Good afternoon! SpaceX is gearing up for a blockbuster IPO next year, and the early numbers are somewhere between massive and historic.
Bloomberg says Elon Musk is targeting at least 30 billion dollars at a 1.5 trillion dollar valuation, while Reuters pegs the goal closer to 25 billion dollars at a 1 trillion dollar valuation. If SpaceX hits the higher end, it would become the largest IPO ever and put Musk within striking distance of a 1 trillion dollar net worth.
The ripple effects could be just as big. OpenAI and Anthropic, both valued above 100 billion dollars, are watching closely as they prepare their own potential listings and project more than 20 billion dollars in revenue for 2026, similar to SpaceX’s forecasts.
And if investors show up for SpaceX, it could pull a long list of private giants off the sidelines and jump-start an IPO market that has been stuck in neutral for years.
MARKETS
The S&P 500 and Russell 2000 both closed at fresh all-time highs, even as the Nasdaq slipped under the weight of an AI-driven tech selloff. Oracle’s disappointing earnings wiped out momentum in the sector, making technology the worst-performing ETF of the day while the broader market pushed higher.
Away from equities, short-term Treasury yields fell after the Fed confirmed it will begin buying 40 billion dollars in T-bills per month. And while gold and silver keep stealing the spotlight, copper quietly hit a new all-time high of its own.
STOCKS
Winners & Losers
What’s up 📈
Planet Labs $PL soared 35.01% on a strong Q3, higher guidance, and a shift toward government and defense contracts.
Gemini Space Station $GEMI advanced 31.95% after winning CFTC approval to launch a new derivatives exchange, giving the Winklevoss twins a foothold in the booming prediction markets industry.
Ciena $CIEN gained 9.34% after the network solutions company increased revenue 20% year over year, helping it beat earnings forecasts.
Vail Resorts $MTN climbed 9.1% as investors welcomed management’s plan for a strategic commercial reset.
Eli Lilly $LLY jumped 1.58% after an experimental obesity shot cut body weight by 23% and slashed knee pain by 62%.
What’s down 📉
Rezolute $RZLT plummeted 87.2% after the biotech’s late-stage sunRIZE trial failed to deliver.
Oxford Industries $OXM dropped 21.24% on weak earnings and a reduced outlook, citing tariff-related product gaps in key seasonal categories.
Robinhood Markets $HOOD declined 9.05% following reports of softer November metrics, including declines in funded accounts and trading activity.
Rivian $RIVN fell 6.11% after the EV company revealed it is developing in-house AI chips to replace Nvidia’s, an ambitious move investors saw as yet another costly hurdle.
GE Vernova $GEV slipped 2.6% from all-time highs after a Seaport analyst downgraded the stock.
Coca-Cola $KO fell 1.58% on the news that CEO James Quincey will step down in March and be replaced by COO Henrique Braun.
AI
Disney Strikes Major AI Deal With OpenAI While Targeting Google
Disney just pulled off the ultimate AI two-step, one arm around OpenAI, the other shoving Google out of the club.
The Alliance and the Check
The company revealed a three-year deal that lets Sora and ChatGPT Image users summon more than 200 Disney, Marvel, and Star Wars characters into AI-generated photos and videos starting next year. At the same time, Disney will weave OpenAI’s tech into Disney+, internal tools, and employee workflows. And because nothing says commitment like cash, Disney is backing the partnership with a cool 1 billion dollars. Shares ticked up on the announcement.
Friends In, Frenemies Out
But don’t mistake friendliness for forgiveness. While Disney is rolling out the red carpet for Sam Altman, it’s sending Google packing. Late Wednesday, Disney fired off a cease-and-desist accusing Google of training its models on Disney-owned content and distributing it without authorization. It’s the latest in a growing stack of AI copyright battles for Disney, following earlier clashes with Midjourney, MiniMax, and Character.AI.
The Bigger Gamble
The bigger picture: Hollywood is deciding whether to fight AI or feature it. Disney seems to be choosing door number two. By licensing its worlds instead of just defending them, it can turn an existential threat into a fresh revenue stream, though the gamble is clear. Leaning into AI could accelerate the very disruption the studios fear.
For OpenAI, the upside is obvious: instant cultural legitimacy and a direct pipeline into one of the world’s most valuable IP libraries. And Altman isn’t wasting the moment. He used today’s spotlight to roll out ChatGPT 5.2, the company’s newest model, as it tries to keep pace with Google’s fast-improving Gemini 3.
Best-case scenario, this partnership becomes AI’s feel-good crossover episode. Worst case…well, Disney knows a thing or two about memorable villains.
NEWS
Market Movements
💺 Air Taxi Startups Pump PR Faster Than Flight Hours: A new SMG Consulting analysis shows America’s leading eVTOL companies are putting out far more press releases than they are logging flight time. Beta leads with 63.5 hours flown per release, while Archer averages one announcement for every 18 minutes in the air. The takeaway is simple: in a capital-hungry industry, perception is flying just as hard as the aircraft.
✈️ American Airlines Now Selling Instant Gold Status: American is offering travelers a shortcut into AAdvantage by letting anyone pay 5,000 dollars for instant Gold status instead of earning 40,000 loyalty points. The buy-in unlocks priority perks, upgrades, and bonus miles as American leans harder into the profitability of its loyalty ecosystem. The strategy reflects how status itself has become a high-margin product.
