📈First Jobs Report of the Year: A seemingly strong U.S. job report for January released, with 130,000 jobs added and inflation cooling to 2.4%. But the same release revealed some quiet revisions. Official BLS revisions show 2025 only created 181,000 jobs, not the 584,00 previously estimated. TLDR; January was solid, but 2025 really sucked.

📈Best Investment this Century?: Alphabet Inc., parent company of Google, raised $20 billion on Monday with a corporate bond maturing in 2066. On Tuesday, they did the same in the EU, raising $12 billion but with a 100 year bond sale that was 10x over subscribed. The 100y bond yielded 6.05%.

📈I Don’t Want to Play With You Anymore: Mattel, the maker of Barbie and Hot Wheels plunged 28% following the release of its earnings on Tuesday. Q4 sales rose to $1.77 billion, falling short of $1.84 billion expectations due to slower Christmas sales in the US. Internationally, Mattel hit expectations or expanded market share.

📈A New Middle Class?: The average client seeking help from credit-counseling agencies in the US now earns $70,000, up from $40,000 in 2018 and the majority of the debt is no longer discretionary debt but survival debt. With a recent report (here) showing financial stress forecast to reach an all time high this quarter.

🌎Trump Targets EPA Finding: The Trump administration plans to repeal the EPA’s 2009 “endangerment finding”, which is a scientific determination that greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare. If it goes through, the requirements to measure, report, certify and comply with federal GHG standards for motor vehicles will be wiped. It would also roll back the surrounding compliance programs, credit provisions and reporting obligations for industries as well.

🌎Thanos-esque Policy: Switzerland will vote on 10 June on whether to cap the country’s population at 10M. If the permanent population (now ~9.1M) rises above 9.5M, the initiative would force the government to start blocking new arrivals. If the population reaches 10M and the numbers still do not fall, the government would be required to pull out of its free-movement agreement with the EU, cutting access to the broader European workforce.

🌎Alleged Police Brutaility In Sydney: Australia’s NSW police watchdog (the LECC) will investigate alleged misconduct by officers during Monday’s protest over Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit. Videos from the rally appear to show police punching protestors and dragging away men who were praying. The NSW police say 27 protestors were arrested and 10 officers were assaulted. The LECC will deliver a public report to the NSW Parliament.

🌎Hong Kong Sentences Jimmy Lai: Founder of now-shuttered Apple Daily and high-profile pro-democracy critic of Beijing, Jimmy Lai, has been sentenced to 20 years under the national security law in Hong Kong, marking the harshest term the law has handed out so far. The court said he masterminded conspiracies to collude with foreign forces. Supporters frame it as punishment for dissent and journalism.

👔WBD Deal Homewrecker: Activist fund Ancora disclosed a ~$200M stake in Warner Bros. Discovery (~1% of the company) and says it opposes Netflix’s bid for WBD’s studios + HBO Max. Netflix is offering $27.75 per share in cash for those assets. Ancora argues WBD hasn’t seriously engaged with Paramount Skydance’s $30-per-share all-cash offer for the entire company, and is threatening a proxy fight if the board won’t negotiate harder.

👔Let’s Give Us One More Chance: Kraft Heinz has hit pause on its planned breakup announced last year September. New CEO Steve Cahillane now believes all challenges are fixable. His turnaround plan includes USD$600M spent across marketing, sales, and R&D, as well as a focus on more healthy and convenient offerings. Exihibit A: PowerMac, launching this year, a TV dinner with 17g of protein.

👔Novocure Delivers A Win: Novocure $NVCR ( ▼ 0.26% ) says the FDA approved it’s Optune Pax for treating pancreatic cancer, to be used alongside gemcitabine + nab-paclitaxel. The nod was backed by a phase 3 trial, where Optune Pax delivered a statistically significant overall-survival lift and delayed pain progression. Shares jumped as much as ~53% after-hours on the news, though prices have corrected significantly since the announcement.

👔McKinsey Endowment Changes Hands: MIO or McKinsey Investment Office is responsible for managing the $20 billion pension plans of employees, although it does act as a hedge fund to make things interesting. Instead of being run internally, MIO is being handed over to Neuberger Berman, adding to its nearly $600 billion portfolio.

🤪More Realistic Goals Before The IPO: Musk says SpaceX is reprioritizing from “Mars first” to building a “self-growing” city on the Moon, arguing Mars would take 20+ years while the Moon can be done in less than half the time. He adds that Mars still happens in parallel, but the Moon is now the faster critical path.

🤪OpenAI Fires Safety Exec Ahead of Adult Launch: Ryan Beiermeister was fired “related to sexual discrimination against a male colleague”. Beiermeister had previously raised safety concerns about ChatGPT offering AI erotica, saying OpenAI’s ability to prevent child exploitation and teens accessing adult content were lacking. OpenAI denies her firing was due to any comment made.

🤪A Holier Way to Invest: On Tuesday the Vatican Bank released two stock indicies, one for the US and one for the EU, that invest on the basis of Catholic principles. What that exactly means, we aren’t sure, but top holdings include Meta, Amazon, Deutsche Telekom and ASML.

🤪North Korea Might Get A Female Leader Before the U.S.: The newest successor to Kim Jong Un is apparently his 13 year old daughter according to South Korea’s intelligence agencies. The pair have been spotted inspecting ships, ICBMs and other state events — the usual father-daughter experience.