Good afternoon! Jamie Dimon basically went full fire alarm in Davos over Trump’s proposed 10% cap on credit card fees, calling it an “economic disaster.” Even though he said JPMorgan $JPM would be fine, he warned the rule would force a drastic pullback in credit card lending across the industry.
Dimon’s argument is that if banks retreat, a huge chunk of Americans could lose access to credit, and the ripple would hit businesses and local governments that rely on card spending and payments. He also threw in a test-drive idea: try it first in Massachusetts and Vermont, where senators backing the cap could see the real-world fallout up close.
MARKETS
Stocks kept crawling back from the Greenland headline shock, with Big Tech leading the charge and every Magnificent 7 name finishing green. Even with the rebound, the S&P 500 still hasn’t fully erased the damage from Trump’s European tariff threats, but the “sell first, ask questions later” mood is fading fast.
The real flex continues to be small caps: the Russell 2000 beat the S&P 500 for the 14th straight session and logged another record close as investors rotate into the underdogs. Gold stayed in full safe-haven mode above $4,900, while natural gas went absolutely vertical, up nearly 70% in five days as the US braces for a massive winter storm.
STOCKS
Winners & Losers
What’s up 📈
Plug Power $PLUG jumped 16.67% after its CEO announced a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” Q&A.
Meta Platforms $META rallied 5.66% after Jefferies called it a valuation bargain vs Alphabet.
Alibaba $BABA rose 5.06% after saying it’ll spin out its AI chip unit as a standalone business, teeing up a possible IPO.
Moderna $MRNA gained 4.14% on optimism around strong cancer vaccine trial results.
Venture Global popped 5.3% after winning an LNG shipment dispute with Repsol tied to its Louisiana export plant.
Karman Holdings climbed 6.4% after boosting fiscal 2026 revenue guidance and expanding into autonomous maritime tech.
Datadog $DDOG moved up 6.31% after Stifel upgraded it to Buy on stronger Q4 expectations.
Paramount Skydance $PSKY added 1.55% after extending the tender-offer deadline for Warner Bros. Discovery $WBD.
What’s down 📉
Abbott Laboratories $ABT sank 10.04% after a Q4 revenue miss, led by continued weakness in Nutrition.
GE Aerospace $GE dropped 7.38% even with a beat, as investors focused on its lukewarm 2026 growth outlook.
McCormick $MKC slid 8.05% after warning input costs and tariffs could squeeze profits this year.
Mobileye $MBLY fell 3.4% after issuing soft full-year 2026 revenue guidance.
DEAL
Oracle Rises on Report TikTok U.S. Deal Could Close This Week
Oracle $ORCL is catching a premarket bid after a Semafor report said China and the U.S. have finally signed off on the long-awaited sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations, with the transaction now expected to close as soon as this week.
That matters because Oracle isn’t just “in the room” for this deal. It’s reportedly one of the three lead investors in the consortium expected to take control, alongside private equity firm Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-backed tech investment firm MGX. So when the TikTok deal moves from rumor to reality, Oracle stock tends to move with it.
Why Oracle Is Attached to TikTok’s Future
This isn’t Oracle randomly buying a social app because Larry Ellison wanted more screen time.
Oracle already has a deep relationship with TikTok through its cloud and data hosting partnership, which has been central to the entire national security fight over the platform. If the deal closes, Oracle is positioned to become even more embedded in TikTok’s U.S. infrastructure, meaning:
more cloud workload (aka real dollars)
more stickiness with one of the biggest ad platforms in the world
and a larger strategic role inside an app Washington has spent years trying to “Americanize”
In other words: it’s not just an investment. It’s a distribution + data + cloud pipeline.
A Cheap Price for a Lot of Eyeballs
If prior reports are accurate, the deal values TikTok’s U.S. operations at around $14 billion, which is… honestly kind of wild when you think about what you’re getting:
a massive user base
an unmatched algorithm
and a core seat at the ad table
Translation: low price tag, high attention asset.
Bottom line: Oracle is climbing because the TikTok U.S. deal suddenly looks real, and if it closes this week, Oracle could walk away with both an ownership stake and an even bigger footprint in the most politically protected social platform in America.
