1. U.S. ETFs Attracted $1.4 Trillion in 2025…..1000 New Products Entered the Market
ETF stats. “US-listed ETFs have attracted a staggering $1.4 trillion in 2025, shattering the annual flow record set just last year. At the same time, more than 1,000 new products have entered the market — another unprecedented sum. Trading volume in the ETF market also hit a new yearly high. The last time all three measures hit a record in a single year was in 2021.”
Katie Greifeld – Bloomberg
2. Interval Funds Doubled the Number of Launches
Reuters
3. VIX Volatility Index Broke to New Lows this Week
StockCharts
4. Tech Companies Moved $120B of Data Center Spending Off their Balance Sheets
FT-Tech companies have moved more than $120bn of data centre spending off their balance sheets using special purpose vehicles funded by Wall Street investors, adding to concerns about the financial risks of their huge bet on artificial intelligence. Meta, Elon Musk’s xAI, Oracle and data centre operator CoreWeave have led the way on complex financing deals to shield their companies from the large borrowing needed to build AI data centres.
Financial Times
5. Bitcoin Mining ETF WGMI +71% 2025
Bitcoin Miners Thrive Off a New Side Hustle: Retooling Their Data Centers for AI
The pivot to AI has lifted a bitcoin-mining ETF by around 90% this year, even as bitcoin itself has slumped.
1. S&P 500 Eyes Longest Monthly Win Streak Since 2018
Bloomberg
2. KWEB China Internet Stocks Failed at 2021 Highs
StockCharts
3. RIVN Stock Self-Driving Bump…Broke Out of Sideways Pattern
StockCharts
4. RIVN Making Run at 2023 Highs
StockCharts
5. Crude Oil Falls to Lowest Level Since 2021
Sentimen Trader
6. Midterm Election History
Carson
7. Binance-Resident of Venezuelan Slum Moves $93m thru his Account
Financial Times-Binance failed to stop hundreds of millions of dollars of cryptocurrency from flowing through suspicious accounts, even after promising to improve its conduct in a landmark $4.3bn US criminal settlement in 2023. A Financial Times investigation of leaked internal files detailing thousands of transactions shows such accounts continued trading despite red flags including links to terror financing networks, improbable log-in patterns and failed identity checks. One user of the world’s largest crypto exchange was the resident of a Venezuelan slum who moved $93mn through his account between 2021 and this year. Some of those funds came from a network later accused by the US of covertly moving money for Iran and Lebanon’s Hizbollah militant group. Many of the accounts reviewed by the FT continued to trade after Binance’s plea agreement with the US despite behaviour that experts say would normally prompt freezes or investigations at a regulated financial institution.
Where do you show up, what do you publish? Who do you ask, and what do you answer to? What gets better because you persist?
Are there systems you support or work to change?
What do you do when you don’t feel like it? Especially then.
The ocean is made of drops. And our practice turns those drops into something of significance.
It’s a practice if we show up even if it’s not working (yet). And it’s a practice if we understand how to make it better.
Our actions become our habits, and our habits attract others. That becomes our community, and our community builds systems. Those systems feel awkward until they become normal, and then, once normal, they become the status quo.
Bolts of lightning rarely change the world, but erosion does. Streams turn into rivers, and rivers persist.
Earnings contribution. And finally, the Tech sector’s contribution to S&P 500 operating earnings is expected to rise above 30% by Q4’26.
S&P Global
2. S&P Sector Performance Since October 8th
Bespoke Investment Group While the S&P 500 hasn’t really gone anywhere, sector performance has been disparate. Communication Services and Health Care are both up over 6%, and another three sectors have outperformed the S&P 500 gain of 0.3%. At the other end of the spectrum, Utilities is down over 5%, but right behind it, Technology has declined 3%. The fact that Technology, which makes up over a third of the S&P 500, has declined over 3%, and the market has treaded water, indicates a broadening of performance. It also illustrates how hard it is for the market to make headway without Technology participating.
Bespoke Premium
3. U.S. Mid Cap Stocks vs. S&P 500 Record Cheap…Below 1998 Record Lows.
After years of false starts, TikTok announced a deal to sell its U.S. assets to a group of mostly American investors under a new venture. The move isn’t yet finalized, but it means the app would continue to function within the country.
