New Constructs' Trainer sounds the alarm on A.I. stocks
Release Date: 02/17/2026
Money Life with Chuck Jaffe
Kevin Steuer, managing partner at , says the stock market's rally after the initial peace talks over the War in Iran got a bit ahead of itself, and he's now expecting the market to hover — without facing much downside pressure — awaiting more resolution and clarity. He's heavily in cash at this point — the most cash he has held by percentage since the Covid crisis — and is looking at defensive, inflation-oriented plays while he waits for a signal that the rally is back on. David Gutierrez, vice president at Liberty Street Advisors — which runs the — says that private markets are...
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, chief executive officer at Dynamic Economic Strategy, says he expects the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates steady, leaving mortgage rates stuck at 6%-plus and in an environment with the 10-year Treasury rising slightly. Silvia points out that the central bank is not going to be frantic about 3% inflation and reducing it to the 2% target level, but he says that investors and retirees will suffer from that higher inflation, creating more of a retirement-savings struggle. Courtney Werning, principal at and the 2027 president-elect for the Public Investors Advocate Bar...
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Lance Cannon, portfolio manager at , says in the Market Call that he is looking for transformational small companies that can benefit from changing trends in key industries, which has included artificial-intelligence stocks heavily as his funds produced stellar results in recent years. But Cannon says that looking for those companies means finding businesses that will not wind up on the wrong end of AI developments themselves, where a current flash will turn into a future crash. Allison Hadley, an analyst at Digital Third Coast, discusses research she did for Howdy.com looking at . Following...
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Dana Samuelson, founder and president of , says gold investors shouldn't expect the rally in metals to resume at the pace it set last year — when gold was up over 60% — but he does believe that the fundamentals that were in place for that rally will drive gold back up once concerns over war and inflation are a little less prominent. He sees the metal hitting $6,000 in 12 to 18 months, and says he'd be buying in dips now. Thomas Raymond, founding partner at , says he's staying patient while war gets resolved, because backstopping the economy and the markets are a $7 trillion...
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Ron Sanchez, chief investment officer at , says in "The Big Interview" that solid fundamentals from both the top down and the bottom up should make it that earnings can drive the stock market higher once there is resolution in Iran, where war has been creating problems that could make for a volatile and bumpy few months. He expects higher inflation to be temporary, but thinks conditions are solid enough for a strong rebound once the market feels confident that there is resolution, noting that bounce-backs tend to be solid and strong after geopolitical conflicts end. That makes for...
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D.R. Barton Jr., director of market research for the , says he expects the market to continue its recovery through one more burst higher that lasts into the summer, but after that he is seeing "a bouncy, sideways market" with heightened volatility, swings reaching 20% up or down in a quarter. He is looking for "inflation-hedging names" for whatever happens coming out of the current cease-fire in the war in Iran, noting that he expects inflation to dampen the economy and the market for the remainder of the year. Isaac Wakszol, chief executive officer at , says investors need to guard against...
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Gabe Diederich, portfolio manager at , says that long-term indicators for inflation haven't moved much, which is good news for bond investors interested in capturing steady income for the long haul. He says in the Big Interview that he expects the Federal Reserve to wait on rate changes — so long as the economy and labor market remains stable — until there is more clarity and certainty in the numbers. Diederich says that fundamentals for bonds across the spectrum look solid, but he says "There's a great story for the tax advantage of municipal bonds," and that investors should look to take...
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Dave Sekera, chief U.S. market strategist at , says that the beating that technology stocks have taken has made the sector ideal for patient investors hunting bargains. He says technology as a sector is now trading at a 20% discount to the firm's composite of fair values, and there have only been two other times since 2010 when tech has been that undervalued. As a result, he's looking at some big-name companies — including a few Magnificent Seven stocks and some beaten-down software names — as buys now. Author discusses his new book, “Good Money: Six Steps to Building a Financial Life...
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Journalist Kit Chellel discusses his new book, released today, "," the tale of 1970s gamblers who applied early computer technology to gambling at a time when the smallest computers were still the size of a suitcase. They created "advantage playing," and faced issues with casinos, the mob and more, but also laid the groundwork for a lot of what is happening now and being revisited in prediction markets and more. Heather Hunt-Ruddy, divisional president at , discusses the firm's recent white paper on , and how to accomplish transfers without spoiling the next generations or setting the...
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Abe Sheikh, chief investment officer at , says that if tensions in Iran cool and oil prices settle down — which the futures market is saying is likely by year's end — says that the current spike in inflation is temporary and the risk of runaway inflation is much lower than it was during Covid times. With that in mind, he thinks current events are more setting up investment opportunities than stopping investors and getting them to panic away from equities and heightened volatility. With consumer sentiment at record lows — but consumer confidence improving ever so slightly — in March, ,...
info_outlineDavid Trainer, founder and president at New Constructs, says the intensity of competition in the artificial-intelligence business is setting up a path for big winners and losers, and he says that it's nearly time "to see a lot of the companies in the AI race fall out." Trainer cits cash flows turning negative, and says that accounting tricks have hidden much of the problem by allowing companies to keep some debts off of balance sheets. When focusing on what he calls the real debt level of the companies, Trainer says "the cash flow for these companies is highly negative and it cannot be sustained." Further, Trainer notes that with so much money committed to the development of A.I., there is no guarantee that the companies that get in trouble will find a market waiting to take them over once the financial troubles hit.
In "The Week That Is," Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, discusses how last week's software sell-off isn't changing his take on how "Software will eat the world," but it is a symptom of how the speed of development is amping up investor concerns about the A.I. revolution. He also discusses how and why the "Sell America" sentiment has been building, and why the Dow Jones Industrial Average — and not the Nasdaq Composite or the Standard & Poor's 500 — is leading the way for market gains early this year.
David Bach, author, "The Automatic Millionaire: A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish Rich," celebrates the revised, 20th anniversary edition of the book and the countless people it has helped by getting them started small towards long-term lifelong savings and living goals. Bach — who last appeared on Money Life a decade ago with the 10th-anniversary edition of the book — discusses how time and technology have changed, but how they also have helped savers reach their goals more easily.