2026-02: consumer inflation and wavering technology sector driving US equity

Pepsi PEP and the Technology Sector ETF XLK are computed as driving the US three stock indices: Nasdaq 100, S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average index.

The time point to forecast for, as currently configured, is always the one in six months from the last market close. The computational engine is flexible and we can configure with another forecast horizon, then all identified driving factors will change for the new forecast horizon.

We can consider PEP as a symbol for consumer inflation as it is a popular cola brand and widely consumed.

Re the Technology Sector ETF XLK. Go to https://www.etf.com/XLK, click on the menu “Holdings”, one may see the top five holdings are NVDA 15%, AAPL 13%, MSFT 9%, AVGO 5%, MU 4%. XLK used to hold close to a majority of AAPL and MSFT. NVDA only jumped to be the top holding of XLK recently.

Search for “QQQ.US;SPY.US;DIA.US” (type the string including the semicolons, but excluding the question marks) on tsterm.com,