CEO Shou Chew sent a memo to employees on December 18, according to CNN.
“We have signed agreements with investors regarding a new TikTok U.S. joint venture, enabling over 170 million Americans to continue discovering a world of endless possibilities as part of a vital global community,” said Chew.
Going forward, nearly half of the new entity, TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, will be controlled by investors including Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX. Current ByteDance investor affiliates will own around 30 percent, and ByteDance itself will control just under 20 percent.
Featured Video
The Smartland Initiative – MEDC – Webinar
The venture will be held accountable for “retraining the content recommendation algorithm on U.S. user data to ensure the content feed is free from outside manipulation,” as reported by Axios.
U.S. Government Orders
Trump has long been demanding that ByteDance sell its U.S. entity, with his first related executive order issued in 2020. In 2024 a law passed banning the app unless it was sold, but Trump continued to extend enforcement to give time for sale negotiations.
He said in September that the administration and China had agreed to hand over control of the app to mostly American investors.
When the deal is finalized, it “will operate as an independent entity with authority over U.S. data protection, algorithm security, content moderation and software assurance, while TikTok global’s U.S. entities will manage global product interoperability and certain commercial activities, including e-commerce, advertising, and marketing,” the memo said.
RTO Mandate
Another announcement from TikTok came yesterday, when the company told U.S. employees they’d be returning to in-person work five days a week by the end of next year, staffers told Business Insider. The rule will span several large sectors, and one employee predicts much of the company’s U.S. staff will be included in the regulation.
But that could change if TikTok finalizes the sale of its U.S. cohort. The deal is currently set to close by January 22, with approval from the Chinese government.
1. Bitcoin Recently Trading at .80 Correlation to Goldman Non-Profit Tech Stock Index
Sherwood
2. Yesterday QQQ +1.31% vs. IBIT (Bitcoin) -0.47%…Bitcoin was up 4% at One Point Before Crashing to Negative on Day
Ycharts
3. North Korean Hackers Steal $2B Crypto 2025
Yahoo Finance North Korean hackers had their biggest year yet for stealing cryptocurrencies in 2025. David Hollerith
Cyber attackers sponsored by the rogue regime have swiped over $2.02 billion in crypto since January, according to the latest findings from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis.
Through early December, the Chainalysis report shows thieves supported by North Korea have stolen over 50% more in crypto this year than in 2024, bringing their total identified haul from crypto theft since 2016 to $6.75 billion.
The findings are just the latest example of how the heavily sanctioned nation has exploited security vulnerabilities in the crypto world to create a significant revenue source. As far back as 2019, national security officials for the US and UN have stated that funds stolen from these affiliated hacker groups support North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missiles programs.
“The reality is that cryptocurrency, because of its global 24/7 access, creates a unique value proposition for the regime to target,” Chainalysis head of national security intelligence Andrew Fierman said.
The crypto industry saw $3.4 billion in theft in 2025 through early December, according to Chainalysis. The bulk came from a single breach in late February, when Dubai-based exchange Bybit suffered a $1.5 billion theft at the hands of North Korea-affiliated hackers. In terms of stolen funds, it was the industry’s largest ever.
Crypto heists have become “the easiest way for DPRK cyber actors to fund their regime,” said Eun Young Choi, an attorney at Arnold & Porter and a former federal prosecutor with experience investigating cyberattacks.
5. Cash levels are at a record lows for Professional Managers
Businessinsider
BofA Global Fund Manager Survey
6. However American Households Hold Record Cash
Household cash. “Households continue to hold near-record cash balances (98th percentile historically), leaving substantial dry powder should confidence and risk appetite continue to improve. We see this ‘buy-the-dip’ behavior, every day in our data at Citadel Securities.”
Scott Rubner – Citadel
7. Current Passive AUM = $24 Trillion….Flows 2025
Zerohedge
8. Lennar Home Builder Average Price Sold Post Covid.
Wolfstreet
9. Lennar Stock Back to 2023 Levels.
Stockcharts
10. Zillow’s Top 20 Most Popular Housing Markets (2025)
The following cities comprise the top of Zillow’s annual “Most Popular” list, which focuses on where shoppers are most active:
1. Divergence in AI Related Stocks….Google Exposed vs. Open AI Exposed
Michael Batnick
2. Bitcoin Whales Back to Buying…Most Purchases in 13 Years
BTC whales. Over the last 30 days, Bitcoin whales have accumulated 269,822 BTC worth $23.3bn, the most in 13 years.
