Sep 4, 2026 · 1h 30m
AI spending tests the durability of the stock-market bull run
How to Pick Stocks Like Morgan Stanley With Dan Skelly
The conversation examines whether resilient earnings and AI investment can broaden the market rally without creating a new cycle of overbuilding and weak returns.
- 1AI capital spending could support earnings and productivity, but deployment delays and financing risks remain important constraints.
- 2Market leadership is rotating toward healthcare, financials, materials, small caps, and other businesses beyond the largest AI beneficiaries.
- 3Skelly favors concentrated ownership of quality companies, judging exits by thesis deterioration, competition, opportunity cost, and regulation.
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Dan Skelly distinguishes today’s AI boom from the dot-com era by contrasting established enterprise customers with the risks of private-company economics and debt-funded overbuilding.
The brief
Morgan Stanley portfolio manager Dan Skelly joins Josh Brown and Michael Batnick to assess a market caught between correction anxiety and fear of missing further gains.
Skelly sees a less cyclical economy, supported by AI investment, reshoring, pricing power, and productivity gains that can lift revenue without matching headcount growth.
The central debate compares today’s AI infrastructure buildout with the late-1990s fiber boom: stronger enterprise demand helps, but stranded hardware and debt financing remain risks.
As leadership broadens, healthcare, financials, materials, and small caps compete for attention while weaker consumer businesses reveal a more divided, K-shaped economy.
Skelly’s portfolio framework emphasizes misunderstood data businesses, concentrated positions, and selling when competition or the original thesis deteriorates—not merely when regulation creates temporary pressure.
Featuring
Dan Skelly
NASDAQ-100
Google
Microsoft Corporation
Dell TechnologiesListen to the full episode and explore every guest, topic, and moment on PodLume.