The stars continue to align for Wall Street. The iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF (MTUM) hit an intraday record high on Thursday. This also marked the fund’s 10th consecutive winning session. Momentum stocks, or growth stocks, are characterized by a greater potential for earnings expansion compared to the market as a whole. Put another way, TheStreet thinks these companies can grow earnings quickly. Tuesday’s rise in MTUM to record levels marks a sharp reversal for the fund. It has fallen more than 7% since the beginning of the year. This coincides with the S&P 500 returning to record levels this week, erasing the losses suffered since the start of the Iran war. This turnaround in momentum could be the beginning of a broader market turnaround. MTUM YTD Mountain MTUM regains record “There are many reasons to be optimistic,” said Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research. “We saw some concerns that the AI bubble was going to burst, but I think those concerns have subsided,” he said, adding that this action is consistent with historical precedent and that the market bottomed on March 30th due to the start of White House talks to find a way out of the war. Yardeni added: “Markets typically tend to look 12 months ahead. Furthermore, history has shown that geopolitical crises have often been buying opportunities.” What’s driving the momentum and what to buy Bloom Energy stock has soared more than 40% since the start of the Iran war. Renewable energy stocks soared 24% on Tuesday after the company expanded its partnership with Oracle to provide cloud providers with power to fuel burgeoning data center energy demands. Intel is also up more than 40% during the same period. Intel stock soared 24% last week, making it one of the most overbought stocks this week after the semiconductor giant struck new partnerships with Google and Elon Musk’s Terafab project. “I think the momentum that’s happening, especially in 2026, is amplifying the movement,” Jeff Kilberg, founder and CEO of KKM Financial, told CNBC. “Ten trading sessions ago, the S&P had just fallen below $6,300, and we saw this move amplify to the downside. Now, with momentum returning and shorts covered, momentum has turned into a tailwind. “I think it will be a new all-time high for the S&P 500.” After rebounding more than 10% from its post-war closing lows, the S&P 500 index remained just below its intraday high, trading just below $7,000. Kilberg said the main driver of these gains is momentum. He added: “Momentum is really the captain of the ship, and the ship seems to be aiming higher. The market always finds a way to cause the most pain before the most people give up or go their separate ways.” As for specific stocks he owns that fit the description of a momentum stock, Kilberg cited Palantir, Micron Technologies, Applied Materials, Advanced Micro Devices, Lam Research, and KLA. All these names are in MTUM.
