Reading the Room: What the First Half of 2026 Tells Us About What's Coming
Presented By: Morgan Stanley
Markets have absorbed a lot in the first half of 2026 — rate volatility, geopolitical uncertainty, shifting growth expectations, the rise of AI, and an economy that keeps defying clean narratives. Andrew Slimmon of Morgan Stanley's Global Investment Committee cuts through the noise to deliver an honest read on where we've been, what it means, and where the smart money is looking as we head into the second half and beyond. Practical, direct, and built for decision-makers who need clarity, not commentary.
Moderator:
Chief Content Officer
Smart Business
Dustin is an award-winning business journalist, bestselling author, and the chief content officer of Smart Business. Over the past 30 years, he has interviewed thousands of business and civic leaders, and helped more than 50 CEOs and entrepreneurs transform their ideas into books. A trained investigative politics reporter and former digital media entrepreneur, Dustin joined Smart Business in 1997 after serving as an editor at several daily newspapers.
Panelists:
Managing Director/Senior Portfolio Manager
Morgan Stanley Investment Management
Andrew Slimmon is a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley Investment Management where he is the lead senior portfolio manager on all long equity strategies for Applied Equity Advisors. He has more than 35 years of investment management experience. He began his career at Morgan Stanley in 1991 as an advisor in Private Wealth Management and later served as the chief investment officer of the Morgan Stanley Trust Company.
Prior to joining the firm, Andrew was a buy-side equity research analyst with ARCO Investment Management. He began his career as an analyst and then portfolio manager for Brown Brothers Harriman. He often appears on CNBC, CNBC Asia, and Bloomberg TV and is quoted regularly in the Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Bloomberg and Reuters.
Andrew holds a BA degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the University of Chicago.