Pushkin.

It's the most wonderful time of the year, folks, when investment banks and asset managers roll out their big predictions for markets in the year ahead.

Are these predictions right? Not necessarily, but trawling through these

outlooks is a fantastic way to judge the market mood. Right now, let me tell you, that mood is

very warm and fuzzy. In 2025, markets have swatted off a whole range of horrors, tariffs,

geopolitical splits, institutional degradation,

all the scary stuff. And that means that now, even with what seems to be a big, fat AI bubble

inflating in plain sight, investors are feeling pretty good about what markets will deliver

next year. Today on the show, we're going to run you through the key calls on Wall Street, where the

consensus is, what can go right and, of course, what can go wrong.

This is Unhedge, the Markets and Finance podcast from the Financial Times and Pushkin.

A very warm welcome to new listeners today who are tuning in as part of the FT's Global Boardroom event.

I'm Katie Martin, a markets columnist here at the FT in London, and I'm joined by two of my favourite colleagues.

In the studio with me, I have FT Markets Workhorse, Ian Smith.

Hi, Katie.

One of the fine people here who does the hard work of reporting on what markets are up to every day.

And my usual co-pilot, Rob Armstrong, who harvests the organs of all that reporting and pontificates on it from his perch on the unhedge newsletter.

I'm going to get a business card. Rob Armstrong, organ harvester.

Organ harvester. So, so both of you, like, I think it's kind of important that we pause just for a tiny

second here and reflect on how incredibly resilient markets have been this year.

You know, one investor put it to me the other day

that if you'd said to her in April, right, the stock market was absolutely a meltdown. And if you'd

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