NEWS
Market Movements
✍️ OpenAI Reveals How ChatGPT Ads Will Be Priced Ahead of February Rollout: OpenAI is pitching advertisers on a view-based model, meaning brands pay for impressions inside ChatGPT rather than clicks. Ads are expected to start in February for free users and ChatGPT Go users, while paid tiers stay ad-free.
📉 AppLovin Tumbles After CapitalWatch Report as Company Calls Allegations “False and Nonsensical”: AppLovin $APP slid after a report accused it of facilitating money laundering, and the company responded with an aggressive denial calling the claims “false, misleading, and nonsensical.” AppLovin’s defense is that the theory doesn’t even make economic sense because ad spend gets split across the ecosystem, making laundering both costly and highly traceable.
📈 GameStop Jumps After CEO Ryan Cohen Buys Another 500,000 Shares: GameStop $GME popped after a filing showed Cohen bought another 500,000 shares for about $10.8M, bringing his two-day total to 1M shares. He also said in the filing that any CEO who doesn’t buy shares with personal funds “should be fired,” doubling down on alignment with shareholders.
🚀 Alibaba Jumps on Report of Potential IPO for Its AI Chip Unit T-Head: Alibaba $BABA rallied after Bloomberg reported it’s preparing to restructure its chip division T-Head and explore an IPO, though timing is still unclear. The move comes as investor appetite for AI chip listings has heated up, and Alibaba has committed more than $53B to cloud and AI infrastructure.
🥇 Goldman Hikes Year-End 2026 Gold Forecast to $5,400 as Central Banks and Private Buyers Compete: Goldman raised its December 2026 gold target to $5,400 per ounce from $4,900, citing persistent demand from central banks and “sticky” private hedging. The bank says the buyer base has broadened beyond ETFs into high-net-worth physical buying and call option flows that are harder to track but increasingly meaningful.
📱 Apple Plans to Turn Siri Into a ChatGPT-Style Chatbot Built Into iOS: Apple $AAPL is reportedly working on making Siri a full chatbot integrated across the operating system rather than a standalone app. Bloomberg says the upgrades would be powered by Google $GOOGL models, with smaller Siri improvements coming first and a more advanced chatbot version expected later this year.
📉 Abbott Slumps After Sales Miss and Weak Q1 Guidance: Abbott $ABT dropped after reporting Q4 sales of $11.5B vs $11.8B expected and guiding Q1 adjusted EPS to $1.12–$1.18 vs $1.20 expected. The sales miss was driven by weaker medical device revenue, even as Q4 EPS met expectations and full-year guidance stayed roughly in line.
🚕 Waymo Expands to Miami With Autonomous Ride-Hailing: Google $GOOGL subsidiary Waymo launched self-driving rides in Miami across a 60-square-mile area including Wynwood, Brickell, and Coral Gables. Waymo said Miami International Airport access is planned “soon,” which is a key milestone for ride economics.
🤖 Tesla Jumps After Musk Says Optimus Sales Could Start Next Year and FSD Approval Could Come Next Month: Tesla $TSLA moved higher after Musk said Optimus could be ready for public sales by the end of next year if reliability and safety hit high confidence levels. He also said Tesla hopes to get supervised FSD approval in Europe next month and possibly China around a similar timeframe.
🧠 Survey Finds CEOs Think AI Is Boosting Productivity, While Workers Feel Overwhelmed: A Section survey cited by The Wall Street Journal found over 70% of executives are excited about AI and 19% say it saves them more than 12 hours per week. Nearly 70% of nonmanagement workers said AI makes them anxious or overwhelmed, and 40% said it saves them no time.
🎬 Paramount Extends Warner Bros. Tender Deadline Without Raising Its Offer: Paramount Skydance $PSKY extended its hostile bid deadline for Warner Bros. Discovery $WBD shareholders to February 20, but still hasn’t improved its $30 per share offer. Warner Bros. said “more than 93%” of shareholders have rejected the bid, while Netflix $NFLX has reportedly tightened its competing structure by shifting to an all-cash offer.
