Fund Manager Survey: Likewise, the BofA fund manager survey (1-7 Nov), also saw a surge; not quite to all time highs on this one, but a clear bullish shift among these larger real money investors.
5. Amazon New Highs Launches Competition for TEMU and SHEIN
Morningbrew
6. Bonds Higher Yield than Stocks for First Time in 22 Years
7. Junior Gold Miners -18% Since Election
8. Europe -10% Correction into U.S. Election
9. Which Countries Hit Hardest by Tariffs?
From Zach Goldberg Jefferies …DB ranked the countries that are likely to be hardest hit by potential US tariffs, based on their economic reliance on US trade and potential scope of new levies. The top three hardest hit: Mexico, Vietnam and Canada.
A digital token inspired by a Shiba Inu dog meme is now worth more than the company that pioneered the assembly line. Yesterday, dogecoin continued its post-election surge to become more valuable than 121-year-old Ford. As of last night, dogecoin had a market cap of $55.5 billion, compared to Ford’s $44 billion.
While all cryptocurrencies have popped since Election Day, Elon Musk’s preferred token, dogecoin, stands out with a ~157% gain. But at a price of around 40 cents, it remains far below its record high of 72 cents from 2021, per Business Insider.—NF
China’s trade surplus is hitting record highs, with customs data from the world’s second-largest economy showing that its export-heavy economy is more export-heavy than ever before. The difference between the value of goods imported and exported in China surged to $785 billion in the first 10 months this year, the highest on record for that period and an increase of almost 16% from 2023, per Bloomberg. That is an imbalance that won’t have gone unnoticed by the newly elected Trump administration, which has previously discussed slapping tariffs of 60% or more on shipments from China during the campaign — indeed, Google searches for the word “tariff” have soared in the last week (chart here). The case of China’s ballooning trade surplus is partly a short term story of how manufacturers ramped up shipments ahead of the busy season, and some potentially anticipating tariffs in the event of a Trump victory, as exports soared in October ahead of economists’ expectations. But this is really just a continuation of a bigger trend, as China has been increasingly relying on exports to compensate for the weakness of its domestic demand, with imports down 2.3% last month. The slowing economy, weak consumer spending, and China’s middle class becoming increasingly satisfied with domestic alternatives all seem to have contributed towards declining import demand. Brad Setser, a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, summarized in a post on X: “[The] overall story is of an economy that is again growing off exports”. If — or perhaps more accurately given the rhetoric, when — Trump’s administration do announce more details on planned tariffs, analystsexpect Beijing to respond with more stimulus and a sharp depreciation of the renminbi; China’s central bank set its official exchange rate against the dollar at the lowest level in a year on Thursday.
10. I tried to hit my daily protein target while avoiding ultra-processed foods like protein powder and bars. I learned 4 lessons. Business Insider
Rachel Hosie tried to hit her protein target while avoiding ultra-processed foods. Boris SV/Getty, mastersky/Getty, Tyler Le/BI
I try to eat up to 130 grams of protein a day, and products like protein powder and bars can help.
Such foods are often ultra-processed and therefore linked to health risks, so I quit them for a week.
I didn’t like how the experiment made me fixate on the ingredients in food.
