Look, I know what you’re thinking. “The stock market is already at crazy highs, how much higher can it possibly go?” Well, according to the smart folks at Morgan Stanley, we might be looking at another wild ride up. And honestly? The signs they’re pointing to are kind of fascinating.
Morgan Stanley just dropped their 2026 forecast predicting the S&P 500 will climb another 13%. That’s not just optimistic—that’s “I’m buying a boat” levels of bullish. But here’s the thing: they’re not just throwing darts at a board. They’ve spotted three under-the-radar signals that suggest we’re heading into what they call a “new growth cycle.”
Signal #1: Copper is Having a Moment
Remember copper? That reddish metal you probably haven’t thought about since high school chemistry? Well, it’s been absolutely crushing it lately—up 44% in 2025, which is its best year since the 2008 financial crisis. Why should you care? Because copper is basically the economy’s mood ring.
When copper prices soar, it usually means someone, somewhere, is building a lot of stuff. Data centers, factories, infrastructure—you name it. It’s like the canary in the coal mine, except instead of warning about danger, it’s screaming “THINGS ARE ABOUT TO GET BUSY!”
Signal #2: Korean Stocks Are Going Absolutely Nuts
Here’s where it gets interesting. While everyone was obsessing over U.S. tech stocks, Korean stocks quietly went up 75% last year. Seventy. Five. Percent. That makes our S&P 500’s 17% gain look like child’s play.
Korean stocks are what finance nerds call “highly cyclical,” which is a fancy way of saying they’re basically economic mood swings in stock form. When they’re doing well, it usually means global economic optimism is through the roof. And right now? They’re practically doing backflips.
Signal #3: Banks Are Back, Baby
Financial stocks in both the U.S. and Europe have been on a tear. In America, financial stocks gained 14% last year, making them one of the top-performing sectors. This matters because banks are like economic weather vanes—when they’re doing well, it usually means people are borrowing money to do exciting things like start businesses or buy houses.
The Big Picture
Here’s what Morgan Stanley’s Andrew Sheets is basically saying: “Look, any one of these signals could be a fluke. But when copper, Korean stocks, and financial companies are all partying at the same time? That’s not a coincidence—that’s a trend.”
The bank thinks we’re in what they call a “rolling recovery,” where different parts of the economy take turns getting better. It’s like a really slow, really expensive wave doing laps around the global economy.
Now, should you mortgage your house and throw everything into stocks? Absolutely not. But these signals suggest that despite all the doom and gloom you hear on the news, the underlying economic machinery might be humming along better than most people realize.
Sometimes the most important signals aren’t the ones making headlines—they’re the weird little indicators that only finance geeks pay attention to. And right now, those weird little indicators are all pointing in the same direction: up.