Daily Chartbook
3. LULU Stock 5-Year Negative Return Before Elliot Investment Today
Google Finance
4. MSOS Largest Weed ETF…+65% YTD….Still -80% Since Initial Legalization
Google Finance
5. MSOS Not Even Back to 2024 Highs Yet
StockCharts
6. Curaleaf is Largest Market Cap U.S. Weed Stock….Just Hitting 2024 Levels
StockCharts
7. States Are Raking In Billions From Slot Machines on Your Phone-NYT
NYtimes
8. Robinhood Rolls Out the Prop Bets
CNBC
9. Small Fraction Behind Most Online Hate
Semafor
10. Having more muscle and less hidden abdominal fat gives you a younger brain. Here’s how to get strong healthily
Story by Rachel Boswell
As if the benefits of strength training weren’t extensive enough, we have another perk to add to the pile: a younger brain.
That’s right – according to brand-new research that will be presented at the Radiological Society of North America’s annual meeting later this month, having more muscle mass can protect against brain ageing. Meanwhile, having more visceral fat – that is, the hidden fat that sits deeper within your body, which lines your abdominal walls and surrounds many of your vital organs – accelerates brain ageing.
Here’s what the study discovered and what you can do to strengthen your body and think sharp for the long haul.
Strong muscles, strong mind
Thanks to several studies, we already know the importance of building and maintaining muscle mass for the sake of better physical health. Strong, well-functioning muscles not only help you to run more powerfully, become less prone to injury, develop a nice aesthetic and reduce your risk of various diseases and chronic conditions, but also play a big role in combatting age-related problems like sarcopenia.
So carrying more muscle can help you to live in a more youthful body, for longer. But what does it do for the brain?
That’s what the latest science set out to determine. For the new study in question, researchers tested 1,164 healthy adults – 52% women, with an average age of 55 – by putting them each through a full-body MRI scan. MRI scans provide a distinct view of a person’s fat, muscle and brain tissue and can reveal the biological age of the brain based on its structure.
Following the participants’ full-body MRI scans, the researchers used an AI algorithm to precisely measure their total normalised muscle volume, their visceral fat and their subcutaneous fat, which is the fat that you can pinch just under the skin. They also used this AI algorithm to predict each participant’s brain age.
The results showed that subcutaneous fat had no significant impact on predicted brain age. However, the participants who demonstrated a higher visceral fat to muscle ratio had a higher predicted brain age, while those who carried more muscle had younger-looking brains.
‘Healthier bodies with more muscle mass and less hidden belly fat are more likely to have healthier, youthful brains,’ concludes Dr Cyrus Raji, the study’s senior author and associate professor of radiology and neurology at Washington University School of Medicine, who adds that better brain health lowers the risk of diseases like Alzheimer’s.
‘While it is commonly known that chronological aging translates to loss of muscle mass and increased hidden belly fat, this work shows that these health measures relate to brain ageing itself,’ he adds.
How to build muscle mass
You don’t have to be a fat-free, Arnold Schwarzenegger-esque bodybuilder to develop a more youthful brain. Instead, to maintain a healthy fat-muscle ratio, complete at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity a week, like walking or cycling, or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity activity a week, like our favourite, running. It’s also important to do two or more weekly strength sessions, which target all the major muscles groups in the body.
While a recent study has found that doing just one strength workout a week is enough to generate improvements, two or more is optimal when it comes to enhancing your overall running performance, resilience and longevity – not to mention, as we now know, your brain function. If you’re unsure how or where to start with strength training, our expert-led guide for beginners will show you how to build a decent strength base in just four weeks.
To maintain a robust body, you should also remember to hydrate well, follow a regular sleep schedule – involving around seven to nine hours of shut-eye per night – and stick to a balanced, nutritious diet that contains a sufficient amount of protein. The recommended daily target for protein is 0.8g per kilogram of body weight, spread out evenly across mealtimes, although active people – especially runners – may need more than this to support muscle recovery and brain-friendly muscle growth.