As a fitness and nutrition reporter, I’m slightly ashamed to say I’ve never paid close attention to how many ultra-processed foods I eat. I take a relatively relaxed approach to my diet and have always felt comfortable with the knowledge that whole foods make up most of it. I mostly focus on eating enough protein and fiber: I don’t track my food intake and haven’t done for years, but I know roughly how to get enough of each in my diet. Protein is important for overall health but is particularly helpful for active people, such as myself, as it helps muscles repair and rebuild after workouts. I try to eat around 110 to 130 grams of protein per day, and most days I consume one high-protein UPF like protein powder, fruity high-protein yogurt, or a protein bar, which have all exploded in popularity in recent years. According to Precedence Research, the global protein market was worth $10.37 billion in 2022 and is forecast to grow to $23.34 billion by 2032. With more studies pointing to the potential health risks of UPFs, I started to wonder if I could hit my protein target while avoiding them and keeping my calories in check (not just stuffing my face with vast quantities of peanut butter). For example, UK-based nutritionist Rob Hobson previously told Business Insider that he used to eat protein bars every day but cut down once he learned about the link between UPFs and a host of health issues plus weight gain. I tried cutting out high-protein UPFs for a week. There’s no set definition for a UPF, but it’s widely considered to mean any food or drink containing an ingredient you wouldn’t have in your own kitchen, such as emulsifiers. So that’s how I chose what to avoid. It was doable but required a lot of effort, and my diet also became more boring. Here are four lessons I learned. I had to pay close attention to ingredient lists The night before I started my experiment, I made some overnight oats for the following morning — without my usual scoop of protein powder. Instead, Greek yogurt and chia provided protein, and honey gave flavor and sweetness. It wasn’t until I was lying in bed that night that I realized I’d unthinkingly used almond milk — a UPF — as I would normally. Not a great start.
Overnight oats, and a grilled cheese sandwich with soup. Rachel Hosie/Business Insider Come lunchtime, and having not had time to go to the grocery store, I assessed the bread options in the freezer. One loaf was UPF, one, fortunately, wasn’t. While I was already aware of “sourfaux” — fake sourdough bread — I decided to pay more attention to which bread I buy. I was also pleased to find that the store-bought soup in my fridge was not a UPF either. So my go-to winter lunch of soup with a grilled cheese sandwich on sourdough bread was safe. When I went to the store, however, I realized not all soups are created equal, and sadly some of my favorites were UPFs. I didn’t like feeling that foods were off-limits It was hard to think of high-protein snacks to eat aside from more Greek yogurt. Some days I had an apple with peanut butter, but that got boring after a while and isn’t as high in protein as some people think. Satisfying my sweet tooth wasn’t particularly easy either — I don’t always want high-protein snacks, sometimes I just want a sweet treat. Nothing in my food cupboard was UPF-free, and I realized I’d have to bake from scratch, so blueberry muffins it was. As I gazed longingly at the chocolate in my cupboard, I started to feel uneasy. Having food “off-limits” felt all too familiar. It reminded me of being in the throes of diet culture 10 or so years ago, back when I thought certain foods were “bad” (which, of course, made me want them even more). As someone who’s come a long way and put a lot of work into breaking free from this restrictive mindset, I didn’t like the feeling that there were foods I couldn’t eat. I usually cook dinners from scratch and I realized I could make small tweaks to ensure they were UPF-free. For example, I like making pasta sauces with cream cheese, but I realized that some brands were UPF and others weren’t. Grocery shopping took longer than usual, but I figured that was inevitable at the start of the experiment and it would become less time-consuming as I learned which foods were UPF-free.
Pea pasta with chicken, chickpeas, butternut squash, leeks, and pine nuts; and a blueberry muffin. Rachel Hosie/Business Insider As a meat-eater, I find it easy to eat enough protein at dinner, and I regularly make dishes combining both meat and pulses — like a chili con carne with black beans — for the varied nutrients they provide. However, I was conscious of needing my dinner to do even more heavy lifting to hit my protein goal while avoiding UPFs. So I opted for pea pasta rather than the usual wholewheat, which contained 15 grams more protein per 100 grams. I preferred the texture and taste of regular pasta. My diet was more boring As the week wore on, I got bored of eating the same meals. The cinnamon and raisin bagels in the freezer and the cereal in my cupboard teased me as I ate the same two breakfasts on repeat (overnight oats with cow’s milk and sourdough toast with a side of Greek yogurt). I’m sure I could have been more experimental, but avoiding UPFs was taking enough planning without having to find new recipes to try. I managed to hit my protein target of 110 to 130 grams of protein each day, but my diet felt a bit less exciting. Come the weekend, when my fiancé wanted to order a pizza, I decided that life was too short to miss out, even for a one-off experiment. Ultimately, while most dietitians advise people to take a food-first approach to hitting their various health targets, they aren’t saying people need to eliminate UPFs, but most of us could benefit from cutting down. This experiment has made me more conscious of where I could make small tweaks that aren’t too much effort. But I’m not going to stress too much about having a scoop of protein powder here or there.
