Goldman Sachs: By 2026, American households will become the "strongest buyers" of US stocks, with net purchases potentially reaching $520 billion.

Goldman Sachs said that due to accelerating economic growth, decreasing unemployment rates, and slowing inflation, American households are expected to become the largest buyers of U.S. stocks in 2026. The bank predicts that American households will net buy stocks worth $520 billion in 2026, a 19% increase compared to the previous year; while corporate stock net purchases are expected to reach $410 billion, a 7% increase year-on-year. Goldman Sachs analyst David Kostin pointed out that the resurgence of mergers and acquisitions will further boost demand for corporate stocks, but the continued recovery of the IPO market will to some extent offset this growth. The Goldman Sachs U.S. stock sentiment indicator recorded +0.3, turning positive for the first time since February this year, indicating that investors of all kinds are currently holding positions at a neutral level. However, Kostin noted that, among the 9 components included in this indicator, only two indicators - passive fund flows and individual margin debt - are more than one standard deviation above their 52-week averages. Kostin said, "Although the overall position size seems limited, signs of partial bubbles in the U.S. stock market have been continuously appearing in recent weeks." He added that in the past month, Quantum computing, cryptocurrency, and drone-related sectors have all risen by more than 50%. As the largest source of U.S. stock demand so far this year, foreign investors are expected to reduce their purchases to $250 billion in 2026. Kostin explained, "From May to June this year, foreign investors net purchased nearly $280 billion worth of U.S. stocks, continuing the trend that when the U.S. dollar weakens and U.S. stocks underperform the market, foreign investor demand significantly increases." Additionally, Kostin expects mutual funds and pension funds to remain the largest sellers of U.S. stocks in 2026. He mentioned, "We predict that mutual funds will sell $580 billion in stocks, as their current cash reserves are low, and actively managed funds continue to face outflows. Pension funds currently have high solvency ratios, which support our prediction that they will sell $200 billion in stocks to achieve asset reallocation, moving from stocks to fixed income assets."