Savvy Portfolio Perspectives | February 2026

Market views and portfolio insights  from Savvy Wealth Investment Management

About This Report

Every month, the Savvy Wealth Investment Management team convenes to assess the market landscape: Where do we see opportunity? What risks deserve attention? And how should portfolios be positioned in response?

Savvy Portfolio Perspectives, published by Chief Investment Officer Anshul Sharma and our investment team, delivers those answers. Each edition provides our current market views, portfolio positioning insights, and forward-looking analysis – the same perspectives that inform how we manage Savvy Total Portfolios.

Executive Snapshot

• The Verdict: We reaffirmed our current portfolio positioning. No tactical changes were made to the Savvy Total Portfolios this month following a review of earnings, macro conditions, and key market indicators.
  
  
• Core Driver: Early Q4 earnings results continue to validate our growth-oriented tilts, with approximately 75% of S&P 500 companies reporting positive EPS surprises ^[1]  (as of Jan 23, 2026).

• Portfolio Stance: We remain Overweight Equities – specifically U.S. Large Cap and Emerging Markets – while maintaining an Underweight to Fixed Income, reflecting the current balance of opportunity and risk.

Macro Thoughts

Markets entered the year grappling with a mix of cross-currents – ongoing earnings season, elevated interest-rate volatility, shifting currency dynamics, and a steady drumbeat of policy headlines. Amid that backdrop, the Savvy Wealth Investment Management team remains focused on the underlying currents of the global economy rather than short-term noise.

As we move through the final stages of the Q4 reporting cycle, it has become increasingly clear that corporate health – not headline risk – remains the dominant force driving markets. We believe we are witnessing a distinct “Quality Growth” regime take hold, where companies that have successfully integrated AI-driven operational efficiencies are separating themselves from the field. With nearly three-quarters of the S&P 500 reporting positive earnings surprises $[1]$, the fundamental backdrop supporting our equity overweight remains firmly intact.

Our High-Conviction Equity Sector Tilts

To capitalize on this environment, we maintain a disciplined "barbell" approach across four key sectors:

• Technology & Utilities (The AI Infrastructure Play): We remain Overweight Technology for its secular growth and margin expansion, but we pair this with an Overweight to Utilities. This unique pairing recognizes that the AI revolution requires a massive domestic energy infrastructure build-out. Utilities, traditionally defensive, are now behaving as a growth-proxy for power demand.

• Consumer Discretionary (The Stimulus Play): Despite high interest rates, high-frequency credit card data provides a compelling rebuttal to the "tapped out" consumer narrative. Total aggregate card spending has remained on a firm footing to start the year $[6]$, and we expect a "second wind" as 1H26 stimulus measures circulate.

• Healthcare (The Defensive Growth Play): We maintain an Overweight to Healthcare to provide a valuation hedge. With attractive forward P/Es and resilient earnings, we expect this sector to provide stability if economic and geopolitical volatility persists.

The Global Horizon

One of our core themes for 2026 is the potential for continued moderation in the U.S. dollar. After a prolonged period of strength, the dollar began to soften last year, with the ICE DXY Index extending its decline by approximately 2.4% year-to-date $[2]$. Historically, periods of dollar weakness have acted as a pressure release valve for Emerging Markets, easing financial conditions, improving capital flows, and supporting local-currency earnings growth.

This currency dynamic is particularly important given the valuation backdrop. Emerging market equities continue to trade at a meaningful discount to U.S. equities, reflecting years of underperformance and conservative investor positioning. As dollar strength fades, that valuation gap creates a more attractive entry point for selective exposure, especially in regions where balance sheets have improved and inflation pressures are moderating.

Importantly, our overweight to Emerging Markets is not predicated on a single macro outcome, but on the confluence of currency tailwinds, relative valuations, and improving earnings sensitivity. Should these trends persist, EM equities have the potential to serve as a differentiated source of growth within the Savvy Total Portfolios, while also enhancing geographic diversification.

Fixed Income Strategy: Navigating Rate Volatility

While equity markets continue to benefit from resilient earnings, the fixed income landscape currently offers a less compelling risk-return profile by comparison. Our underweight to fixed income reflects a relative assessment: today’s opportunity set in equities appears more attractive than that available in duration-heavy bonds, particularly given ongoing rate volatility and persistent inflation uncertainty.

Although yields remain elevated, inflation expectations have been slow to normalize, limiting the scope for meaningful price appreciation across longer-duration fixed income. At the same time, measures of bond market volatility, including the MOVE Index, remain elevated $[2]$, underscoring that interest rate outcomes are still subject to a wide range of potential paths.

