Start of Christmas holidays on stock exchanges, company news and geopolitics
Stock market news
• Semiconductors, healthcare, as well as GOOG, META and TSLA, pulled the stock market higher yesterday. Value stocks and small caps were under mild pressure. Investor interest is becoming more concentrated.
• Many have already gone on long Christmas holidays and activity has begun to die down.
• Today trading will be short, and tomorrow is a day off.
• Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway sits on $325 billion in cash, or 30% of its total assets under management.
That's Buffett's largest cash position in 35 years.
"We have a model that suggests that by 2050, Bitcoin will be a reserve asset held by central banks with a weighting of 2%. In that model, we come up with a $3 million price target for Bitcoin," VanEck said. But that's just one of the model calculations.
• Nissan and Honda have signed a memorandum of understanding for a possible business combination through the creation of a joint holding company. They plan to complete the combination by August 2026.
Honda, as the senior partner, will have greater influence in the new company. It will appoint most of the directors, and the president will be selected from among Honda's nominees.
Both brands will be retained.
Nissan and Honda may be joined by Mitsubishi Motors, which will decide on its participation in this business integration by the end of January 2025.
• Apple is preparing new AI-based smart home solutions. “The device will have a roughly 6-inch display and a new operating system designed to control the home, launch FaceTime, and play video,” Bloomberg insider Mark Gurman reports.
Apple will also release updates to existing home devices next year: the TV set-top box and the HomePod mini smart speaker.
• For the first time in 3 years since the introduction of monetization, Telegram has become profitable, - Pavel Durov. “This year, the number of Telegram Premium subscribers has tripled, exceeding $12 million. Our advertising revenue has also grown several times. As a result, Telegram's total revenue in 2024 exceeded $1 billion, and we are closing the year with more than $500 million in cash reserves, not including crypto assets,” Durov said.
• Donald Trump is proposing to keep TikTok in the US for a while longer, he said at a meeting with supporters in Phoenix, Arizona.
“We have to think about this issue because we have used TikTok and we have had a fantastic response — billions of views,” Trump said, speaking at the AmericaFest event.
• Wall Street follows Fed lead in forecasting short-term U.S. Treasury yields to fall in 2025 - Bloomberg Despite the threat looming over the bond market from President-elect Donald Trump's trade and tax policies.
• Rumble (RUMBW) shares soar 60% after the video platform received $775 million in funding from Tether.
• Polish e-commerce unit Allegro sues Alphabet for $568 million A subsidiary of Polish e-commerce platform Allegro filed a lawsuit on Monday against Google owner Alphabet, Google Ireland and Google LLC, seeking 2.33 billion zlotys ($568 million) in damages, citing allegations of anti-competitive practices.
• The Nordstrom (JWN) family is teaming up with a Mexican retailer to buy the department store of the same name in a deal valued at about $6.25 billion, including debt.
• Toyota to build electric vehicle plant in China, Nikkei reports. Toyota Motor previously operated in China through joint ventures with local manufacturers.
• Hedge funds trim nuclear stakes after 'brutal' rally - Bloomberg Some hedge fund managers are sounding the alarm over overvalued nuclear energy stocks.
• Elon Musk's X is raising the price of its premium tier to pay creators. The premium tier now costs $22 per month in the U.S., up from $16 previously, according to a blog post. The prices for the basic and premium tiers of subscriptions remain unchanged at $3 and $8, respectively.
• Xerox to buy printer maker Lexmark from Chinese owners for $1.5 billion. The purchase from Ninestar Corp, PAG Asia Capital and Shanghai Shouda Investment Centre would return Lexmark to U.S. ownership.
• Coke, PepsiCo lobby to keep sugary sodas in food stamp program
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump's nominee for Surgeon General, wants to make sugary drinks ineligible for SNAP benefits.
Fundamental news
• Moscow can use migration to undermine the EU - Meloni. The threat to EU security from Russia will not end after the war in Ukraine, and Brussels must be prepared for this. "We are talking about our democracy, about influencing our public opinion, this concerns what is happening in Africa, raw materials, the instrumentalization of migration. We must realize that the concept of security is very broad."
• Trump nominated billionaire Feinberg for deputy head of the Pentagon. Stephen Feinberg is one of the founders and heads of the private investment company Cerberus Capital Management LP. According to Reuters, this firm also invests in defense contractors.
• Trump wrote that “to national security and freedom throughout the world, the United States of America believes that ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.” Trump canceled a 2019 visit to Denmark after his offer to purchase Greenland was rejected by Copenhagen.
• Trump said he would implement the “biggest tax cut in the history of our country” next year. US GDP growth will slow from 2.8% in 2024 to 2.2% in 2025 due to Trump’s new trade tariffs, says IMF.
• China imposes sanctions on Canada: who is on the list of restrictions. China freezes the “movable and immovable property” of the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project and the Canada-Tibet Committee on its territory.
• Thousands of protesters gathered in the Serbian capital Belgrade to protest against President Vucic's government and corruption.
Serbian police said that 29,000 people were officially present at today's rally.
However, unofficial estimates put the protest at around 100,000.
• Elon Musk: "Why do American taxpayers cover a quarter of European defense spending?
It makes no sense, especially when we have a huge budget deficit and unacceptable debt growth."
EU leaders have committed to increasing defense spending within NATO, - Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis
"We know that we will need to spend more than 2% of GDP on defense. When we talk to the newly elected US president, it will become clear what new ceiling we will agree on within NATO," Politico quotes the prime minister as saying.
• Israel-Hamas talks on ceasefire and release of Gaza hostages 90% complete - BBC
One of the main sticking points is Israel's continued military presence in the Philadelphi Corridor, a strategically important strip of land in southern Gaza along the border with Egypt.
• Canada's economy contracted in November for the first time this year. The Canadian economy appears to have lost momentum toward the end of the year, even as the central bank has cut interest rates at a rapid pace.
Ontario's premier threatens to cut off fuel supplies to the U.S. If Trump imposes tariffs on Canada: 'We have to be ready to fight on January 20.'
• U.S. core capital goods orders rebound. New orders for U.S.-made core capital goods rose in November on strong demand for machinery, providing more signs that the economy is on solid footing heading into the year.
• Britain's economy failed to grow in the third quarter, according to revised official data on Monday,
in a further blow to the new Labour government, which has made economic growth its number one mission.
• New U.S. single-family home sales rebounded in November after a hurricane-related drop the previous month.
U.S. consumers felt less confident in December.
• Conference Board: US consumer sentiment fell to 104.7 in December from 111.7 (expected to rise to 112.9).
• Mass anti-government protests have begun in the Egyptian capital. The reason is the worsening economic situation, suppression of civil liberties and corruption in the government. 2025 promises to be a turbulent year.