(Datawrapper/Sherwood Media) |
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First, there was Space Force. Now, here comes Tech Force! The Trump administration is recruiting a "US Tech Force" for two-year stints in government to "solve the federal government's most critical technological challenges." The government isn't exactly known for paying the kinds of huge salaries tech workers are used to, but the program will offer participants salaries between $150,000 and $200,000. Not too shabby, but still far below what the average American reported last year would make them feel "financially successful." The markets had a case of the Mondays and drooped as the last full week of trading for 2025 kicked off. All three major indexes finished down on the day. Investors went risk-off ahead of today's release of delayed jobs and payroll data and Thursday's CPI report, all of which will influence the odds of how many rate cuts the Federal Reserve may enact in the new year. A growing concern around AI credit risk also weighed on stocks, with Broadcom and Oracle both continuing their declines from last week. Tech and energy S&P sector ETFs saw the biggest declines, while healthcare topped the leaderboard. |
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Huge news week for Tesla, and it's only Tuesday. Hop on in — you have to push in the handle to open the door — and let's go for a ride: |
- Over the weekend, Tesla began testing its driverless cars without safety monitors — a move that sent Tesla up and competitors Uber and Lyft down as investors viewed it as concrete momentum toward Tesla's autonomous future.
- Having a truly autonomous ride-hailing service would bring Tesla closer to catching up with Waymo, which is leading the battle for the driverless future. Tesla ultimately hopes to use its autonomous tech to turn much of its existing fleet into driverless cars and quickly scale its Robotaxi service — a move that would help prove itself to be an AI company rather than just a car company.
- Rival Ford announced it is taking a massive $19.5 billion write-down on its EV investments, and will repurpose its EV battery plant for energy storage batteries. Tesla's share price was unperturbed in after-hours trading.
- Finally, new monthly US sales data from Cox Automotive confirmed that Tesla's sales are declining — but also revealed a surprise: its market share is rising.
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Wedbush Securities analyst and Tesla bull Dan Ives is so excited for the company's next year that he published a series of characteristically bold predictions Monday, including aggressive Robotaxi expansion across the US in 2026, reaching 30-plus cities, and that Tesla will command about 70% of the global autonomous market over the next decade. |
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That's not all from Ives, who appears to realize that Musk cannot pull off this miracle alone. He expects that federal regulatory barriers around Full Self-Driving and autonomous driving will ease significantly under President Trump, and anticipates an executive order early next year that would shift more authority to federal regulators and reduce state-level control over autonomous driving rules. Ives says that would be pretty dang lucrative: with a current ~$1.4 trillion market cap, Tesla could reach $2 trillion within the next year, with a bull case of $3 trillion by the end of 2026. |
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What's good for a video game and collectibles retailer? New and intriguing characters, apparently. Shares of GameStop had a strong start to the week, and a few power-ups helped: |
- Hedge fund manager turned Substacker Michael Burry teased a post on the retailer this weekend, before saying this would be delayed on account of… too much information!
- The "Big Short" investor has a history of being good for GME: in November, the stock spiked after he published tweets that offered some lore into his time spent as a GameStop bull ahead of its ascendance to meme stock status.
- Burry might bring the kind of main character energy back to GameStop that's been absent since Keith Gill, aka Roaring Kitty, kicked off another meme rally in the stock in the second quarter of 2024.
- And he's not the only new member of the cast. Also piquing renewed interest in GameStop may be the exact opposite of a graying finance guy: the company's recent poach of the artist formerly known as "Best Buy Rilie." Two videos posted to X featuring the goth TikTok creator have received nearly 50 million views combined since December 10.
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The GME bulls are back, at least for now — bullish options activity helped charge the stock up 4% on Monday, nearly matching the rally Burry inspired in November. GameStop seems to also be returning a bit to the "just have fun with it!" attitude that its retail army finds endearing, such as its December "trade in anything" event, which accepted at least two taxidermied animals. But with a meme stock like GameStop, attention is everything, and whether it's a substack from Burry or stealing a hugely popular TikToker, the company is certainly making people notice it once again. |
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2025 has been the year that AI really began calling the shots — whether we like it or not. The technology's progress has driven the economy, powered the stock market, dictated political discourse, flamed the trade tensions between the US and China, infiltrated nearly all of our devices, and influenced the algorithms that decide what we watch, read, love, and hate. It's also (finally) driving our cars. Chatbot use and more, charted |
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Why Value + Momentum Could Be the Missing Link in Your Portfolio |
Markets can be unpredictable, yet investors strive for consistent results. This leads to the ongoing challenge of balancing value and momentum. |
- Value targets undervalued companies trading at attractive prices relative to their fundamentals.
- Momentum targets companies that are experiencing positive trends.
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*Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC. |
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- Bureau of Labor Statistics releases delayed November jobs data
- Earnings expected from Lennar
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VictoryShares Disclosure: Carefully consider a fund's investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses before investing. To obtain a prospectus or summary prospectus containing this and other important information, visit http://www.vcm.com/prospectus. Read it carefully before investing. All investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal. An investment should only be made with an understanding of the risks involved with owning a particular security or asset class. Momentum investing may be more volatile than other investments. Momentum can turn quickly and funds may experience significant losses if momentum stops, turns or behaves differently than predicted. VictoryShares ETFs distributed by Victory Capital Services, Inc. (VCS). ©2025 Victory Capital Management Inc. 20251210-5054892 |
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