Hey Snackers,
Why does it seem to take longer to adjust to “springing forward” than “falling back”? We don’t know the answer, but our sleep is still suffering and we count ourselves firmly in the 54% of Americans who want to end daylight saving time.Â
The markets also woke up on the wrong side of bed yesterday. The S&P 500 sank 2.7% for its worst day of the year and the Nasdaq 100 tumbled 3.8% in its worst session since 2022. The rout in momentum stocks continues to be at the heart of the market’s struggles, though increasing fears about a US economic downturn are causing broader pain.
Tech, consumer discretionary, communication services, and financials were the worst-performing sectors — financials erased all their year-to-date gains with Monday’s retreat.Â
Market meltdown
Listen, there’s no way around it — yesterday was a brutal day for the market. The drop was the worst day of 2025, as concerns about the overall health of the economy became an increasing concern for investors.Â
Let’s run back the tape, shall we?
Meta is the last of the Magnificent 7 still standing, as the only stock of the cohort still in the black for the year.
Semiconductors, which have been the real workhorse engine of the market over the most recent AI-fueled cycle, are lagging the S&P 500 by over 15% over the course of the year.Â
There’s no uncertainty left in quantum; the combined market value of Rigetti Computing, D-Wave Quantum, IonQ, and Quantum Computing has lost $13 billion and counting in market cap since January 6.Â
The finance industry had a rough day, with the banking sector getting slammed while new finance companies like Robinhood* and SoFi took a tumble as well. Â
Assets that have soared since the election had a bad start to the week, with Palantir finishing just shy of its deepest daily drop since last May.
Airlines continued to shed value, with the big four airlines — Delta, United, American, and Southwest — shedding about $24 billion in value over the past month.Â
Sports betting apps got shellacked. Â
So, where do we go from here?
Take the semiconductor performance stat from the other day. Since the launch of the ETF in late 2011, it’s been rare for semis to lag the benchmark US stock index by much more than this over a one-year period, which may hint at a relative bottom. On the other hand, we’ve seldom seen the degree of colossal outperformance that a handful of chip stocks have been able to deliver in recent years.
The Takeaway
As our good friend Sam Ro of TKer is fond of pointing out, usually stocks go up. But this sell-off isn’t exactly unique: one-day sell-offs of 3% or more aren’t that unusual.
♥️ Y Combinator Dropout Raises $14M from Investors to Disrupt the $5B Implantable Cardiac Monitor Market
Meet Future Cardia, a bold and scrappy innovator redefining implantable cardiac monitoring — taking on billion-dollar giants in the $5B+ estimated annual market.1
How’s It Going?
 ✅39 successful human implants — evidencing its breakthrough technology in real-world patients.
✅60,000+ hours of real-world cardiac data collected — delivering exceptional insights for early disease detection.
✅Accelerated by Stanford StartX and Incubated by Johnson & Johnson’s JLABS
The Even More Exciting News?
Future Cardia has already raised $14M across all offerings, and now, investors have the chance to own a stake in the next big innovation in heart health.
This is the future of cardiac care — invest today.2 ♥️
Business leaders want cheaper AI. They may get their wish with this new model.
After arriving suddenly on the AI scene in January, DeepSeek upended a lot of preexisting assumptions about AI. Namely, it subverted the idea that to get better models, companies would have to spend more. In a survey of business leaders, more than half said they believe DeepSeek offers comparable performance to better-known models from OpenAI, Meta, Google, and Alibaba. But because leaders lack trust in DeepSeek’s data privacy measures, ultimately, DeepSeek won’t influence their AI spending plans.
The main effect DeepSeek has had on AI expectations? Businesses expect AI to be cheaper.Â
How can AI become cheaper? Say less:Â
AI models are priced by the number of “tokens,” or portions of words, that are input and output by the model. For example, OpenAI’s o3-mini “chain of reasoning” model involves breaking down a problem into detailed, step-by-step instructions. These steps can be pretty verbose, and when it comes to AI, more words = more cost.
An alternative to this chain of reasoning model has been proposed by researchers at Zoom. This new technique is called “chain of draft”: if you tell a model to simply limit those steps to succinct “drafts” of only five words instead of wordy sentences, not only can you still achieve high performance on responses, but you can cut computing costs by up to 90%.
The Takeaway
This new chain of draft approach is faster, cheaper, and sometimes better than chain of reasoning. Chain of draft is also notable for its ease of use: users can simply change the prompts they enter to see this benefit. After DeepSeek reset businesses’ expectations for cheaper AI, chain of draft is one possible way to cut costs by 90%.
The Best Thing We Read Today
The crypto summit that crashed crypto
Last Friday’s inaugural White House Crypto Summit was a tale of great expectations that ultimately fell flat and dragged the whole crypto market down with it.Â
40 years of the Nasdaq-100.
A hundred and 1.. From Nvidia to Netflix, the Nasdaq-100® tracks a hundred of the world’s most innovative stocks in a single index. Since 1985, it’s been a moving snapshot of the companies that shape our world.
Then and now… We take a closer look at the NDX®, its remarkable evolution and how traders can use it3 — read on sherwood.news.
Yesterday’s Big Daily Movers
Tesla officially shed its Trump bump as it slid another 15.5% yesterday, dropping the most in a single day since 2020. It’s now the worst performer in the S&P 500 this year
Strategy sank over 16% as bitcoin plunged — and the announcement it’s buying more bitcoin did not help matters
Reddit took a huge hit from the tech sector rout, getting downvoted to the tune of 20% by investors
Redfin, meanwhile, skyrocketed 67% on news it was being acquired
What Else We're Snackin'
As we hit the five-year anniversary of the pandemic, The New York Times gathered 30 charts that show how Covid changed everything
Chinese animated blockbuster “Ne Zha 2” is the first movie to make over $2 billion in a single marketÂ
How “anything but the USA” became the new mantra in global marketsÂ
Mac & cheese, PB&J, weapons of war: what’s holding up during this market meltdown
Snack Fact
What’s a Best Picture win worth at the box office? For “Anora” it was $2.5 million.
Events
January job openings
Earnings expected from Dick’s Sporting Goods and Kohl’s
*Robinhood Markets Inc. is the parent company of Sherwood Media, an independently operated media company.
1 The Total Addressable Market is estimated to be $5.3 billion dollars.
This product is not yet available for purchase and requires review and clearance before being marketed or sold.
2 Please read the offering circular and related risks here. This is a paid advertisement for Future Cardia’s Regulation CF Offering. This Reg CF offering is made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC.
Investing in private company securities is not suitable for all investors because it is highly speculative and involves a high degree of risk. It should only be considered a long-term investment. You must be prepared to withstand a total loss of your investment. Private company securities are also highly illiquid, and there is no guarantee that a market will develop for such securities.
3 It is not possible to invest directly in an index.
Nasdaq®, Nasdaq-100 Index®, Nasdaq-100®, and NDX® are trademarks of Nasdaq, Inc. The information contained above is provided for informational and educational purposes only, and nothing contained herein should be construed as investment advice, either on behalf of a particular security or an overall investment strategy. Neither Nasdaq, Inc. nor any of its affiliates makes any recommendation to buy or sell any security or any representation about the financial condition of any company. Statements regarding Nasdaq-listed companies or Nasdaq proprietary indexes are not guarantees of future performance. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Investors should undertake their own due diligence and carefully evaluate companies before investing. ADVICE FROM A SECURITIES PROFESSIONAL IS STRONGLY ADVISED.