How to Invest $10,000 Right Now
Four experts highlight opportunities in a nervous market.
Sign up to get an email each time a new edition of our Where to Invest series publishes – look for it about once a month.
Embracing risk is looking less appealing lately.
There’s concern about an AI bubble, despite strong earnings from Nvidia Corp. Bitcoin has lost some $600 billion in total market value since an October high. Many Wall Street strategists are sounding alarms about the stock market, citing indicators showing historically extreme valuations and warning of an eventual correction.
For all the worries though, the S&P 500 is up about 13% for the year, the Nasdaq 100 Index has risen more than 17% and high-fliers like Broadcom Inc., Alphabet Inc. and Nvidia boast gains topping 40%.
To navigate the uncertainty, Bloomberg asked investment experts to highlight opportunities in today’s markets. Some of them said there’s logic in riding the momentum in mega-cap tech — for now. Others focused on areas where they see better value and ways to balance portfolios heavy in the biggest tech names. US mid-cap stocks got a nod, as did more prosaic sectors such as banks, insurance and information-technology services. Quality fixed income was among the picks as well, including tax-exempt municipal bonds.
For those who want to invest in these ideas using exchange-traded funds, Bloomberg Intelligence ETF research associate Andre Yapp provides suggestions that serve as rough proxies.
When asked how they’d spend $10,000 on something outside the investment world, the experts pointed to gifts like boats and watches for children, as well as travel adventures to engage in self-reflection — and take one’s mind off the markets.
Sarah Ketterer, chief executive officer, Causeway Capital Management
Find Value in IT Stocks
The idea: Valuation multiples for information technology services stocks have declined this year, reflecting investor concerns about automation’s impact on people-based businesses. Even though companies are restraining IT budgets, government spending priorities are shifting from internal efficiency initiatives to broader investments in defense and technology infrastructure. With significant funds already appropriated under recent legislative initiatives, the growth environment for IT service providers should strengthen in the coming years.
The strategy: IT services contractors provide the specialized expertise needed to build new technologies, modernize systems and secure critical infrastructure. Several structural dynamics favor IT services firms — slow growth in government headcount, the desire to avoid permanent employment and pension obligations and a widening talent gap in advanced technologies and cybersecurity. Globally, the ongoing push to leverage technology for efficiency and improved service delivery across both defense and civilian sectors supports steady, long-term demand for these firms.
The big picture: History shows that every major technology shift, from cloud computing to machine learning, has depended on outsourced providers to deliver productivity gains and manage complexity. IT services firms not only help clients adapt but also grow alongside the increasing need for digital transformation, cyber security and AI adoption.
Ian Harnett, chief investment strategist, Absolute Strategy Research
Trust in Momentum — For Now
The idea: In 2025, it paid to be positive on equities, credit and gold. But unless you were fully exposed to US tech stocks, it may still have felt like you were left behind in the investment game. As we move into 2026, the big question is whether the positive momentum for tech, US equities and gold can persist. Our simple answer is yes — at least for the first part of the year. As long as we are in a world where the Federal Reserve is expected to cut interest rates and we see double-digit US earnings expectations, risk assets should do well.
The strategy: We have rarely seen such a benign combination of interest rates and earnings, and that provides a double-boost to risk assets. In the short-term, unless US nominal growth falters or US earnings disappoint, it will likely pay for investors to remain focused on US equities. However, we are suggesting an increased exposure to non-technology sectors in areas such as banks and insurance. If you do want to make a move away from the US markets, Japanese equities offer stronger earnings momentum than other non-US markets, and they remain relatively cheap. Finally, we still prefer gold to crypto. We see the rotation into gold as less about inflation worries and more about the new geopolitics of a post-tariff, fractured global economy.
The big picture: Lots of things could undermine this outlook, which may make looking away from pricey US stocks tempting, especially if you think the US dollar will fall. At some point in 2026, that could be a fruitful strategy. The US shutdown exposed labor market vulnerabilities, and if unemployment spikes, historically equities tend to struggle. Similarly, the impact of tariffs could boost inflation and undermine the rate outlook. The biggest risk for us is if we see a reappraisal of the impact that AI can have on global productivity. The biggest AI tech companies are expected to invest more than $1.3 trillion in new capacity by the end of 2027. If returns on this investment turn out to be illusory, the risk of a serious correction in the prices of those companies will be high.
