Stock Market Playbook: Goldman Recommends Three Themes Through Year-End

Investors are wrapping up the summer with a slew of questions about what’s still to come through the rest of this year.

The labor market is slowing, there’s uncertainty lingering around the impact of tariffs, and a steady stream of all-time highs for the stock market has raised more fears of a bubble.

Luckily, analysts at Goldman Sachs have some advice for investors as they head toward year-end.

Focus on 3 areas of the market, GS says

In a September 5 note, Goldman laid out its US equity playbook through the end of 2025, recommending three areas for investors to focus on.

First, Goldman analysts recommend that investors consider alternative asset management stocks. According to analyst David Kostin, this area may be attractive because, unlike their banking peers, these companies’ valuations never bounced back to post-election highs.

Kostin said that Goldman expects stocks in this area to benefit from growth in both capital markets activity and the broader economy, as well as optimism for financial industry deregulation, noting that equity issuance is growing, up 23% year-over-year.

Second, the analysts see solid potential in shares of companies with high levels of floating-rate debt, noting that coming interest rate cuts could mean balance sheet pressures dissipate and profitability could improve.

“Since the start of August, a basket of stocks with high shares of floating rate debt (GSXUHIFL) has rallied by 13% alongside more dovish Fed pricing,” the note stated.

It added that these stocks are likely to benefit further from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which allows for more interest to be deducted from taxes.

Third, Goldman analysts are bullish on gold mining stocks, citing the commodity’s strong price growth in recent months and spot gold’s 37% year-to-date gain.

“Our commodity strategists anticipate gold prices will rise by 14% through 2026 due to strong central bank and ETF demand,” the analysts noted, adding that they expect gold mining stocks to rise on the same momentum.

In August, Goldman analysts said that gold’s price movements were more similar to Manhattan real estate than to another top commodity like oil.