The strongest, most profitable bull market you’re probably missing

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• The strongest, most profitable bull market you’re probably missing

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The strongest, most profitable bull market you’re probably missing

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The modern-day gold rush in the healthcare business continues.

This week, shares of Agilent Technologies (A) reached a new all-time high.

Agilent is one of the largest and most important companies that most people have never heard of. It is a $45 billion giant of the Healthcare Equipment and Services industry.

Agilent is a leading provider of laboratory instruments, software, consumables, and services for analyzing chemical and biological materials. Its equipment – including chromatography, mass spectrometry, spectroscopy, and cell-analysis systems – is widely used by drug makers and biotech firms. Agilent also sells consumable supplies and maintenance services for its installed instruments.

Avid Money & Megatrends readers know that “Boomer health care” is one of our highest-conviction long-term investment megatrends. We don’t know of another investment research publication that has written more bullishly, more often about this booming industry than we have.

Over the past year, we have published more than two dozen pieces on opportunities in drug development, biotechnology, senior living facilities, genomics, cardiology, diagnostics, and more.

Our bullish stance has produced a parade of home runs, with the healthcare industry dominating the stock market’s new highs list over the past year.

Healthcare stocks are generating extraordinary returns because they are benefiting from several megatrends simultaneously…

One is demographics. More than 10,000 Americans reach retirement age every day. The U.S. population aged 80 and older is projected to roughly double, from 14.7 million in 2025 to 29.4 million by 2045.

This is the enormous Baby Boom generation entering the phase of life where health care and longevity spending skyrocket. For many boomers, a typical month involves going to see at least one doctor to have something looked at, removed, or treated.

This means many health care businesses are experiencing huge demand now – and will for at least the next decade.

Two is exponential technological progress. Thanks to major advancements in genomic sequencing, AI-powered analytics, imaging technology, and preventative treatment, healthcare is becoming much better and more personalized. This is driving strong demand for all kinds of new tests, tools, and treatments.

After all, when a useful and important service you buy gets much better, you typically buy more of it.

In the health care industry, giant drug firms like Eli Lilly (LLY) and Pfizer (PFE), as well as hospitals, get the lion’s share of media coverage and public awareness.

However, a large and varied ecosystem of smaller but critical health care businesses that are worth knowing about and owning. They comprise a huge – yet usually unseen – infrastructure layer of equipment and service providers that enable doctors, nurses, clinicians, and executives to do their jobs.

This is the world of CT scanners, hospital software, surgical tools, stents, catheters, endoscopes, artificial hips, X-ray machines, MRI machines, lab service providers, and syringes.

The U.S. spends more than $5 trillion on health care annually, or about 18% of GDP. This means the world of Healthcare Equipment & Services is large, varied, and full of opportunity.

Back to Agilent…

You generally won’t see Agilent equipment in patient rooms, operating rooms, or imaging departments. Agilent instruments are more likely to be found behind the scenes in laboratories.

For example, its pathology products can be used for tissue staining and cancer diagnostics, while its chromatography and mass-spectrometry systems can be used in research labs. Driven by strong revenue in the healthcare industry, Agilent expects 2026 sales to increase by about 8%.

Agilent is not the only Healthcare Equipment & Services stock on the market leaderboard.

• This week, Agilent’s contemporary Danaher (DHR) reached a new six-month high.

• Another Agilent contemporary, Mettler Toledo (MTD), reached a new one-year high.

• Biological drug equipment leader Repligen (RGEN) just reached a new one-year high.

• Lab instrument giant Waters (WAT) just reached a new one-year high.

• Drug development services giant IQVIA (IQV) recently reached a new one-year high.

• And as we covered last week, industry “super giant” Thermo Fisher Scientific (TMO) recently reached a new one-year high and is poised to break out of a huge multi-year consolidation pattern.

The fortunes of the firms above are closely tied to the R&D and capital spending cycles of drug firms such as Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Biogen, Amgen, Gilead, Merck, and Novartis.

When drugmakers expand laboratory research, genomic analysis, testing programs, and manufacturing capacity, they require more analytical instruments, consumables and bioprocessing equipment – the “picks and shovels” supplied by companies like Danaher and Agilent.

We believe the new highs reached by the likes of Danaher and Agilent are harbingers of a healthcare megatrend that will generate large returns over the coming years: That thanks to advanced genomic sequencing, AI-powered data analytics, and other bleeding edge innovations, the healthcare industry will move away from blunt “one size fits all” treatments and move to more “personalized” treatments that are tailored to an individual’s genetic makeup.