MicroStrategy buys $2 billion in bitcoin in 10 days. Is there $42 billion to go? Stock heads for first record in 24 years, as Coinbase and Mara shares also continue to ride the postelection cryptocurrency frenzy By Tomi Kilgore
7. Homebuilders Sideways for Months…No New Trump High
8. U.S. Dollar Makes New Highs On Trump
9. Rent vs. Buy Above Levels Coming Out of Housing Bust
Wolf Street “One effect of the prolonged period of relatively high home prices of the past four years is that we are seeing a slowly growing preference to rent rather than buy on consumers’ next move,” Fannie Mae said. “With rent growth expected to remain modest in 2025, more consumers may be seeking – and finding – attractive deals in the rental market as they continue saving toward a future home purchase,” Fannie Mae said.
10. Getting more light in the day and less at night is good for your health. Here’s why-NPR
By Will Stone Diet, exercise, sleep — all are fundamental to our health, but our relationship to light doesn’t get mentioned as much. Now, a massive new study suggests light-driven disruption can take years off our lives. Scientists tracked nearly 90,000 people in the U.K. who spent a week with wrist-worn activity devices equipped with light sensors. Then, they analyzed their risk of dying over the next eight years. The results were published in theProceedings of the National Academies of Sciences. The study participants with the brightest nights had a 21% to 34% higher risk of premature death, compared to those who were mostly in the dark between midnight and dawn. The opposite was true for daytime. People who enjoyed the brightest days had a 17% to 34% lower mortality risk than those who were in dim environments during the daytime. The data underscore that light represents an “emerging risk factor for poor health and longevity,” says Daniel Windred, lead author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher at Flinders University in Australia. Previous large-scale studies have found similar associations between mortality and light exposure, for example using satellite data and self-reports. However, the U.K study is the first to directly measure personal lighting environments around the clock. “It’s a very powerful study,” says Dr. Charles Czeisler, chief of the Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. “We’re not talking about a marginal change. We’re talking about huge increases in risk associated with an easily modifiable risk factor,” he says. Your muscles keep time too. How circadian rhythms affect your workout and your health While the study can only show a correlation — not prove causality — the “dose-dependent” response to light was evident even when the researchers controlled for factors like socioeconomic advantage, income and physical activity. The results reflect decades of research indicating that our modern relationship to light can spell disaster for our circadian rhythms — the patterns in our physiology and behavior that fluctuate over the 24-hour cycle — influencing sleep, blood pressure, how we use energy, release hormones and countless other functions. “We are flooding the nighttime with light that was never possible before and shielding ourselves from light during the day,” says Czeisler. Here are four takeaways from the research.
Outside light is best The benefits of having bright days were consistent from early in the morning to late in the afternoon. Windred says it’s not hard to interpret the results: They represent people who were spending time outside in daylight. “There’s a massive jump in the intensity between an indoor and an outdoor environment,” he says. We’re talking orders of magnitude. In a typical indoor environment, you may be exposed to about 100 to 500 lux (a unit of measurement for light), compared to anywhere from 10,000 to over 100,000 lux depending on the conditions and time of day. Even a cloudy day can be well over 1,000 lux. The central circadian pacemaker in our brain is particularly sensitive to light in the morning, and prioritizing light at that time can make you more alert. But even if you can’t pull that off, Windred says you will still reap the benefits of outdoor light later in the day. “If you come home from work in the afternoon and the sun is up, it’s still a good time to get light.” In fact, Czeisler says people tend to underestimate the effects of being outside during dawn and dusk — times when you are being exposed to different wavelengths and intensities of light. “We think that these transitions are probably particularly important,” he says. As long as there’s daylight though, he encourages people to get outdoors, ideally for at least half an hour to 45 minutes. “It doesn’t have to be all at once,” he says, “This will do wonders for their health.”
