We Speak Financials

Tom Lee Called 7,700 by Christmas. The Market Got There in October, So He Moved His Target to 8,000

Published

1 hour ago

October 29, 2026

Wall Street’s loudest bull just got his number early. Last December, Fundstrat strategist Tom Lee set a year-end 2026 target of 7,700 for the S&P 500, one of the most bullish calls on the Street at the time. On October 20, the index closed at 7,713, hitting Lee’s year-end number with more than two months to spare. Lee has since raised his target to 8,000.

To be clear on whose view this is: these are Lee’s calls, made publicly by Fundstrat, and we are reporting them the way we report any analyst’s call, with his name on them. They are not our recommendation, and this article is not financial advice.

The interesting part is the gap between the call and the product. Lee’s Granny Shots ETF, ticker GRNY, built around Fundstrat’s themes and holding 42 large-cap U.S. stocks, is up 10.4 percent this year. That trails the S&P 500’s 12.7 percent gain and the Nasdaq-100’s 16.8 percent, in the very year his headline call landed. In 2025 the fund returned 24 percent, ahead of the index’s 17.7 percent.

He is not alone in that gap. In the first half of 2026, 67 percent of U.S. large-cap funds did worse than the S&P 500 itself, according to the S&P Dow Jones Indices scorecard.

The money, in plain words: calling the market right and beating the market are two different skills. Lee nailed the first one this year. The second one is beating almost everybody, including, so far, him.

We Speak Financials

Jaden McDaniels Takes the Short Deal: One Year, $40 Million, and a Bigger Payday Waiting in 2028

Published

1 hour ago

October 29, 2026

We Speak Media

Most players take the longest money they can get. Jaden McDaniels just did the opposite, and the structure is the story. The Minnesota Timberwolves’ All-Defensive forward agreed to a one-year, $40 million extension that keeps him under contract through the 2029-30 season, his agents Nima Namakian of Innovate Sports and Bill Duffy of WME Basketball confirmed to ESPN.

Here is why short is smart for him. The one-year deal lets McDaniels negotiate another extension as early as 2028, starting at up to 140 percent of his $40 million salary. Or he can play it out and reach free agency in the summer of 2030 as a 10-year veteran, when veteran maximum money jumps to its highest tier.

Minnesota’s commitment is already serious. McDaniels signed a five-year, $136 million deal in 2023, and with this extension the Timberwolves now have $124 million committed to him over the next four years.

He has earned the leverage. He is coming off a career year, averaging 14.8 points per game on 51.5 percent shooting and 41 percent from three, with career highs across the board, then raised his scoring to 16.3 per game in the playoffs, including a 32-point Game 6 that eliminated Denver. Drafted 28th overall in 2020, he is now a core piece alongside Anthony Edwards, Rudy Gobert and the newly acquired LaMelo Ball.

The money, in plain words: McDaniels is structuring his contracts the way a business structures its deals, taking one rich year now to reach the market again exactly when his price peaks.

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