Tale of the Tape

Good evening, folks. Welcome back to the market of stocks. 👋 2021 could be fun, but today was not the day. 

Every major index closed negative. The S&P 500 struggled in the first session of the new year for the first time in 5 years. 👀 Should we be worried? Place your bets…  

Energy (you heard that right) was the only sector to close higher. Real estate retreated 3.2% while utilities and industrials both tumbled more than 2%.

Crypto continues to trade like crack. Bitcoin was especially volatile today with a 6000-point range (17%) between today’s high and low. Meanwhile, Ethereum ticked its highest price since January 30, 2018. 🚀

Gold gained and $GLD gapped up 2.2% to close at its highest price since early November. 

EV stocks surged despite the broad market weakness. Li Auto delivered 6,126 Li ONEs in December 2020 – △ 529.6% YoY. Nio also delivered a record-setting 7,007 vehicles last month.

$LI △ 12.59% | $NIO △ 9.75% | $TSLA △ 3.42%

The new highly-contagious coronavirus locking down the UK was just discovered in New York. Safe safe, y’all. 😷 Here’s the WSJ with more. 

We’ll begin to see Georgia’s Senate runoff results tomorrow. Where will markets run in response? Tune in to tonight’s episode of After Hours to find out more. 

Here are the closing prints: 

S&P 500	3,700	-1.48%
Nasdaq	12,698	-1.47%
Russell 2000	1,945	-1.47%
Dow Jones	30,223	-1.25%

Where in the World is Jack Ma?

Where is Jack Ma? We certainly don’t know. The Chinese billionaire hasn’t been seen in two months following his derogatory remarks about the Chinese government…

Not only has he missed an appearance on a TV show (that he owns, btw), he was also suspiciously removed from the show’s website.

Spooky. We certainly hope he’s okay, and not crushed like Ant…🥾🐜  

Google’s Unions 

Today, employees of tech giant Alphabet (Google’s parent company) announced their official creation of the Alphabet Workers Union. 

That’s right, big tech employees are finally unionizing. And their complaints generally aren’t about pay, either. 😬

Employees’ complaints about workplace ethics, sexual harassment, and even allegations of administration spying on workers contributed to Alphabet’s unionization. 

The other side’s not too happy— Google’s Director of People Operations said: 

We’ve always worked hard to create a supportive and rewarding workplace for our workforce. Of course our employees have protected labor rights that we support.  But as we’ve always done, we’ll continue engaging directly with all our employees.

Who knows what’s going on at Google..? 🤔

Venmo Cashes Checks?!

The app we all use for money management (“Oh yeah, I’ll Venmo you”) now cashes checks, too! 

Cash a Check with Venmo is the app’s new feature that allows select users to cash checks provided photos of the checks’ front and back. 

The check review process generally takes a few seconds, or 3-5 minutes (max time is 1 hour). Upon approval, the check’s full amount is added to your venmo balance.  🤯 🤩

With the new feature, you can even add your stimulus check right to your Venmo balance. Paying your friends back after Saturday night shenanigans is now that much easier! 🍻

Lidar SPAC

Laser-sensor startup Aeva announced a $200M investment from Sylebra Capital preceding Aeva’s IPO and merger with InterPrivate Acquisition Corp., $IPV.

The deal with Sylebra includes the purchase of an additional $200M of InterPrivate common stock. The combined company should be listed on the NYSE in Q1 2021 under ticker $AEVA.

Soroush Salehian, CEO of Aeva, said:

This investment by Sylebra provides a major vote of confidence in Aeva’s business model and growth plans.  Proceeds from this investment will further accelerate our ability to capitalize on customer demand for Aeva’s industry-leading 4D LiDAR on a chip technology in the automotive, consumer, and industrial markets. 

$IPV increased 13% and gained another 4.5% after hours. 💪

March Madness? More like Indiana Insanity

Today, the NCAA announced that all March Madness games will now be played in the state of Indiana. 🤔

This contingency plan has been in the works since October. It emulates the “bubble” environment that worked for the NBA last summer— to ensure safety, players will be housed in Marriott hotels with no access to the outside world.

NCAA President Mark Emmert said:

This is a historic moment for NCAA members and the state of Indiana. We have worked tirelessly to reimage a tournament structure that maintains our unique championship opportunity for college athletes.

Indiana may not be the most exciting state, but it’ll definitely have our attention in March.

Earnings This Week

Be sure to know when your stocks report earnings. Here’s the earnings calendar. 

Links That Don’t Suck

🎯 New Year Sale: Make 2021 your most profitable year yet with IBD Digital, now only $20.21 for 2 months.*

🚗 Fiat Chrysler, PSA Aim to Complete Trans-Atlantic Merger in Mid-January

🦠 Scotland Entering New Lockdown Until End of January

🏰 The Radical Architecture of Tomorrow Already Exists

🌲 Rever & Drage Architects Builds Modern Log Cabin in Norway

⛰️ Wall Street Eyes Billions in the Colorado’s Water

🎉 Have Some Fun in ’21

💰 The Spectrum of Financial Dependence and Independence