|  | Nasdaq | 23,471.75 | |
| | S&P | 6,926.60 | |
| | Dow | 49,149.63 | |
| | 10-Year | 4.140% | |
|  | Bitcoin | $97,083.99 | |
| | BofA | $52.48 | |
| | Data is provided by |  |
*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 6:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean. | - Markets: Stocks fell yesterday like a gymnast who misjudged the width of the beam, with tech companies and banks—including Bank of America and Wells Fargo, despite both reporting rising profits—dragging the market down.
| Markets Sponsored by Miso Robotics Join the robotics takeover. NVIDIA. Amazon. Uber. White Castle. They're all working with Miso, whose AI-powered robots modernize restaurant kitchens. Get up to 7% bonus stock as an investor today. |
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RETAIL Prepare for some luxurious going-out-of-business sales. Facing heavy debt and declining revenue, the parent company of Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday, a year after the two entities merged in a deal that was supposed to solve everything. Saks Global owes at least $3.4 billion, the company said in its court filing. Here's how it got into this mess: - Saks Fifth Avenue started reporting double-digit sales declines in 2023 amid the beginning of a broader luxury slowdown.
- Last year, investors gave Saks ~$2 billion to fund its acquisition of rival Neiman Marcus (which itself filed for bankruptcy in 2020). The plan was to form a high-end retail powerhouse that would cut costs for Saks and let it catch up on overdue payments to its suppliers.
- Instead, sales at Saks Global kept plunging last year, and it continued to delay hundreds of millions of dollars in payments to Chanel, Kering, LVMH, and other luxury groups. Some vendors stopped sending merchandise, leaving store shelves emptier and speeding up the company's downfall.
- Meanwhile, a $100 million payment on the debt that funded the Neiman acquisition came due in December, and Saks Global couldn't afford it, even after raising extra financing and selling land under some of its stores.
This isn't goodbye. The company is reorganizing, not liquidating, and said it'll keep Saks, Neiman, and Bergdorf Goodman stores open…for now. It'll likely have to close locations, possibly starting with the Saks and Neiman storefronts that share territory, to emerge from bankruptcy. Just in case, shoppers are descending upon Saks Fifth Avenue to spend gift cards and AmEx Saks credits. Zoom out: Luxury department stores Barneys New York, Lord & Taylor, and Hudson's Bay in Canada also went bankrupt in recent years. The latter two were owned by real estate developer Richard Baker, who also serves as Saks Global's executive chairman and orchestrated the Neiman acquisition.—ML | | |
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Presented By Miso Robotics So says the world's richest man. And it's already happening. Just look at the $1t fast-food industry. Miso Robotics is already delivering an AI-powered fry-cooking robot that can cook perfectly 24/7. With the restaurant industry facing 144% employee turnover rates and $20/hour minimum wages, Miso's robots have already fried 4m+ baskets of food for major brands like White Castle. That traction convinced NVIDIA and Uber AI to partner with Miso to refine its AI and robots. Now, Miso's scaling US-based manufacturing across a $4b/year revenue opportunity. And you can join Miso as an early-stage shareholder today, before this tech is nationwide. |
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WORLD  Denmark says "fundamental disagreement" with US over Greenland remains. Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen made it clear after a meeting between Danish representatives and Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio that there had been no agreement regarding President Trump's desire for the US to acquire Greenland, but a dialogue would continue. For now, the two sides differ on what they can accept. Rasmussen said that "ideas that would not respect territorial integrity of the kingdom of Denmark and the right of self-determination of the Greenland people are of course totally unacceptable." Meanwhile, Trump said before the meeting that NATO would be strengthened by US control of Greenland, and "anything less than that is unacceptable."
⏸️ US pauses visas for 75 countries. The State Department said it would indefinitely halt immigration visa processing for the countries, which include Brazil, Russia, Somalia, and others, as of Jan. 21, saying that people from them were more likely to need public assistance while living in the US. The suspension won't impact short-term tourist or business visas, only visas for permanent immigration, with spousal and other family visas likely to be the most impacted. A State Department spokesman said the pause would be used to reassess "immigration processing procedures to prevent the entry of foreign nationals who would take welfare and public benefits."  Trump says "the killing has stopped" in Iran. In a sign of potential de-escalation as the US has been weighing military strikes to support protesters amid a deadly crackdown by the Iranian regime, President Trump told reporters yesterday that Iran had backed down from executing protesters. Oil prices, which had spiked earlier in the day, fell after the remarks, with markets taking the words as a signal that the US would hold off on military action. Earlier in the day, Iranian officials had suggested that detained protesters would be tried and executed. The US evacuated some personnel from Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar as a precaution against retaliation from Iran if the US did strike. And tensions remained as Iran closed its airspace to commercial traffic.—AR
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TRADE Despite the tense back-and-forth between China and the US on trade policy last year, China reported a record trade surplus yesterday of almost $1.2 trillion for 2025. The world's second-largest economy managed to offset (and then some) the 20% decline in exports to the US last year by sending tons of goods elsewhere. Surplus surprise: Economists expected President Trump's tariffs to kneecap China's massive export market and tank its trade surplus (calculated as the value of a country's exports minus its imports). Instead, China pulled off the biggest surplus the world has ever seen. While US companies shifted some supply chains to other countries like Vietnam and Mexico, those countries largely still rely on Chinese materials and equipment. - China increased its exports to countries in the European Union (+8.4%), Latin America (+7.4%), Africa (+26%), and Southeast Asia (+13%) last year.
