Macro

The International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) launched a strike at 14 major U.S. East and Gulf Coast ports after contract talks with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) collapsed over wages and automation. The work stoppage, affecting $3 trillion in annual trade, threatens supply chains, holiday retail, and industries like pharmaceuticals and autos, with potential economic losses exceeding $3.7 billion per week. Market implications include rising logistics costs, delays, and inflationary pressures, particularly if the strike persists beyond a few days.

Consumer sector sentiment remains neutral despite the ILA dockworkers' strike halting operations at East and Gulf Coast ports, which has disrupted supply chains and delayed goods. The initial negative impact has been offset by expectations of a short-lived disruption and resilient consumer spending patterns evident in recent retail data. Broader availability of goods and stable employment have supported demand, tempering concerns from the port stoppage.

Housing stayed frozen as mortgage rates lingered at 6.5-7.5% and sales hit multi-decade lows, while office CRE distress deepened against a wall of maturities; home values held on lock-in scarcity, and the Fed's September cut brought modest hope.

GLP-1 leaders (Lilly hitting record value) kept me euphoric early, but managed care melted down under Medicare Advantage rate cuts and rising medical costs, the Change Healthcare cyberattack disrupted the system, and Medicare's first negotiated drug prices bit;

Reshoring, infrastructure spending and a booming data-center/electrification capex cycle (power and electrical equipment) kept order books strong; Boeing's quality crisis and the Key Bridge collapse were specific drags…

Google has signed a deal to buy power from Kairos Power's small modular reactors to meet rising data center energy demands and support clean growth. The agreement signals strong market demand for scalable, emissions-free nuclear energy, as tech giants seek reliable power for AI expansion. This move underscores a growing trend of tech companies investing in nuclear to meet sustainability goals and energy reliability.

The energy sector is feeling cautiously optimistic this month, supported by growing corporate appetite for firm, clean power. Google’s partnership with Kairos Power to supply nuclear energy for data centers signals rising demand for reliable, carbon-free baseload power, reinforcing investor confidence in next-generation nuclear as a scalable solution. This tailwind, combined with broader tech-sector electrification trends, underpins the sector’s modestly bullish tilt.

A strong bull market, spot-Bitcoin-ETF approvals (an asset-gathering bonanza), reviving M&A and IPOs, Fed rate cuts, and the private-credit boom made it an excellent year, capped by a post-election bank rally on deregulation hopes and Bitcoin topping $100,000.

AI-driven ad targeting and record political-ad spending powered a strong year; streaming reached profitability and Meta/Alphabet/Netflix led the sector higher. Steadily positive.

A euphoric AI-capex supercycle: Nvidia's blowout earnings added record value and it passed Microsoft as the world's most valuable company ($3.3T); a July megacap rotation, the CrowdStrike outage and the Aug 5 carry-trade selloff were brief wobbles.

Amazon and Google nuclear SMR deals, generation renaissance

Gold broke out to a string of record highs on central-bank buying and the Fed's rate-cut cycle, copper spiked to a record in May on electrification demand, and precious-metals owners enjoyed a strong, appreciating year.

Early-year uncertainty from the Congressional Ukraine-aid stall gave way to April's $61B supplemental, and Iran-Israel strikes, the Israel-Hezbollah war and China's Taiwan drills sustained record global demand;