✈️ GE Aerospace Beats Q4 Estimates and Guides 2026 EPS Above Consensus: GE Aerospace $GE reported Q4 adjusted revenue of $11.87B vs $11.19B expected and adjusted EPS of $1.57 vs $1.43 expected. It also guided 2026 adjusted EPS to $7.10–$7.40 vs $7.14 expected, adding to momentum after an ~85% stock gain in 2025.
📉 POET Technologies Drops After Announcing $150M Registered Direct Offering: POET Technologies $POET fell after announcing a $150M raise through selling about 20.7M shares, sparking dilution fears after a strong YTD rally. Management said the cash will fund acquisitions, talent expansion, vertical integration, and broader operating scale.
📊 Investors Rotated a Massive $133B From Cash Into Stocks, Goldman Says: Goldman said global equity funds saw a sharp surge in inflows, led by $71B into US and emerging market equity funds versus $2B the prior week. Money market fund assets fell by $62B, which Goldman called the third-largest drop in its dataset, signaling cash is getting redeployed fast.
📈 Arista Networks Rips Higher as Call Buying Surges: Arista Networks $ANET jumped as call option activity ran nearly 2x its 10-day average, pointing to a flow-driven move rather than a single headline. Goldman recently highlighted Arista as a top tactical earnings-season trade and noted Microsoft $MSFT represented about 20% of Arista revenue in 2024.
₿ GameStop Moves Over Half Its Bitcoin to Coinbase Prime, Sparking “Are They About to Sell?” Rumors: GameStop $GME transferred 100 bitcoin on January 17 and another 2,296 bitcoin on January 20, moving about 51% of its stack to Coinbase Prime. Analysts said institutions typically move funds to Prime when they may be preparing to trade or sell, but on-chain data can’t confirm intent until a sale actually happens.
STOCK
Tesla Pops After Musk Teases Optimus Sales and Global FSD Green Lights
Tesla $TSLA jumped after Elon Musk tossed two fresh catalysts into the market’s favorite Tesla cocktail: robots + autonomy. In a set of comments that read like pure bull-case fuel, Musk said Tesla’s Optimus humanoid robot could be ready for public sales “by the end of next year,” and hinted that supervised Full Self-Driving could get regulatory approvals in Europe and China as soon as next month.
This is the stuff that makes investors stop arguing about car margins and start daydreaming about trillion-dollar optionality again.
Robots: Always One Year Away
Musk’s Optimus timeline has definitely slipped (because… of course it has). In 2024, he suggested Optimus could be on sale in 2025. Now the roadmap looks more like: factory tasks first, harder industrial work later this year, public sales late next year, and broader consumer availability creeping toward 2027.
But here’s the key: the timeline may move, but the pitch keeps getting bigger. Musk reiterated the long-term vision of “billions” of AI robots eventually saturating human labor needs, which is basically Tesla’s version of saying, “this isn’t a product… it’s a civilization upgrade.”
FSD: The Global Expansion Plot Twist
The other headline was autonomy. Musk said Tesla is hoping to get supervised FSD approved in Europe next month, with China on a similar timeline. That matters because Europe has quietly been a pain point for Tesla demand, and Musk is essentially arguing that regulatory delays, not product weakness are holding back momentum in the region.
And if Tesla starts stacking FSD approvals outside the U.S., investors will treat it less like a feature rollout and more like a global software unlock.
Robotaxis: A Milestone That Reprices The Story
Then came the real attention-grabber: Musk also said Tesla robotaxis in Austin are now operating without a safety monitor inside the vehicle. The market loved it, because removing safety drivers is one of those tiny operational details that actually acts like a giant valuation domino.
Wall Street’s logic is simple: if Tesla can scale unsupervised autonomy, it stops being “a car company with a tech story” and starts becoming “an autonomous network with a car manufacturing arm.”
Bottom line: Tesla stock moved because the narrative moved. Musk didn’t sell a quarterly update, he sold the next chapter of the Tesla bull case: Optimus as the next product wave, FSD as a global unlock, and robotaxis as the bridge to the endgame.
CALENDAR
On The Horizon
Tomorrow
We’ll get the final January read on consumer sentiment, plus the S&P flash PMIs for US services + manufacturing (aka a quick pulse check on whether the economy is still cruising or starting to cough).
Earnings watch: SLB $SLB, Hyundai Motor, and Booz Allen Hamilton $BAH are up to bat.
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