Wells Fargo sees upside ahead with 7,500 2026 year-end S&P 500 target, says Scott Wren
December 19, 2025 • 4m 34s
Morgan Brennan (Anchor)
00:00.230
joining
us
now
is
wells
fargo
senior
global
market
strategist
scott
wren
along
with
our
senior
markets
commentator
mike
santoli
we
asked
him
to
come
back
Mike Santoli (Senior Markets Commentator)
00:07.590
on
set
he
did
Morgan Brennan (Anchor)
00:08.870
it
yeah
yeah
i'm
going
to
start
with
you
on
this
one
and
we
touched
on
it
at
the
top
of
the
show
but
the
fact
you
had
the
largest
options
expiration
in
history
signals
what
about
this
Mike Santoli (Senior Markets Commentator)
00:19.980
market
well
first
of
all
just
on
a
basic
level
it
signals
that
the
size
of
the
market
is
bigger
than
it's
ever
been
and
therefore
all
the
derivatives
activity
around
it
are
very
dramatic
but
what
it
could
mean
is
often
once
you
sweep
away
all
those
options
that
are
either
Mike Santoli (Senior Markets Commentator)
00:36.340
expiring
or
getting
offset
it's
a
massive
volume
day
there's
index
rebalancing
going
on
so
you
have
a
lot
of
kind
of
clearing
of
the
decks
that
can
happen
here
and
perhaps
it
frees
the
indexes
to
kind
of
move
a
little
bit
more
away
from
some
of
these
kind
of
round
number
Mike Santoli (Senior Markets Commentator)
00:52.390
clusters
of
exposure
i
think
a
lot
of
folks
were
saying
sixty
eight
hundred
was
really
sticky
over
the
last
couple
of
days
i
don't
think
it's
necessarily
directionally
that
relevant
except
again
i
think
we're
getting
cleaner
positioning
at
this
point
especially
also
because
so
Mike Santoli (Senior Markets Commentator)
01:05.870
many
of
the
high
momentum
stocks
have
come
off
the
boil
and
that
sort
of
reset
positioning
for
a
lot
of
these
a
lot
institutions
and
that
what
that
all
can
mean
is
you
know
maybe
the
market
has
a
little
bit
of
a
clearer
path
ahead
it
could
be
bullish
if
in
fact
we've
essentially
Mike Santoli (Senior Markets Commentator)
01:20.470
gone
sideways
for
two
months
and
people
are
no
longer
overextended
Morgan Brennan (Anchor)
01:23.990
scott
what
do
you
think
of
this
market
here
and
how
would
you
be
positioning
in
light
of
that
Scott Wren (Senior Global Market Strategist)
01:28.990
well
you
know
morgan
first
on
this
massive
options
expiration
i
think
you
know
over
the
last
few
decades
i
mean
people
don't
wait
for
the
last
minute
to
do
these
options
like
they
used
to
especially
you
know
on
what
was
is
normally
you
know
thinly
traded
days
here
around
the
Scott Wren (Senior Global Market Strategist)
01:46.110
holidays
so
i
i
was
a
little
surprised
the
market
was
there
wasn't
much
back
and
forth
today
but
you
know
the
traders
and
everybody
else
they're
they're
squaring
up
and
doing
the
things
they
need
to
do
you
know
well
in
advance
of
that
now
as
far
as
the
market
goes
you
know
Scott Wren (Senior Global Market Strategist)
01:59.750
really
we're
ahead
right
now
of
the
midpoint
of
our
year
end
target
range
that
we've
had
out
there
it
feels
like
the
market
wants
to
go
higher
i
wouldn't
be
surprised
at
all
if
it
did
and
you
know
as
far
as
the
the
rotation
goes
you
know
we've
back
in
august
we
took
Scott Wren (Senior Global Market Strategist)
02:17.470
communication
services
from
an
overweight
to
an
even
weight
about
four
or
five
weeks
ago
we
took
information
technology
from
an
overweight
to
an
even
weight
and
so
we
trimmed
back
a
little
bit
there
you
know
you're
still
carrying
a
huge
load
i
mean
that's
almost
fifty
percent
of
Scott Wren (Senior Global Market Strategist)
02:32.790
the
market
cap
of
the
S
and
P
five
hundred
we've
been
buying
financials
with
the
funds
we've
trimmed
from
there
we've
been
buying
financials
we've
been
buying
utilities
we've
been
buying
industrial
so
you
know
we're
still
in
the
AI
theme
but
we're
trying
to
do
it
from
a
little
Scott Wren (Senior Global Market Strategist)
02:50.750
bit
different
angle
john
OK
Jon Fortt (Anchor)
02:52.550
Ok
scott
thanks
mike
this
is
a
year
looking
back
on
twenty
twenty
five
that
the
supposed
smart
money
got
it
wrong
the
institutions
started
betting
against
the
market
if
i
recall
retail
investors
in
risky
stocks
got
rewarded
buying
the
dip
et
cetera
except
arguably
in
bitcoin
i
Jon Fortt (Anchor)
03:10.710
think
we're
almost
exactly
flat
with
twelve
months
ago
right
now
out
there
how
does
that
set
us
up
kind
of
attitudinally
emotionally
in
the
market
for
next
year
Mike Santoli (Senior Markets Commentator)
03:19.510
i've
been
trying
to
puzzle
over
this
as
to
whether
in
fact
we've
loosened
up
the
linkages
between
bitcoin
and
the
overall
performance
of
the
market
i
mean
that's
been
the
case
nasdaq
used
to
track
it
hasn't
in
this
last
downturn
with
bitcoin
i
would
also
argue
that
the
buying
of
Mike Santoli (Senior Markets Commentator)
03:34.070
the
dip
by
retail
after
this
five
percent
pullback
that
started
in
october
was
not
as
aggressive
as
it
was
in
prior
episodes
when
we
pull
back
and
bitcoin
fully
participated
in
it
so
it
could
be
that
it's
blunting
that
effect
a
bit
i
did
note
today
there
was
a
lot
of
life
i
mean
Mike Santoli (Senior Markets Commentator)
03:50.070
bitcoin
was
up
three
percent
of
course
it's
not
been
able
to
get
escape
velocity
out
of
the
eighty
thousands
but
it
was
up
good
today
and
at
the
same
time
you
saw
a
lot
of
the
speculative
stuff
running
so
the
meme
stock
ETF
was
up
ten
percent
as
i
pointed
out
and
a
lot
of
the
Mike Santoli (Senior Markets Commentator)
04:04.150
the
stuff
that's
like
kind
of
on
the
fringes
of
the
AI
trade
and
all
the
rest
of
it
so
it's
still
there
it's
it's
there's
still
life
in
that
trade
and
by
by
the
way
talking
about
the
options
expirations
that's
mostly
how
things
are
executed
if
you
look
at
the
the
the
options
Mike Santoli (Senior Markets Commentator)
04:18.310
volume
that's
sourced
in
retail
it's
just
goes
up
constantly
and
also
the
assets
in
leveraged
etfs
relative
to
those
that
bet
against
the
market
are
at
an
all
time
high
so
Mike Santoli (Senior Markets Commentator)
04:31.030
people
are
participating
even
if
it's
not
in
exactly
the
same
way
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