Must Read Research: Bull & Bear, AI Infrastructure, Underdog and Housing Markets

Hello, and welcome to Must Read Research on B of A Global Research Unlocked. In this podcast, we offer quick summaries from the prior week's most interesting and impactful research. I'm Candace Browning, Head of Global Research at B of A Securities, and we're recording this episode on Monday, June 8th, 2026.

From booked stadiums to booked data centers, there's lots to get excited about, but there are also risks. This week, we pause to check a scoreboard flashing stretched positioning, analyze how AI infrastructure is quietly creating unlikely winners, highlight an underdog taking on the big guys, and get field updates on a housing market still playing defense against affordability constraints. Let's begin with the broader market backdrop and how positioning is shaping the near term outlook.

In the latest flow show, Chief Investment Strategist Michael Hartnett offers a cautious but balanced view of global markets. The starting point is still constructive. Stocks remain firm and U.S. household equity wealth has risen by $6 trillion year to date, supporting confidence and consumption.

At the same time, inflation remains sticky enough that 46 of 68 global central banks are overshooting targets, which helps explain why bond markets are repricing for tighter policy and why long-duration assets, private credit, and several EM currencies are struggling. Positioning also looks stretched. The B of A bull and bear indicator has risen to 8.7, its third week on a sell signal, while our global breadth rule shows nearly half of equity markets are already overbought, led by Korea, Taiwan, and Finland.

So from markets and positioning, let's turn to one of the biggest structural themes reshaping investment today, AI infrastructure. AI infrastructure has produced an unlikely new winner, industrial catering. Modern hyperscale data centers are no longer modest server farms, but sprawling remote campuses that can require up to 10,000 construction workers and years to build.

As projects grow in size and complexity, we believe hyperscalers are placing greater emphasis on integrated solutions and driving demand for end-to-end, single-operator service models that bundle workforce and facilities services. As a result, food, housing, transportation, and facility support are now becoming part of the AI infrastructure stack. Risks include labor shortages, supply chain bottlenecks, and resource scrutiny, which may delay build-out times but not demand.

The U.S. opportunity is approaching $100 billion, of which $70 billion is in construction-phase services and $20 billion post-build. And with approximately 60% of data centers located internationally, we see upside to that number. Now, let's shift to the consumer and entertainment side, where engagement is rising alongside major global events.

With the FIFA World Cup starting this week, our private profile report on Underdog highlights a sports gaming platform that's becoming harder to ignore. Underdog has built one of the most engaging products in the category, which spans Best Ball, Pick'em, and Streaks. Eilers and Krejcik ranked Underdog the top daily fantasy sports app in mid-2025.

Underdog now has roughly 5 million paid users, and with a distinctly social media-first playbook, it has also amassed a large follower base on X and YouTube. However, we think the bigger angle for Underdog is prediction markets. Early volumes in the prediction markets have climbed from about 7 million to over 120 million, and Underdog's fully-integrated stack could make it a particularly interesting sports-native challenger in what we see as a future $1 trillion market.

And by the way, that's a 43%-per-month CAGR. Finally, let's turn to housing, where conditions remain challenging, but pockets of resilience are beginning to emerge. Last week, we hosted our fifth annual housing symposium in New York.

Demand for housing remains challenged by affordability and confidence, leading builders to sacrifice margins to sell units. Several of the biggest home-building markets, including Phoenix, Northern Virginia, and Las Vegas, are seeing some of the lowest sales levels since the post-COVID trough. Texas remains weak, but Florida is improving, while the Midwest and the Carolinas are strong.

Demand from higher-income consumers is resilient, and public builders continue to gain share. U.S. homebuilders and building products analyst Rafe Jadrosich recently hosted management from a national luxury builder, where management highlighted, quote, luxury move-down, unquote, as a key opportunity supported by favorable demographic tailwinds. Increased adoption of longer-lived premium products is lengthening remodel cycles.

For example, laminate asphalt roofs can last seven years longer than strip shingle roofs. To AI-driven infrastructure demand to evolving consumer platforms and housing trends, those are the themes shaping the conversation this week. Thanks for listening.

We'll be back next week. Bank of America and B of A Securities are the marketing names for the global banking businesses and global markets businesses, which includes B of A Global Research of Bank of America Corporation. Lending, derivatives, and other commercial banking activities are performed globally by banking affiliates of Bank of America Corporation, including Bank of America N.A., member FDIC.

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