Good afternoon! Apple is reportedly cooking up its own AI gadget to prove people actually want AI hardware, not just AI apps. The Information says Apple is exploring an AI pin you’d clip to your clothes, packed with cameras and microphones to “see” your surroundings, roughly AirTag-sized, and still early-stage, with a possible launch as soon as 2027.
Meanwhile, OpenAI is trying to beat Apple to the punch, with an exec saying the company is on track to reveal its first AI hardware look in the second half of this year. The device is still a prototype and could land by the end of 2027, and the big twist is OpenAI is building it with former Apple design chief Jony Ive, while Bloomberg says dozens of Apple engineers have recently jumped ship to OpenAI, spiking Apple’s concern that this could turn into a real platform threat.
MARKETS
The S&P 500 ended a wild week slightly higher, and finally beat the Russell 2000 for the first time this year. Still, the index fell over the last five days, locking in its first back-to-back weekly losses since June 2025.
Commodities stole the show with gold and silver leading the charge, while platinum hit a fresh record high and copper, tin, and nickel all surged. Meanwhile the “Sell America” trade dragged the dollar to its worst week since May, and bitcoin briefly popped above $90,000 before getting shoved back down.
STOCKS
Winners & Losers
What’s up 📈
Life360 surged 24.25% after adding 4.2M users in Q4, sparking a growth-stock style breakout $LIF
Booz Allen Hamilton climbed 6.76% after strong guidance outweighed a 10% YoY drop in quarterly sales $BAH
Nvidia rose 1.54% after Chinese officials told major domestic tech firms they could start preparing orders for H200 AI chips again $NVDAFortinet jumped 5.14% after TD Cowen upgraded the stock, saying fears around rising memory prices look overdone $FTNT
Clorox gained 1.13% after announcing a $2.25B deal to acquire GOJO Industries (Purell maker) $CLX
What’s down 📉
Intel cratered 17% after issuing weak guidance and warning of a supply shortage, killing the “turnaround hype” $INTC
Capital One slid 7.56% after agreeing to buy fintech Brex for $5.15B, which investors treated as an expensive swing $COF
BitGo sank 22.38% after yesterday’s strong debut, as traders immediately went profit-taking mode $BTGO
Disney fell 2% amid leadership uncertainty, with the company signaling a new CEO will be appointed in early 2026 $DIS
Bausch Health dropped 9.91% after disappointing Phase 3 trial results for its hepatic encephalopathy treatment $BHC
Moderna fell 5.93% after signaling a pullback from late-stage infectious disease vaccine trials $MRNA
EARNINGS
Intel Stock Falls After Weak Q1 Guidance Overshadows Solid Q4 Earnings
Intel $INTC just hit a wall.
After a red hot start to 2026, the stock sold off hard because the company’s Q1 outlook came in well below what Wall Street expected, even though Q4 results were actually strong.
The quarter was good
Intel posted a clean beat across the board. Revenue came in at $13.7B vs $13.44B expected, and adjusted EPS landed at $0.15 vs $0.08 expected.
So this was not a “bad quarter” story. The business held up, and Intel delivered better than consensus.
Guidance is what broke the stock
Intel guided Q1 revenue to $11.7B to $12.7B, with a midpoint of $12.2B. Wall Street was looking for around $12.57B.
Even worse, Intel expects adjusted EPS to be basically break even in Q1, while analysts expected about $0.08. That gap is what triggered the sell first reaction.
The key context: Intel was priced for perfection
Coming into earnings, Intel was one of the hottest names in the market, up close to 50% year to date, with retail and options flow piling in. When guidance disappointed, the unwind was brutal.
Bottom line: Intel’s Q4 helped the bull case, but Q1 guidance reminded everyone that the turnaround is still going to be bumpy.
