Climbing the Wall of Worry

Climbing the Wall of Worry

From RBC's Markets in Motion by RBC Capital Markets

April 20, 2026 · 7 min · Season 11 · Episode 4

About this episode

The episode discusses the current state of the US equity market, investor sentiment, and recent earnings reports.

The big things you need to know: First, despite the strong rebound in the US equity market, investor sentiment remained subdued last week. This signals to us that there is room for US equities to run and climb a wall of worry. Second, 1Q26 reporting season got off to a strong start last week, evidenced by a sharp pickup in the percent of companies beating consensus EPS forecasts and reassuring commentary from companies. Third, other things that jump out in our latest updates include strong outperformance by Large Cap Growth and growth-oriented sectors in April, the low-quality burst of leadership within Small Cap, and strengthening inflows to the US amid outflows from Europe

Topics covered

  • US equity market
  • investor sentiment
  • earnings reports
  • Large Cap Growth
  • Small Cap
  • market inflows

Keywords

  • US equities
  • investor sentiment
  • earnings season
  • Large Cap Growth
  • Small Cap
  • market trends

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: RBC Capital Markets

Places: US, Europe

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