1. Cash at Lowest Levels Since 2010 for Professional Investors
Yahoo Finance
2. Mag 7 Not Leading in 2025
Financial Times
3. U.S. Dollar Chart Fails to Make New Highs….Closes Below 50-Day
Stock Charts
4. Weaker Dollar Helping International Stocks…Rotation to Europe Fund Flows
Fund inflows into Europe-focused equity funds surged last week.
Deutsche Bank Research
5. Euro Defense Spending
For example, if we assume a gradual increase in defence spending until 3% of GDP is reached in 2030, it would be equivalent to about EUR600bn of additional spending relative to the 2% target by the end of the decade. This extra spending is equivalent to about 3.5% of GDP. Correcting the last 10 years of underspending relative to the current 2% of GDP defence spending target would cost EUR800bn (equivalent to about 4.5% of GDP). An alternative approach to thinking about spending needs is to look at closing the gaps in European defence capabilities. These too point to the need for significant additional spending on defence. For example, Commission President von der Leyen has talked about an EU missile shield as a priority. The EU Commissioner for Defence said this alone could have a price tag of EUR500bn or almost 3% of GDP.
Jim Reid Deutsche Bank
6. Fires…PCG California Energy Down -30%
Stock Charts
7. FXI-China Large Cap Breaking Above Previous 2024 Highs
Stock Charts
8. Small Cap Stocks Still Stuck Sideways Below Highs
Stock Charts
9. Barron’s DOGE Update
Via Barron’s: Nor did markets seem perturbed as Elon Musk’s DOGE wielded a scythe on federal payrolls, ostensibly to slash the budget deficit. The 75,000 workers who reportedly have accepted buyouts represent about 2.5% of the federal workforce, according to a report from Veneta Dimitrova and London Stockton of Ned Davis Research, which would represent a savings of about $15 billion out of the $650 billion in employee compensation. “In the context of $7.0 trillion total federal outlays, however, the expected savings are a drop in the bucket,” they note.
To save $100 billion annually—one-tenth of the $1 trillion of cost cuts bruited by Musk—would mean sacking a quarter of the federal workforce, some 750,000 employees, according to an analysis by Macquarie economists David Doyle, Chinara Azizova, and Ric Deverell. To realize the $1 trillion goal would require a 30% reduction in nondefense spending (excluding entitlements such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid); a 15% cut in defense outlays; and a 15% cut in social spending such as entitlements. They also note a GAO estimate that between $233 billion and $421 billion annually was lost to fraud between 2018 and 2022, which included pandemic spending.
10. Woop Method
20 Years Ago, Psychologists Developed the WOOP Method. It’s Still the Best Way to Control Your Emotions to Reach Your Goals Sometimes the biggest barrier to our success is our own feelings.
EXPERT OPINION BY JESSICA STILLMAN, CONTRIBUTOR, INC.COM
@ENTRYLEVELREBEL
Why don’t more of us reach the big goals we set for ourselves? Sure, sometimes the answer is lack of ability. It is entirely possible you are not smart enough to be an astrophysicist or strong enough for the NFL. But for many everyday goals the issue isn’t ability, it’s emotions.
You want to be bolder with your business, but fear of failure sets you back. You want to improve your relationships, but your anger keeps blowing things up. You mean to make it to the gym, but somehow you just can’t muster the self-control to get off the couch.
Feelings can be a powerful fuel to propel us forward, but they can also be the hurdle that blocks our way. How do you overcome that hurdle to finally achieve your dreams?
Twenty years ago, a pair of psychologists came up with a simple four-step procedure for clearing emotional blocks so you can reach your goals. After a couple of decades of research and testing, it remains one of the most reliable ways to turn wishes into reality.
Actually, it’s OK to bottle up your emotions sometimes. First off, it’s important to clear up a common misconception. In our enlightened age of mental health awareness and widespread therapy speak, most of us have heard it’s a bad idea to bottle up your feelings. But that’s actually not quite right, according to neuroscientist and author Ethan Kross.
Yes, it’s a bad idea to permanently deny or ignore emotions. The sadness, rage, shame, or anxiety you’re hiding from will just leak out elsewhere in unpredictable and destructive ways. But as Kross recently explained in an interview with NPR, “It’s a myth that when we’re experiencing some big emotion, we’ve got to get to the bottom of it right away.”
If getting something off your chest is constructively helping you, by all means keep going. But if you’re just turning the same worries, fear, or pain over and over in your mind without any improvement or resolution, taking an intentional step back from your feelings is often a good idea.
Consider that some of the most respected and long-lasting studies of both adults and children suggest that the ability to recognize your emotions and then set them aside to deal with them later with a clearer mind is one of the most important skills for a happy and successful life.
“You don’t have to choose between only confronting immediately or avoiding chronically,” Kross concludes.
20 years of science supports the WOOP Method If the answer to the troubling emotions that keep getting in the way of reaching your goals isn’t to ignore or fruitlessly fret over them, what is the solution? Twenty years ago, a pair of psychologists out of New York University—Gabriele Oettingen and Peter Gollwitzer—developed a protocol for shifting the difficult feelings that so often sabotage our goals.
Over the past two decades it’s been tested in a variety of settings, from classrooms to hospitals to gyms, and repeatedly found to be effective. The method goes by the handy acronym WOOP, which stands for:
Wish – Outcome – Obstacle – Plan
The idea is to use this framework not when you’re in the heat of a difficult moment, but a bit later when you’re calm enough to think through your feelings and plan a constructive path forward. It works in a variety of settings and benefits from repetition. The more you practice it, the better you’ll become at using it.
How to use the WOOP method to reach your goals The method is simple. The first step is to identify your Wish. What is the attainable but ambitious goal you are trying to reach that keeps getting derailed? Once you’ve got that clearly in mind, go a step deeper by moving on to the Outcome. If you achieve this wish, how will you feel? Understanding why you want something is one of the best motivators out there.
Now that you understand what you’re aiming for and why, move on to identifying the internal Obstacle standing in your way. Maybe this is a nagging sense of unworthiness, a feeling of being overwhelmed at the scale of the project, or a worry about the judgement of others. Whatever it is, put a label on it, so you have a clear sense of what’s holding you back.
The last and crucial step is making a clear and specific Plan to overcome that obstacle. Often this will take the form of: When [specific time or occasion], then I will [concrete, feasible action].
Perhaps when you feel yourself losing your temper, you can leave the room for 30 seconds. If you want to stop feeling constantly overwhelmed, you could decide to spend five minutes over coffee each morning laying out three priorities for the day. If fear of failure is stopping you from embarking on a difficult project, you could plan a specific time to reach out to a mentor and talk through your worries.
Is that a dream or a goal? The coach of boxing champ Evander Holyfield once asked him if becoming the best in the world was “a dream or a goal? Because there’s a difference.”
Dreams are things we idly imagine and hope may one day happen. When difficult emotions or circumstances arise, we often abandon them. Goals, on the other hand, are concrete objectives with workmanlike plans to attain them.
WOOP is a method for, essentially, transforming flimsy, easily derailed dreams into sturdier goals. The key is to get out of pointless and repetitive brain loops—whether they’re fantasies of success of anxieties about your shortcomings—and move on to making actionable plans to deal with whatever obstacles you face. If you do that, you’re far less likely to get knocked off course by difficult emotions.