NEWS
Market Movements
✈️ Alaska Airlines Dips After Cautious 2026 Earnings Guidance: Alaska Airlines $ALK beat Q4 EPS estimates, but shares slipped after the company guided 2026 EPS below the Street’s forecast and gave a wide Q1 loss range. Management basically said the upside depends on the economy staying strong and fuel prices stabilizing, which wasn’t confident enough for investors.
😨 AI Is Freaking Out the Software Market and Now Venture Capital Is Feeling It Too: Public SaaS names like Salesforce $CRM, Adobe $ADBE, and Atlassian $TEAM are getting repriced as AI-agent tools make software cheaper and faster to rebuild, pressuring traditional moats. The bigger issue is the ripple effect into private markets, where VC-funded SaaS valuations were built on high exit multiples that now look unrealistic with public comps closer to ~4x–5x sales.
📱 TikTok Deal Closes to Operate in the US Under Majority American-Owned Joint Venture: TikTok confirmed its US business will be run under a new entity led by Silver Lake, Oracle $ORCL, and MGX, each owning 15%, while ByteDance keeps 19.9%. The structure includes a majority-American board and is framed as securing US user data, the app, and the algorithm after a fight going back to 2020.
🍗 KFC Ranked Worst Out of 76 Restaurant Chains as Rivals Steal Market Share: Barclays data shows KFC’s US quick-service chicken market share fell from 15% in 2019 to 9.4% in 2024, the biggest share loss of any chain tracked. Competitors like Wingstop $WING have surged, with Wingstop nearly catching KFC after rising from 4.8% to 8.4% share.
🇨🇳 Nvidia Gains as China May Be Reopening the Door for H200 Imports: Nvidia $NVDA rose after Bloomberg reported Chinese officials told companies like Alibaba $BABA, Tencent $TCEHY, and ByteDance they can move forward with preparations to import H200 chips. The story has been whiplash because policy is balancing two opposing goals: strengthening AI fast with the best chips, while also protecting domestic semiconductor development.
🌴 There Are Now Over 1 Million “.ai” Websites and It’s Printing Money for Anguilla: .ai domains surpassed 1 million registrations as of January 2, 2026, turning Anguilla into a stealth winner of the global AI boom. With renewal-heavy pricing plus expensive expired-domain auctions, estimates suggest the island generated $70M+ last year from .ai registrations.
🏢 Amazon Plans Thousands More Corporate Layoffs as It Targets 30,000 Cuts: Amazon $AMZN is reportedly preparing another big round of office layoffs next week after already cutting 14,000 roles in October, per Reuters. Business Insider says the broader target is 30,000 corporate cuts total, framed as streamlining and culture reset rather than AI-driven cost cutting.
🎮 Nintendo Stock Rises as Switch 2 Momentum Builds: Nintendo $NTDOY popped after Circana data suggested Switch 2 sales rebounded in December and are pacing 35% ahead of Sony’s PS4 seven months post-launch. Analysts are turning more optimistic, with Wolfe upgrading the stock and keeping its forecast of ~20.5M Switch 2 units for the fiscal year ending in March.
✈️ ETHZilla Buys Two Jet Engines for $12.2M in Real-World Asset Tokenization Push: ETHZilla $ETHZ formed a subsidiary and bought two CFM56 aircraft engines tied to airline leases, positioning them as yield-producing assets. The company says this is part of a 2026 strategy to tokenize real-world assets like aerospace and heavy equipment and roll out RWA tokens in Q1.
🎧 Spotify Climbs After Goldman Upgrade Ahead of Another US Price Hike: Spotify $SPOT rose after Goldman upgraded it to Buy, arguing investor negativity around AI is overdone and Spotify can benefit from generative AI adoption. The call comes right before Spotify’s third US subscription price hike since 2023, while investors watch how AI music impacts royalties and platform economics.
📈 AMD Jumps as Intel Supply Constraints Create CPU Market Share Opportunity: AMD $AMD climbed as Intel $INTC warned supply constraints are limiting its ability to meet demand, which directly opens the door for AMD to keep taking CPU share. JPMorgan highlighted server CPUs as the key battleground, and AMD’s rally extended toward its longest win streak since 2005.