- Overall, the country's exports jumped 5.5% from 2024, down slightly from 5.9% in 2023, according to China's customs agency.
But the gains might be unsustainable: The International Monetary Fund warned that China's economy is too big to rely on just exports for economic growth. Economists also worry that the country's sputtering real estate market and weak domestic consumption could drag down the rest of the globe.—MM | | |
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Together With J.Crew Factory Did somebody say chinos? We did  because J.Crew Factory's new chino collection is here. They're the classic chinos you know and love, with new updates like an improved silhouette for an easier, more comfortable fit. Slim, straight, original, and tech are just a few of the options. Take a look. |
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ENTERTAINMENT One of the hottest names in music today very likely doesn't exist. Meet Sienna Rose, the artist with three songs in Spotify's Viral 50–USA playlist and all the characteristics of something generated by artificial intelligence. Rose's Spotify bio, until recently, referred to the "neo-soul singer" with almost no social media presence as "anonymous." But whatever was left of that anonymity vanished when human artist Selena Gomez posted an Instagram carousel from the Golden Globes to her 415 million followers using a track from Rose, prompting the internet to point out it's almost assuredly AI. Rose is just the latest to peddle AI music Aventhis and The Velvet Sundown are AI music creations that attracted attention last summer due to their popularity on Spotify. Probably not coincidentally, Spotify announced stronger protections for flesh-and-blood creators in September that include: - A new standard for credits to clearly state how AI was used in a track.
- Removing unauthorized voice clones.
- A spam filter that tracks mass uploads that look to game the payout system and prevents them from showing up in your recommendations.
Meanwhile, fellow music streamer Bandcamp announced a stricter policy on Tuesday, stating that music "generated wholly or in substantial part by AI is not permitted." But more AI is coming: Spotify struck licensing deals with Sony, Universal, and Warner in October to create "artist-first" AI music "in close consultation with artists, producers, and songwriters."—DL | | |
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STAT If your team at work is getting a new hire, it's likely your soon-to-be coworker is still lamenting the demise of skinny jeans. The average new hire in 2025 was 42 years old, up from 40-and-a-half in 2022 and 40 in 2016, according to a recent analysis by workforce data company Revelio Labs. It's not the only sign Revelio found that the workforce is getting older as recent grads struggle to find jobs, according to the Washington Post: - From 2022 to 2025, the share of workers 25 and under shrank from 14.9% to 8.8%.
- Hiring inflows for that younger set are down more than 45% from 2019, while inflows are up almost 80% for those 65 and over during that same period.
- Customer-facing roles like sales reps, real estate agents, and office assistants, in particular, are being dominated by older workers, with the average age for these positions rising by two-and-a-half years since 2015.
Revelio chief economist Lisa Simon told the Post that usually when labor markets tighten, new hires get younger as more entry-level workers join up—but that's not what's happening now as companies prioritize experience in the age of AI. So, in this economy, Kermit was right that it's not easy being green.—AR |
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NEWS - A federal agent shot a Venezuelan immigrant in the leg in Minneapolis yesterday, officials said, as protests continued in the city over an ICE agent's fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good.
- Verizon suffered from widespread outages yesterday that impacted customers' cell service.
- Senate Republicans blocked a resolution that would have curbed President Trump's power to pursue military actions in Venezuela, with two GOP senators flipping from a previous procedural vote.
- Federal judges rebuffed a Republican challenge to California's new election map, which could add five Democratic congressional seats. In other California mapping news, the iconic Highway 1 reopened along the Big Sur coast three years after it was damaged by landslides.
- The FBI searched the home and devices of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson, who covers the federal workforce, looking for classified documents.
- Sales of existing homes surged in December as mortgage rates fell, though they remained static from 2024 for the full year.
- Tesla's Full Self-Driving option will soon be available as a monthly subscription rather than a one-time payment, Elon Musk said.
- Whole milk is coming back to school lunches after President Trump signed a bill that overturned Obama-era restrictions on full-fat dairy.
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PLAY Brew Mini: We think you can complete today's puzzle in 1 minute and 30 seconds or less. Get set and solve it here. Three Headlines and a Lie Three of these headlines are real and one is faker than your $6 neck pillow holding its shape throughout your flight to Europe. Can you spot the odd one out? - A New England museum bought the pizza place next door for $6
- World's fattest parrots set for mating bonanza after bumper berry crop
- Meet 'Jibbi,' the new bag charm drawing Labubu comparisons
- Want a cheese grater hat? Wait list 10,000 deep after Bears comeback over Packers
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SHARE THE BREW  Share the Brew, watch your referral count climb, and unlock brag-worthy swag. Your friends get smarter. You get rewarded. Win-win. Your referral count: 0 Click to Share Or copy & paste your referral link to others:
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ANSWER We made up the one about the pizza place. Word of the Day Today's Word of the Day is: anonymity, meaning "the state of being anonymous or unknown." Thanks to a reader who didn't provide a name (really) for the suggestion. Submit another Word of the Day here. |
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✢ A Note From Miso Robotics This is a paid advertisement for Miso Robotics' Regulation A offering. Please read the offering circular at invest.misorobotics.com. |
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