Hey Snackers,
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.
Tesla’s exciting ride
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.Â
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.Â
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.
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.
The Takeaway
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.
The game is back on for GameStop with bullish options activity, new members in the chat
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.
The Takeaway
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.Â
The Best Thing We Read Today
A whistle-stop tour of the state of artificial intelligence
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.
Snacks Shots
🏛️ Shutdown: Last week Senate Democrats got their vote on Obamacare subsidies — the concession extracted from the government shutdown — but it did not ultimately succeed. Another potential funding lapse is coming up at the end of January, and currently markets are pricing in a 38% chance of another shutdown.Â
🎮 “PokĂ©mon”: A collector who has gone viral for his quest to own every original “PokĂ©mon” card of Kabuto has sent the market price for the card spiking sharply, with the price of a near mint first edition jumping from a little over $5 a month ago to nearly $60 today. Per Polymarket, the market’s pricing in a 68% chance that a Kabuto first edition hits $100 by the end of the year. Â
đź’¸ Bitcoin: BTC has taken a real beating this year, and currently the market’s pricing in just a 12% chance that the price will rebound above $100,000 this year.Â
*Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.
What Else We're Snackin'
Deutsche Bank highlighted four roadblocks for tech CEOs’ new obsession: data centers in space
iRobot filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy just 11 days after its record one-day gain
Nearly 20% of Meta’s Chinese ad revenue came from scams and other banned content, Reuters reported
Why Value + Momentum Could Be the Missing Link in Your PortfolioÂ
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.
VictoryShares ETFs provide investors with the tools to capture both. Explore the case for value & momentum.
Snack Fact Of The Day
Tax breaks given to Meta by Louisiana on just the sales tax of GPUs are enough to build 33 new high schools.
Today's Earnings
Bureau of Labor Statistics releases delayed November jobs dataÂ
Earnings expected from Lennar
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