WEATHER
Natural Gas Prices Surge 63% as Winter Storm Fern Triggers Arctic Blast Fears
Winter Storm Fern is about to turn the US into a freezer, and energy markets are already acting like it’s 2021 all over again.
Natural gas futures just ripped 63% in three days to around $5.04 per MMBtu, marking a record-short-term spike as forecasts call for the coldest stretch in decades across major population centers.
This isn’t just about people turning up the heat. Traders were positioned the wrong way (massive short exposure), and they’re now getting forced to cover, which is basically rocket fuel for prices. Winter isn’t even at peak intensity yet, and the market’s already panicking.
Why the storm matters for markets
When temperatures crash, demand for heating and power shoots higher fast. But the bigger market fear is supply disruption, especially in places like Texas and the southern US, where systems aren’t built for deep freezes. That’s where “freeze-offs” come in: water vapor in wells and pipelines turns into ice, blocking natural gas output exactly when demand is maxed out.
That’s why this storm has traders flashing back to the 2021 Texas grid disaster. Even if this event is shorter and less severe than Uri, it’s still a major stress test for US energy infrastructure during a period when utility costs are already squeezing households.
Who gets hurt (and who wins)
The immediate financial hit won’t fully show up in household bills right away, since utilities usually buy fuel ahead of time and keep reserves. But it will eventually flow through the system, and it matters because a huge chunk of Americans are already struggling with energy costs.
On the corporate side, storms always reshuffle winners and losers. Airlines and shippers take it on the chin due to cancellations and delays, while grocers get a demand spike as everyone panic-buys like the snow is personally coming for them.
Bottom line: Fern is turning natural gas into a headline asset again, and this price spike is the market basically admitting it doesn’t fully trust supply stability during extreme weather.
CALENDAR
On The Horizon
Tomorrow
This week was pure chaos. Markets opened the week rattled after Trump floated more tariff threats tied to countries resisting the Greenland acquisition narrative, then snapped back hard once he eased off the messaging. It was the kind of five day stretch that felt like a full month of headline whiplash.
Next week probably will not be any calmer. The Fed is set to announce its next rate decision (most expect no change), and the first wave of Mag 7 earnings hits at the same time. That mix usually leads to big moves, fast reversals, and nonstop volatility.
Monday: Chicago Fed national activity index data for October and November, plus the delayed November durable goods report. Earnings: Ryanair, Nucor, Steel Dynamics.
Tuesday: January Conference Board consumer confidence, plus the November FHFA house price index. Earnings: LVMH, UnitedHealth, RTX, Boeing, Texas Instruments, NextEra Energy, Union Pacific, HCA Healthcare, Northrop Grumman, American Airlines, JetBlue, UPS, General Motors, Seagate, Logitech, Kimberly Clark.
Wednesday: Fed rate decision, then Jerome Powell’s press conference later in the day. Earnings: Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Tesla, ASML, Lam Research, IBM, Amphenol, Southwest Airlines, Waste Management, GE Vernova, AT&T, ServiceNow, Starbucks, Advantest, General Dynamics, Corning, Levi Strauss, MSCI.
Thursday: November trade balance, factory orders, wholesale trade sales, and weekly jobless claims. Earnings: Apple, Visa, Samsung Electronics, Mastercard, SK hynix, Roche, Royal Caribbean, Caterpillar, SAP, Thermo Fisher, KLA, Blackstone, Honeywell, ABB, Stryker, Lockheed Martin, Parker Hannifin, Sanofi, Comcast, Altria, ING, Sandisk, L3Harris, Norfolk Southern, Nokia.
Friday: The delayed December PPI report, plus a speech from Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman. Earnings: Exxon Mobil, Chevron, American Express, Verizon, Charter Communications, SoFi, Regeneron, Colgate Palmolive.
RESOURCES
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