RBC Global Industrials Insight

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RBC Global Industrials Insight

RBC Global Equity Team

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June 8, 2026

RBC Global Industrials InsightRESEARCH June 2026

In our monthly RBC Global Industrials Insight report, we round up the need-to-know investment

themes across the global industrials sector and highlight key stock rating changes and our team’s

most impactful recent reports.

Prevailing themes: Improving short-cycle/cyclicals and outsized datacenter demand; investor

positioning marginally getting more selective. With the 1Q26 earnings behind us, key industrial themes

remain largely unchanged, with gradual improvement in short-cycle along with momentum in anythingEQUITY attached to datacenter/power/semis. If anything, investors are looking through the fluid tariff and war-

related headline volatility as well as potential mid-term implications across autos, aerospace & defense,

and commodities & specialty chems. These developments are driving relatively quicker shifts in investor

sentiment/positioning.

High-level industrial subsector commentary: In Multis, the prevailing two-speed economy continues,

with datacenter revenues growing +65% in 1Q26 vs. a touch-better 3% growth for non-datacenter

names. Industrial short-cycle improvements are evident with FAST’s 15% growth in May. European

industrials are also seeing similar divergence with 40% of coverage universe underperforming and 30%

of companies trading below the 10-year valuation average. More than 80% of companies reiterated

guidance, remaining cautious despite signs of short-cycle improvement. In Aerospace & Defense,

defense primes face negative investor sentiment on potential peak funding concerns in the US, despite

still positive fundamentals.