In this environment, we believe extending duration offers limited upside relative to its risks. As a result, we continue to favor a more selective fixed income posture – emphasizing quality and flexibility – while allocating incremental risk toward equities, where earnings growth and pricing power provide a more compelling return profile.

Precious Metals: Gold & Silver in Focus

Gold and silver have experienced heightened volatility in recent weeks, following strong early-year gains and a sharp pullback last week. Gold prices, which recently reached new nominal highs above $5,000 per ounce, have since retraced as near-term positioning adjusted and real yields firmed modestly. Even with this reversal, gold’s performance continues to reflect its role as a macro hedge, influenced by geopolitical uncertainty, central bank demand, and movements in the U.S. dollar.

Silver has seen an even more pronounced reversal after trading above $100 per ounce, underscoring its historically higher volatility profile. Unlike gold, silver’s price behavior is more sensitive to shifts in growth expectations and risk sentiment due to its dual role as both a precious metal and an industrial input. As a result, silver tends to amplify moves in both directions, outperforming during reflationary or risk-on phases and retracing more sharply during periods of consolidation.

The recent pullback across precious metals highlights the dynamic interplay between currency trends, real interest rates, inflation expectations, and positioning. While near-term price action has been volatile, precious metals and broader commodities remain an important component of our portfolio framework, providing diversification and exposure to macro forces such as real yields, currency dynamics, and shifts in global risk appetite.

The Savvy Macro Dashboard

To ensure portfolio decisions are disciplined and repeatable, the Savvy Wealth Investment Management team monitors a consistent set of indicators across valuation, earnings, macro conditions, credit and liquidity, and global dynamics. These data points help us assess whether current portfolio positioning remains appropriate or whether conditions warrant adjustment.

‍
Please see Appendix for sources. Data as of Jan 23, 2026

‍

Current Portfolio Positioning

Question of the Month:

"Why is Savvy Overweight Utilities when they are traditionally a 'boring,' slow-growth sector?"

This is a question we hear frequently. Traditionally, Utilities are viewed as a "defensive" play – stocks you hold for dividends when you’re worried about the economy. However, we believe a structural shift is occurring. The rapid expansion of AI data centers requires an unprecedented amount of baseline power. This has transformed Utilities into an infrastructure-growth play. We are overweight the sector not for its defensiveness, but because it is the "picks and shovels" provider for the AI revolution. It allows us to participate in the AI build-out with a lower valuation profile than high-flying software names.

Savvy Total Portfolios: Tactical Asset Allocation Positioning

(As of January 23, 2026)

‍

U.S. GICS Sector Overweights:

• Technology: Margin expansion via AI productivity
• Utilities: AI-driven energy demand
• Consumer Discretionary: Resilient spending and 1H26 stimulus
• Healthcare: Attractive valuations and defensive earnings

Risks We’re Watching

While our current positioning reflects a constructive view on fundamentals, we remain mindful of several risks that could introduce volatility or alter market dynamics:

• Policy & Fiscal Uncertainty: Ongoing negotiations in Washington, including the risk of a temporary partial government shutdown $[5]$, may contribute to short-term market volatility. Historically, these events tend to create noise rather than lasting changes to economic fundamentals, but they can impact sentiment and liquidity in the near term.
  
  
• Inflation Persistence: A re-acceleration in inflation – particularly in services or wage-sensitive categories – could delay anticipated policy easing and pressure both equity valuations and fixed income returns.
  
  
• Credit Market Stress: Although credit spreads remain relatively tight, any abrupt widening would warrant close attention as a potential signal of deteriorating financial conditions.
  
  
• Rate Volatility: Elevated interest-rate volatility, as reflected in bond market measures such as the MOVE Index, could continue to weigh on fixed income markets and spill over into risk assets.
  
  
• Geopolitical Shocks: Unexpected geopolitical developments remain a source of tail risk, particularly if they disrupt energy markets, trade flows, or global risk sentiment.

These risks are continuously monitored within the Team’s broader decision framework and, on their own, do not currently warrant a change in portfolio positioning.

What Would Change Our View: A sustained widening in credit spreads, a material re-acceleration in inflation, or a sharp deterioration in earnings revisions would prompt a reassessment of our equity overweight.

Closing Thoughts

While market conditions will continue to evolve, our focus remains on maintaining disciplined, diversified portfolios anchored in fundamentals rather than headlines. We believe the current positioning of the Savvy Total Portfolios appropriately reflects today’s opportunity set and risk environment, and we remain prepared to adjust should conditions materially change.