By: Live Oak Private Wealth
“The idea that a newly issued security (IPO)—brought to market at a time of the sellers’ choosing and surrounded by massive hype—is the single best bargain among thousands of global businesses is absolute nonsense. It makes no sense to buy a security precisely when an insider decides to sell. Frankly, it isn’t worth spending five seconds thinking about IPOs.”
– Warren Buffett
The S&P 500 and NASDAQ just finished their best quarter since 2020, largely driven by AI-related semiconductor stocks. International stock indexes were also strong in the first half of 2026, as evidenced by the MSCI ACWI (ex Us) return of 16.6% (local currency) and 14.00% in USD terms. The equal weight S&P 500 index outperformed the S&P 500 (mkt cap weighted) for the first six months of the year, indicating a broadening of the market. The Mag 7, which has been so dominant over the past few years, was essentially flat on a total return basis for the first half of the year (up 0.1% including dividends). Small cap stocks have been the best performing asset class for both the first quarter and year to date. Value strategies outperformed growth strategies in the first half of 2026 by 10.9%, breaking a multi-year trend of growth (tech) dominance. For the first half, the leading sectors were industrials (+19.46%), information technology (+19.43%) and energy (+17.98%). Lagging sectors were financials (-2.06%), consumer staples (-1.11%) and communication services (+0.44%). As we look forward, not much has changed since our Special Market Update outlining the many risks we were seeing, which we provided to clients in early June. A summary of that update is shown below.
Read our full investment commentary and letter to clients by downloading the 2026 Mid Year letter.
DOWNLOAD THE 2026 MID-YEAR LETTER FROM LIVE OAK PRIVATE WEALTH