Look for the contrasts You can picture circadian rhythms as undulating currents, with the ups and downs reflecting your body’s changes throughout the dark-light cycle. Digesting food, repairing organs, replenishing the energy in our brains and clearing out toxins, all of these function better if the circadian system resembles a robust wave. Sponsor Message And light is the most powerful cue. During the day, it can enhance our rhythms — and at night, suppress or shift their timing. “The study is highlighting that you really need this contrast,” says Laura Fonken, a neuroscientist at the University of Texas at Austin, “It’s not just about having too little light during the day or too much light at night.” Put another way: You don’t want your day and night lighting environments to be comparable. That can easily happen if you spend the bulk of your days in an office, without much natural lighting, she says.
How Messing With Our Body Clocks Can Raise Alarms With Health In fact, the U.K data suggest the harms can add up if light is causing your circadian rhythms to be misaligned on both fronts. “We estimate that people with both bright days and dark nights could be living up to five years longer than people with bright nights and dark days,” says Windred.
Light can be protective Bright days can also set you up for a better evening — improving your sleep and shielding you against some of the downsides of artificial light at night. “We know that exposure to broad daylight during the day can actually reduce the sensitivity of our circadian system to light exposure at night,” says Windred. Studies measuring the effect of nighttime light on the hormone melatonin, which promotes sleep, support this concept: Study participants who spent their daytime in dimly lit conditions had much greater melatonin suppression when they encountered light at night. That’s compared to those who were exposed to more light during the day. Czeisler says this doesn’t mean you will be completely impervious to the disruptive effects of light during the evening, especially the blue-enriched light that’s emitted from our devices. “That sends a direct signal to the brain saying it’s daytime,” he says. Czeisler’s lab has documented that reading from light-emitting tablets in the hours before you go to sleep can “shift your circadian rhythm, making it harder for you to fall asleep, more difficult for you to wake up and less likely that you’ll go to bed at an earlier hour the next day.”
Keep lights out in the dead of night People who had the lowest chance of dying in the coming years were exposed to barely any light between about midnight and 6am, the study found. On the other hand, bright light during the dead of night — specifically between 2:30 and 3am — was associated with the highest risk of mortality. “That’s the most important time to avoid light,” he says, “It also happens to be the time that the circadian system is the most sensitive to light.” In recent decades, scientists have linked light-driven disturbances to all manner of health problems — obesity, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, mental illness and other conditions. Scientists have even shown that misalignment of circadian rhythms over relatively short periods of time can mess with blood pressure and how the body handles glucose. The hazards of working the night shift are well-documented, especially for cardiovascular and metabolic health. In this latest study though, Czeisler points out even when shift workers were excluded from the analysis, the detrimental effects of bright light at 3 or 4 in the morning were still “highly significant.” The best time to turn off the lights will depend, to some extent, on your schedule and chronotype — which is your body’s natural preferences toward being more of a morning or evening person — says Fonken. But the bottom line is simple: The stretch of time when you sleep should be as dark as you can make it.
2. Over the past 12 months, companies repurchased another $960 billion in stock, about 65% of free cash flow
PKW Buyback ETF New Highs….1% Buyback tax has not slowed purchases.
3. Tesla Weighting Drives Consumer Discretionary Stocks to New Highs
4. Biggest Trump Trade Winner …GEO Group
5. Pre-Election… Tech Stocks Had Biggest 4-Week Outflow Ever
6. Will This Small Cap Rally Be the Real Deal? Or 4th False Start?
Mind the Hype: However, as Kantro points out below, at least in the case of small caps relative performance, there have been many false starts and bouts of premature speculation. While price does tend to move faster than fundamentals, the point he makes with this chart is that you need real fundamental follow-through if things are going to sustainably turnaround for this specific case, but also for wider bullish follow-through (and on that note, check out the bonus chart section…!)