📉 Robinhood Slides On Weak November Trading Activity: Robinhood reported sharp declines across equities, options, and crypto volumes in November as user activity cooled, sending shares lower. Prediction markets were the lone bright spot with 3 billion contracts traded, up 20 percent month over month. Cantor Fitzgerald trimmed its price target but said most of the slowdown was expected.
🚗 Rivian Falls As Investors Sour On Autonomy Push: Rivian slid during its Autonomy and AI Day as the broader tech sell-off and a Morgan Stanley downgrade weighed on sentiment. With EV demand softening, Rivian is trying to reposition itself around autonomy and AI, but Wall Street remains unconvinced. Lucid also dipped after receiving its own downgrade.
🌩️ Google Hit With Bad News On All Fronts: Google dropped nearly 2 percent as a string of negative headlines piled up, including Sam Altman downplaying Gemini 3’s impact and Disney sending a cease and desist letter. A Waymo recall affecting more than 3,000 vehicles added to the pressure, along with the broader AI pullback sparked by Oracle’s earnings. Today’s sell-off puts more scrutiny on the company’s AI momentum.
🏥 Health Insurers Climb After Senate Rejects ACA Proposals: Insurer stocks moved higher after lawmakers shot down competing healthcare plans just weeks before expanded ACA tax credits expire. The vote removed the risk of shifting support toward HSAs, boosting major Marketplace players. Premium pressures remain a challenge heading into 2026.
🤖 OpenAI Launches GPT 5.2 As Next-Gen Pro Work Model: OpenAI rolled out GPT 5.2, calling it its strongest professional-grade model and highlighting gains in reasoning, long-context tasks, and visual understanding. The release follows Google’s debut of Gemini 3 and includes new variants like GPT 5.2 Instant and GPT 5.2 Thinking. Paid ChatGPT users get access immediately, with API pricing now live.
🍽️ DoorDash And Uber Sue NYC Over New Tipping Rule: DoorDash and Uber Eats are taking New York City to court over a law requiring customers to tip at checkout instead of after delivery. The companies argue the rule acts like a tax and pushes consumers into higher upfront fees. The clash follows earlier lawsuits over the city’s minimum wage rules for delivery workers.
💾 Broadcom Beats Earnings But Stock Sinks On Slower AI Momentum: Broadcom posted strong quarterly results and doubled its AI revenue outlook, but shares reversed during the call as management disclosed slower growth in new major customer wins. Anthropic was identified as the 10 billion dollar mystery client with another 11 billion dollar order. Investors still viewed the updates as softer than expected.
AI
Oracle Sparks AI Selloff as Bubble Fears Return
TIME may have named the “architects of AI” as its Person of the Year, but Oracle made sure no one was in a celebratory mood. The stock plunged $ORCL ( ▲ 7.58% ) after a revenue miss, a capex explosion, and a reminder that AI spending is starting to look like a runaway tab. Oracle is now down about 40 percent from its September high.
Revenue grew 14 percent to 16.06 billion dollars, but still fell short of forecasts, and its earnings beat came mostly from selling its chip unit Ampere to SoftBank. The real shock was the spending. Oracle shelled out 12 billion dollars in capex this quarter, raised full-year guidance to 50 billion dollars, and is leaning on one of the largest tech bond sales ever after borrowing 18 billion dollars to keep the buildout going.
That spending spree hit the entire AI ecosystem. Nvidia $NVDA ( ▲ 3.74% ) slipped, Broadcom fell $AVGO ( ▲ 1.98% ) , AMD $AMD ( ▲ 6.87% ) barely budged, and neocloud names like CoreWeave $CRWV ( ▲ 22.99% ) , Nebius $NBIS ( ▲ 13.95% ) , IREN $IREN ( ▲ 10.06% ) , and Cipher $CIFR ( ▲ 7.76% ) drifted lower. GE Vernova $GEV ( ▲ 3.07% ), Vertiv $VRT ( ▲ 4.57% ) , Super Micro $SMCI ( ▲ 5.14% ) , Dell $DELL ( ▲ 3.05% ) , and HPE $HPE ( ▲ 3.21% ) also took a hit as investors questioned just how long hyperscale demand can stay white-hot. Most of these names recovered somewhat as the day went on, but the early shock was enough to rattle the entire AI complex.
Zoom out, and the irony is hard to miss. Oracle was Wall Street’s AI darling earlier this year after its backlog surged 359 percent on deals with OpenAI, Meta, Nvidia, and xAI. Now those same contracts are fueling anxiety, especially since Oracle’s backlog leans heavily on OpenAI at a moment when Google’s Gemini is stealing momentum.
Meanwhile, TIME rolled out an AI-themed cover recreating “Lunch Atop a Skyscraper,” swapping steelworkers for Jensen Huang, Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Lisa Su, and Mark Zuckerberg. It’s a nod to the year AI went mainstream, even as bubble warnings grow louder.
Whether this is a speed bump or the first crack in the AI trade is still unclear. But today made one thing obvious. If Oracle sneezes, the entire AI sector grabs a tissue.
CALENDAR
On The Horizon
Tomorrow
It’s one of those sleepy market days. No big data drops, no headline earnings, and everyone’s already halfway into holiday mode.
But don’t let the calm fool you. The real action comes tomorrow when a trio of Fed voices steps up to the mic, and their tone could say a lot about where a fractured central bank stands right now.
Philadelphia’s Anna Paulson, Cleveland’s Beth Hammack, and Chicago’s Austan Goolsbee are all scheduled to speak, and together they should give us a clearer read on just how split the Fed really is heading into 2026.
RESOURCES
The Federal Reserve Resource
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