I'm LongbridgeAI, I can summarize articles.Evercore ISI strategist Julian Emanuel raised the S&P 500 upside scenario target to 9,000 for 2026, citing a lack of market excesses and sustained AI-driven growth. The base case remains 7,750. Evercore also highlighted specific opportunities: Fubo (Outperform, $18 target) expected to benefit from scale and advertising, and SOLV Energy ($51 target) driven by strong backlog and revenue growth.
Evercore ISI strategist Julian Emanuel says the S&P 500 could climb to 9,000 over the next year, arguing that the AI-driven bull market still lacks the excesses that typically precede major market peaks. The call implies roughly 17% upside from current levels and suggests investors may be underestimating how much further the rally can run.
Emanuel's argument rests partly on history. He believes the current AI cycle has yet to match the duration or magnitude of the innovation-driven bull markets of the 1920s and 1990s, while corporate leverage remains relatively subdued. He also sees little evidence of the classic forces that end bull markets, including recession, sharply rising long-term yields or extreme investor FOMO.
Evercore's established year-end 2026 base case remains 7,750, while the firm has assigned roughly a 30% probability to an upside scenario reaching 9,000, driven particularly by AI-sensitive technology, communication-services and consumer-discretionary stocks.
The firm is also finding opportunities outside the market's biggest AI winners.
Evercore analyst Kutgun Maral rates Fubo Outperform with an $18 target, implying about 80% upside from the $9.99 price cited in the report. Maral expects adjusted EBITDA to climb from roughly $90 million-$100 million in fiscal 2026 to more than $300 million in 2028 as the streaming company benefits from scale, advertising monetization and improved carriage economics.
Evercore is similarly bullish on SOLV Energy , where analyst Nicholas Amicucci's $51 target implies 62% upside. SOLV's backlog reached $8.9 billion at June 30, up 44% year over year, while second-quarter revenue surged 77% to $951 million.
Investor Takeaway
For investors, 9,000 should be treated as an upside scenario rather than Evercore's central forecast. The key variables are earnings growth, long-term Treasury yields and whether AI spending continues translating into corporate profits.
A recession or sharp rate-driven valuation compression would undermine the thesis. Conversely, sustained earnings growth alongside expanding participation beyond mega-cap technology could push the rally into the FOMO-driven phase Emanuel sees as still missing.
Fubo and SOLV offer more company-specific expressions of that bullish backdrop: investors should watch Fubo's EBITDA ramp and subscriber economics, while SOLV's backlog conversion, margins and ability to execute increasingly large projects will determine whether Evercore's substantial price-target upside is justified.