Russ Koesterich, portfolio manager, BlackRock Global Allocation Fund
Ride the Mega-Caps
The idea: Year-to-date, markets have not followed a straight line. That said, 2025 is increasingly resembling 2023 and 2024. While there are some key differences, one theme is consistent: tech leadership. Given a resilient economy and the prospect of market-beating earnings, this is likely to continue into 2026.
The strategy:
Despite a softening labor market and lingering tariff uncertainty, consensus estimates for 2026 economic growth are back to 1.8%, according to Bloomberg, which is close to trend. As the economy has recovered, so have earnings estimates, with the improvement disproportionately driven by a rebound in tech companies. As was the case last summer, tech companies continue to enjoy the strongest earnings.
For many, the bear case for tech rests on valuations. Today, the S&P 500 tech sector trades at approximately 42 times trailing earnings. By comparison, at the peak of the tech bubble in early 2000s, the sector traded at more than 67 times earnings. While today’s valuations cannot be described as cheap, there is a strong case that prices are justified by extraordinary profitability.
The big picture: The return on equity for the tech sector is currently around 30%. The long-term average is less than 20%, and this figure was 17% back in 2000. In other words, not only are stock valuations significantly lower than during the tech bubble but today’s premium is better justified.
Emily Roland, co-chief investment strategist, Manulife John Hancock Investments
‘Draft’ the Market
The idea: In many ways, our job as investors is like the job of a racecar driver — to outperform while managing risk. In a year like 2025 when markets are in fifth gear and maximum risk-taking gets rewarded, it can be nearly impossible for a disciplined investor to keep up. As we head into 2026, we see more opportunities for a risk-managed approach to add alpha to portfolios, and we expect that “drafting” the market with higher-quality stocks and bonds — participating in the race but not attempting to set the pace in the lead car — will benefit investors.
The strategy:
This year has been a short-term investor’s dream — trend following, momentum trading and low-quality markets (like unprofitable tech companies, retail trader favorites and crypto-related assets) have led. Seemingly every day there is a new announcement of an AI investment that causes markets to rally despite historically extended valuations. Meanwhile, long-term investors see overvaluation, excessive optimism that the economy will see a “no landing” scenario (we will simply skip a recession this cycle), an earnings bar that is too high for 2026 and a speculative equity and crypto frenzy that looks like a massive misallocation of capital.
To manage that tug of war between views, we remain fully invested but have a lower risk profile as well as a higher quality and more defensive tilt, and we have more income in portfolios. We emphasize higher-quality stocks with positive earnings revisions where we’re not overpaying for earnings growth, which leads us to overweight technology, communications services and industrials sectors. We also favor high-quality infrastructure and utilities as beneficiaries of increased power demand around AI and the associated buildout. To diversify and manage valuation risk, we use US mid-caps, which trade at a 30% discount to large-caps. In international portfolios, we emphasize growth versus value, based on its more attractive earnings growth prospects.
In bonds, we are embracing quality with a mild tilt toward riskier credit exposure. The yield on high-yield bonds is about 7%, which looks relatively attractive compared to equities. However, investment-grade corporates and mortgage-backed securities are both yielding nearly 5%, so investors are not compensated much for the additional risk down the credit spectrum. We also like high-quality municipal bonds that have elevated yields, as well as attractive supply and demand dynamics and defensive characteristics. We’d target an average A-rated credit quality and a mix of general obligation and revenue bonds, diversified across states, and focus on intermediate maturities.
The big picture: Why not just stay on the sidelines? Momentum can be a powerful and persistent force, so sitting in cash can result in missed opportunities. In fact, the last innings of a bubble tend to produce the strongest returns, so investors could miss out on several years’ worth of gains that may be captured in a short amount of time. Staying invested — without reaching too far for risk — makes sense in this environment.