Israel says Hamas is failing to meet commitments under Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan, while Hamas says Israel’s destruction makes recovering captives’ bodies nearly impossible. With 11,000 Palestinians also still under rubble, Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh says tensions threaten the fragile truce.
Published On 16 Oct 202516 Oct 2025
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The Vanguard Growth ETF and the Invesco QQQ Trust have been outpacing the S&P 500 for years.
Megacap technology stocks have been leading the market higher, and the odds of that happening again next year are high. As such, the Vanguard Growth ETF (VUG -3.28%) and the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ -3.47%) are both well positioned to once again outperform the S&P 500 in 2026.
Despite a few pauses along the way, this market has been powered by growth stocks, especially those tied to artificial intelligence (AI). Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) has been one of the biggest winners, as it’s grown to become the largest company in the world with its graphics processing units (GPUs) powering the AI infrastructure boom. Meanwhile, cloud computing leaders, such as Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Amazon, and Alphabet, have all benefited from insatiable growth coming from AI demand.
They are all cash-rich, entrenched companies that have built scale and network effects that competitors will struggle to catch. They’re also the heaviest-weighted stocks in the market-cap-weighted growth exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which is why the Vanguard Growth ETF and Invesco QQQ Trust have done so well when tech has been in the driver’s seat. Both are built to let their winners run, and both have consistently delivered better returns than the S&P 500 over the past decade.
Even at record highs, I wouldn’t sit on the sidelines waiting for a correction. If you try to time a pullback, you risk missing the gains these leaders keep generating. Dollar-cost averaging into these ETFs remains one of the smartest ways to play this trend and stay invested without worrying about short-term swings.
Let’s take a closer look at why these ETFs are poised to once again outperform in 2026.
An investment in the Vanguard Growth ETF is a simple bet that large-cap growth stocks will continue to outperform value stocks. The ETF tracks the performance of the CRSP US Large Cap Growth Index, which is essentially the growth side of the S&P 500.
Its top 10 holdings are very similar to the S&P 500, but you’re getting these stocks in a much higher concentration, since it doesn’t hold any value stocks. The fund’s top 10 holdings make up more than 60% of its portfolio, compared with less than 40% for the S&P 500 itself. Meanwhile, over 60% of its holdings are in tech stocks, while a third of the S&P is made up of technology names.
That concentration is exactly why it tends to outperform when tech and growth stocks lead the market. It has been outpacing the broader index for years. Over the past decade, it’s generated an average annual return of 18% compared to 15.3% for the S&P 500. While that may not sound like a lot, with a $10,000 investment, that would be the difference between an ending balance of around $52,300 versus $41,500 for an ETF that tracks the S&P 500.
Image source: Getty Images.
Another ETF that looks well positioned to outperform the S&P 500 again in 2026 is the Invesco QQQ Trust. It tracks the Nasdaq-100, which focuses on the largest non-financial names on the Nasdaq exchange. The result is a tech-heavy growth fund where more than 60% of its assets sit in technology and much of the rest is in other growth areas.
Just like the S&P 500, the Nasdaq-100 is a market-cap-weighted index that is designed to let its winners run. So, when stocks like Nvidia and Microsoft soar, they naturally become a larger part of the ETF without any manager stepping in to rebalance. That means the fund rewards its winners and automatically reduces exposure to companies that fall behind.
The Invesco QQQ Trust’s track record is outstanding. Over the past 10 years, it’s returned around 20.3% annually, and a $10,000 investment over that period would be worth around $63,600. Even more impressively, the ETF has topped the S&P 500 more than 87% of the time on a 12-month rolling basis over this period.
As such, it’s not too bold of prediction that it will once again outperform next year.
Israel’s relentless bombardment of Gaza City has obliterated families, flattened homes, and stretched hospitals to breaking point. As Palestinians flee with nowhere safe to go, children are collapsing from exhaustion and rescue workers are still trying to save people from the rubble.