7. Private Equity Unicorns ($1B Valuation) Have Grown 1100% Since 2014
Barrons The Morningstar PitchBook US Unicorn index tracks privately held, late-stage venture-backed U.S. companies with valuations of at least $1 billion. Evens observes the number of companies in it has grown 1,100% since 2014 as the public small-cap market has shrunk.
8. Private Market Valuation of SpaceX +170% Post Election
9. Communism Sucks Weekly …South vs. North Korea
Barrons By Andy Serwer In a memo Marks wrote in September, “Shall We Repeal the Laws of Economics?”, he extolled the virtues of capitalism: “History is littered with command economies that didn’t succeed.…Eighty years ago, Korea was a single country. Then, following World War II, it was split in two….South Korea has operated as a capitalist democracy and North Korea as a communist dictatorship…[North Korea’s] GDP in purchasing power terms is estimated at $2,000 per person versus $50,000 in South Korea. North Korea’s citizens are described as impoverished, but at least it doesn’t have a border problem, since nobody’s trying to sneak in….I think it’s fair to say capitalism has won.”
10. This 1 Tweak to Your Behavior Makes You Instantly More Attractive, According to New Wharton Research
How you behave affects how attractive other people find you. New research uncovers a way to use that to your advantage. EXPERT OPINION BY JESSICA STILLMAN, CONTRIBUTOR, INC.COM @ENTRYLEVELREBEL
Americans spend more than $420 billion a year trying to look more beautiful. And not just because they’re vain or looking for love. Fair or not, research shows “pretty privilege” is very real. Being perceived as attractive won’t just help you get a date, it will help you get ahead. Beautiful people are viewed as more trustworthy, smarter, and more capable just for looking the way they do. Which means you probably shouldn’t feel shallow for shelling out a stupid amount for skin-care products or gym memberships if that makes you feel more confident. But are there other, subtler ways to appear more attractive that don’t involve complicated beauty or fitness routines? A new study out of the Wharton School just revealed one, and I have to say, these are some of the nicest research findings I’ve come across in a while. They found that just by being kind, you can make yourself appear instantly more attractive to others.
Beautiful acts make you appear more beautiful. If you need convincing that this research is relevant for a business site, then just look at who conducted it. Natalia Konova, author of the study recently published in the British Journal of Social Psychology, got her PhD in marketing and is now doing research at a prestigious business school, Wharton. A stack of previous studies show that when people are attractive, we tend to ascribe other positive qualities, like intelligence and kindness, to them too. Together with her collaborators, Konova wanted to see if this so-called “halo effect” works the other way around as well. Does being a beautiful person make others see you as more physically beautiful as well? To find out, the team designed a series of experiments that tested how people’s behavior influenced others’ estimation of their attractiveness. For instance, would being told about someone’s kind and cooperative acts cause people to rate them as more beautiful? After running 10 different experiments on more than 4,000 people, the answer was clear and consistent. The more kindly you act, the more beautiful you appear. And the more consistently you are kind—the more kindness is seen as a fundamental part of your character—the more impact it has on how other people rate your looks. “Beautiful acts do, indeed, lead us to see people as more beautiful,” Kononov sums up on PsyPost. That’s true regardless of gender, and the effects weren’t tiny. “We thought prosociality would play a significant role, but we didn’t expect it to surpass traits like intelligence and humor,” Kononov continues. “It’s interesting because, while people often view humor and intelligence as highly appealing traits, kindness may actually have a stronger impact on how attractive someone appears.”
How to improve your attractiveness and your mental health You don’t need a PhD to interpret these findings. Whether you’re looking to impress a potential romantic partner, an investor, or a sales prospect, you should think about showing off your kindness along with your slick new hairstyle or wardrobe. (As a very welcome bonus, a ton of other research shows kindness makes you happier and more resilient too.) Human brains are packed with irrational quirks. Among them is that we clearly don’t judge inner and outer beauty entirely separately. When one is appealing, we’re more likely to have a positive impression of the other. Use that to your advantage. Kindness, unlike new creams or clothes, is free, instantly accessible, and psychologically great for you. It is also pretty much guaranteed to help you come across as more attractive too.