This megatrend will drive strong drugmaker R&D spending and strong revenue growth for well-positioned “picks and shovels” firms above.

Also, consider that U.S. healthcare leaders and the U.S. government are very keen on increasing domestic drug manufacturing to reduce our reliance on foreign manufacturing.

The FDA says more than half of pharmaceuticals distributed in the U.S. are manufactured overseas, and only about 11% of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturers are U.S.-based.

Since 2025, pharmaceutical companies have announced hundreds of billions of dollars of U.S. manufacturing and R&D investment. CBRE tracked approximately $350 billion in announcements, although it estimates that roughly half of these were projects that had already been planned or begun – an important caveat when interpreting the headline.

Add these two trends – the personalized treatment revolution and the domestic drug manufacturing boom – and you get serious fundamental tailwinds that will continue driving the bull market in many areas of healthcare, especially the “picks and shovels” providers of drug development and manufacturing.

This new stock trend has much further to run.

This stealth AI trade is generating extraordinary winners. Are you in on it?

Credit: piyaset

The modern-day gold rush isn’t just making lab equipment shareholders wealthier. As we expected, genomic stock owners are getting richer as well.

The latest example of this phenomenon is the new all-time high reached today by genomics testing and analytics giant Illumina (ILMN). The stock rose 1.3% this morning, reaching a new all-time high.

Illumina’s strength has helped propel the ARK Genomic Revolution ETF (ARKG) to a new all-time high this week.

Illumina is one of the world’s largest DNA sequencing and analysis firms. Its sequencing machines, consumables, and software allow drug companies to read and analyze genetic information. Illumina’s technology is widely used in cancer research, rare-disease diagnosis, and reproductive health.

Its business benefits from growing adoption of genomics, with recurring revenue generated from sequencing consumables used on its installed base of instruments. The stock is up 158% since our original Oct. 9, 2025, bullish note on genomics.

Constant Money & Megatrends readers won’t be surprised to hear that the likes of Illumina are producing big returns.

Over the past year, we’ve written more than a dozen research notes about the extraordinary upside potential of biotech and genomics. We’ve written specific bullish notes on all the names listed above.

Genomics is the science of analyzing human DNA – often referred to as the “software code of life” – to create tests, medicines, and treatments.

Years of innovation in this field have us on the brink of creating customized, personalized treatments based on an individual’s DNA… and even “editing” genes to cure disease.

Industry bulls believe it will get a big “AI boost,” because super-intelligent computer programs can analyze genes and treatment effects so well… and have the potential to create drugs on their own.

The fusion of AI and genomics should generate dozens of compelling stock narratives over the coming years. Researchers running superintelligent AI programs will be able to create useful new diagnostics and run millions of digital simulations of drugs and treatments. This will put medical innovation into overdrive… and create many big stock market winners.

The personalized approach to medicine that genomics offers has us on the cusp of a historic revolution in healthcare. Ten years from now, medicine will be transformed… and a lot of money will be made along the way.

I’ve frequently mentioned how ARKG is one way to track and trade the genomics theme. It owns a basket of bleeding-edge genomic companies. It is up 63% since our original note.

One of its largest holdings, Tempus AI, is often cited as a premier way to play “AI in health care.” It holds genomics tools and services firm 10x Genomics (TXG) and synthetic DNA firm Twist Bioscience (TWST). TWST is up 396% since our original bullish note. TXG is up a 568%.

ARKG also holds significant positions in promising “gene editing” companies CRISPR Therapeutics (CRSP) and Intellia Therapeutics (NTLA).

It’s increasingly looking like genomics, and some drug development firms are being painted with the “AI brush,” a development that can turbocharge any trend or stock here in 2026. We recommend staying long.

Market Notes

• Our March 27th recommendation to own cybersecurity stocks is paying off. CrowdStrike (CRWD), Fortinet (FTNT), Cloudflare (NET), Okta (OKTA) and Dynatrace (DT) all hit new highs.

• Our October 8th recommendation to own the Boomer healthcare trend is paying off. Thermo Fisher Scientific (TMO), Biogen (BIIB), Genmab (GMAB), and AbbVie (ABBV) just hit new highs.

• Our recommendation to own farm machinery giant Deere & Co. (DE) is working well. The stock reached a new all-time high today.

• More good signs for the AI infrastructure trade: Semiconductor leader Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) hit an all-time high and is now a $1 trillion company.

Regards,

Brian Hunt
Editor, Money & Megatrends

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