Published On 21 Sep 202521 Sep 2025
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Chasing waterfalls – all-inclusive is offset by sweaty thrills on an activity break in Greece, which Claire Spreadbury discover she enjoys far more than she imagined
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Israeli forces have killed more than 70 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip since dawn, medical sources have told Al Jazeera, including hungry aid seekers, as Israel continues to relentlessly bombard the besieged enclave where the United Nations says a famine threatens the entire population.
Israeli troops on Tuesday again opened fire on crowds seeking meagre food parcels for their families near the Netzarim Corridor, killing at least 20 people, including a 12-year-old child, according to the Gaza Government Media Office.
The child has been identified as Mohammed Khalil al-Athamneh. More than 200 others were wounded.
The distribution points are operated by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US and Israeli-backed drive in Israeli-controlled zones.
The aid sites have been branded “human slaughterhouses” as more than 150 people have been killed since GHF started operating on May 27. Nearly 1,500 have so far been wounded, according to the Government Media Office.
In a statement on Tuesday, the media office accused the GHF of playing a complicit role in what it described as “lethal ambushes” disguised as humanitarian relief.
“GHF has become a deadly tool in the hands of the Israeli military, luring starving civilians into death traps under the pretence of aid,” the statement said, denouncing the body’s continued operation despite documented attacks on unarmed crowds at its sites.
Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah, said the GHF aid distribution centres have become “a theatre for repeated bloodshed and deliberate attacks on civilians”.
Witnesses confirmed that the Israeli military attacked them from “multiple directions”, Abu Azzoum said, adding that Israeli drones, tanks, and snipers have been deployed to the isolated aid sites.
“What’s taking place … is the systematic eradication of the humanitarian response system,” he said.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has again sounded an alarm over the deteriorating humanitarian situation, saying on Tuesday the crisis has reached “unprecedented levels of despair”.
More than 2,700 children under the age of five were diagnosed with acute malnutrition in late May, the agency said, calling for the urgent restoration of humanitarian assistance.
Israel has maintained a crippling aid blockade since March 2, allowing only a limited trickle of assistance through the GHF. At the same time, it has barred established humanitarian organisations from operating in the territory – excluding those who have decades of experience in providing aid from hundreds of distribution points to the entire population of Gaza.
Elsewhere in Gaza, an air strike in al-Mawasi – an Israeli-proclaimed “safe zone” that has come under repeated attack, east of Khan Younis – killed three people sheltering in displacement tents. Three more Palestinians were killed after an Israeli drone strike targeted a group of people in the Ma’an area, east of Khan Younis.
The attacks come as one of the southern city’s last remaining functioning hospitals has ceased operations due to “increasing hostilities” in its vicinity, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
In a post on X, Tedros warned that with the closure of al-Amal Hospital, Nasser Hospital is now the only remaining hospital with an intensive care unit in Khan Younis.
Hospitals are overwhelmed and on the brink of collapse, the Health Ministry has repeatedly warned.
In Gaza’s north, medical sources reported that four paramedics were killed by Israeli gunfire while carrying out their humanitarian duties in the Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City. Another three were killed in an air strike on Jabalia.
Israeli forces have also stepped up incursions into towns and villages across the occupied West Bank in recent days as part of a months-long assault on the territory.
On Tuesday, during an hours-long raid in Nablus, Israeli troops fired tear gas and live bullets towards residents that killed two brothers, identified as Nidal and Khaled Mahdi Ahmad Umairah, aged 40 and 35, respectively.
Israeli troops had opened live fire on the Umairah brothers in the Old City of Nablus during the ongoing military raid, preventing ambulance crews from reaching them, the Wafa news agency reported.
More than 85 people were injured in the assault, while many others have been detained.
Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh said residents of Nablus’s Old City are “under lockdown”.
“They cannot leave their homes; they cannot have access to any services,” she said. “Even paramedics are telling us they are having a very difficult time reaching those who need their assistance.”