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Momentum Monday - Tech Large Caps Shine ...Kissing The Ring Has Been Very Good For Mag 7 Shareholders

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Howard Lindzon
September 22, 2026

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Good morning…

I took the day off yesterday for Yom Kippur. I broke it last night with Pop Up bagels.

While us jewish people took a day off from the markets, non jews bought stocks. The ‘chosen’ ones seem to be semiconductors. Makes sense they turn sand into glass and money.

On Rosh Hashanah back on the 13th I wrote…

Today, despite the intense rally in semiconductor and AI related stocks and the $200 billion rise in Facebook ( $META ( ▼ 0.03% ) ) the stocks making 52 week lows climbed.

We have one US President, but 7-10 US based planet sized technology companies (The Mag 7). All of the CEO’s kissed the ring of Trump and while they may have sold their souls, their shareholders are reaping the benefits.

Meanwhile Carney in Canada did the opposite to kissing the ring and is now considered a hero in the USA and Europe. We will see how that plays out for his citizens?

With rates rising, mortgage rates at new highs and gas prices higher, it makes sense to me that under the surface of the big caps, things are uncomfortable and choppy.

In this environment it makes sense that the big are getting bigger. They have the money, the distribution and the network effects. The small caps are less fortunate and have been suffering under the macro conditions, especially the tariffs.

As always, Ivanhoff and I talk about all this and some fresh ides in this weeks episode below. Hope you enjoy…

Welcome back to Momentum Monday!

In today’s episode of Momentum Monday, Ivanhoff and I discuss the following:  

  • The Fed hikes, the market shrugs — weak breadth, but the Mag 7 hold it up (0:00)

  • $AMC: the last man standing in movie theaters (1:10)

  • Small caps vs. large caps — AI is only helping the big guys (2:12)

  • Semis back above the 50-day: can $SMH clear its July highs? (3:25)

  • Sticking to what you know: $AAPL, $GOOGL, $META (4:12)

  • AI gap-down bought, software gaps up — cybersecurity leads ($CRWD, $NET, $FTNT, $PANW) (4:48)

  • Xi's visit and the $NVDA setup (6:30)

  • The consumer breakdown: $NKE, $DECK, $CAKE, $BROS, $MCD (7:12)

  • The one trade that has to work (8:36)

  • Crude, diesel at all-time highs, and the $MCD / $CBOE round trips (10:04)

  • Tax-loss harvesting, index front-running, and Cloudflare's 15% swings (11:39)

  • Crypto leads again ($HOOD), and the AI gumball-machine economy (13:08)

Here are Ivanhoff’s Thoughts

Last week began with a big downside gap in anything AI-related after comments from Anthropic’s, OpenAI’s, and SpaceX’s CEOs that the progress in AI should probably slow down because of safety concerns. Those gaps were quickly bought and erased by the end of the week. In many cases, some of the AI stocks even had a strong green week – DELL, AMD, SNDK, MU.

Software, on the other hand, started the week with a big breakout, followed by sideways consolidation. Cybersecurity led the way – CRWD, NET, FTNT, ZS, PANW, OKTA.

Crypto had its mid-week shakeout. First, the Clarity Act didn’t pass the House. Then, the Fed raised rates on Wednesday. By Friday, all major crypto assets and stock proxies were back near their multi-week highs – ETHA, IBIT, SOLZ, ZCSH, PURR, MSTR, COIN, HOOD, etc. The SEC rolled out a 5-year exemption for tokenized stock trading, which lit up the entire space.

From a big-picture perspective, small caps keep losing ground. Russell 2k is not far from testing its 200dma. Large and mega caps continue to show incredible resilience and keep the indexes afloat. Going higher on bad news (rate hikes) is typically bullish, especially if we see follow-through next week. The volatility is likely to remain elevated ahead of the Midterm elections. The results from them can have a significant impact on who the next leaders are. A democratic sweep will probably put many AI-related stocks under pressure, as it would make the development and operation of data centers more tightly regulated.

And here are the charts discussed:

AMC price chart
SMH price chart
CRWD price chart
MCD price chart
NET price chart

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