warehouses into robotic warehouses. And think about that. You know, you don't need people to run these things. The lights can stay off. That saves electricity. But you do need artificial intelligence that helps you figure out how to get material from A to B in a in a smoother, faster manner without people doing it. So you're bullish. Oh, yeah. There are some out there saying this market has run too far too fast and we might be due for a pullback or possibly a correction. What do you think? Well, we've kind of already had one, right? I mean, December was a little ugly. Some of the names in my portfolio were down a fair amount. That was in part because inflation kind of piqued its ugly little head up and and bond yields went up. And when bond yields go up, stocks tend to go down. So we if you look at the S&P 500, we're down five percent in the about 11 percent. So we've already kind of had a little mini correction. I've done some buying because I think we are going to see new highs. And over the course of last year, by the way, we actually had four corrections of anywhere from eight to 11 percent. That's just a natural part of what happens. I mean, people forget buying those. Oh, yeah. Well, look at what happened with NVIDIA. It had three corrections of more than 20 percent last year. So you have to buy those dips and you have to be willing to actually step in. That's part of managing money, right? It's managing risk. Meanwhile, I want to get to this because it's a rare event in Washington. Senator Bernie Sanders actually applauding a proposal from President-elect Trump capping credit card interest rates at 10 percent. Sanders saying that he hopes Trump is going to support his upcoming legislation on this at a time when credit card defaults, of course, have been at their highest in 14 years. What do you make of this alliance capping these interest rates? Things have been tough for consumers, for sure. But as you mentioned, they've still been spending. Yeah, people are still spending. Well, I am someone who believes that smaller government is better government. So I don't like anything that gets in the way of a free market. I don't like caps. Quite frankly, I don't even like tariffs. They get in the way of the free flow of goods and services. So, yeah, capping interest rates. That to me doesn't sound appropriate. It doesn't sound right. It's government getting too involved in people's business. No, if if if your debt is too high, that's your problem. Stop spending. Stop spending. Don't turn it into something that now requires a government bailout. You know, the the old expression, you know, any government that's capable of giving its citizens everything they want, in this case, caps on interest rate is equally capable of taking it away. Smaller government is better government. No, we should not get involved with capping interest rates. I hear you on that. Great to see you, Adam Johnson. Thank you so much. Happy New Year. You too, Jackie.