🦅🗣️Eagle Noises: Jan 26, Issue 12

Good Moo-rning, Freedom Fans! 🐮🇺🇸

We know, we know—this week's newsletter is more Trump-filled than a Mar-a-Lago press conference. But with the avalanche of executive orders, policy shake-ups, and headline-grabbing antics, it was either dive in or pretend the elephant wasn't in the room. 🐘💇‍♂️

Programming Note: We'll be taking a brief hiatus next week (Feb 2). One of our admins is off to prepare for an interview, while the other is seeking enlightenment on a pilgrimage. Wish us luck on both fronts, and we’ll be back Feb 9 with fewer Trump headlines and, hopefully, more zen. 🧘‍♂️✨

Until then, buckle up—it’s going to be a wild ride this week! 🎢

Markets (USD) - Weekly

NASDAQ

19,954.30

1.52%

S&P 500

6,101.24

1.77%

D-JIA

44,424.25

2.57%

2-Year Yield

4.263%

-1.10

10-Year Yield

4.617%

0.40

Bitcoin

104,655.60

-0.22%

Netflix (NFLX)

977.59

13.89%

Jan 20

🦅🇺🇸 First Order of Business

Image Source: Rawpixel

Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States yesterday, and somehow, his Oval Office pen still had ink after a day 1 signing spree. Within hours of regaining the ‘president’ title, Trump unleashed a blizzard of executive orders. Here’s a breakdown of the orders that, we think, would affect investors.

  • Energy: Declared a national energy emergency, reopening ANWR1 for drilling and withdrawing (again) from the Paris Climate Accord.

  • Trade: 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada are set for Feb 1, though no immediate action yet.

  • Immigration: Declared a national emergency at the southern border, attempted to end birthright citizenship, reinstated “Remain in Mexico”2, and labeled cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.

  • TikTok: Gave the app a 75-day reprieve to address legal woes.

  • DOGE: Made the “Department of Government Efficiency” official, but co-lead Vivek Ramaswamy and legal counsel William McGinley stepped down. DOGE also faces three new lawsuits accusing it of failing to meet transparency requirements established by a 1972 law.

Other Highlights:

  • EV Target Cancelled: Revoked Biden’s EV target of 50% electric vehicles by 2030.

  • AI Guardrails Removed: Scrapped Biden’s AI safety-test mandate for developers.

  • Anti-DEI: DEI officials in federal agencies are being placed on leave, with each agency ordered to investigate private sector DEI policies.

  • Pulled the U.S. out of the World Health Organization: (again).

NOTE: Executive orders do not need Congressional approval, but they are still limited by law, and can be overturned in court

Jan 20

“I Think This Will Be The Most Important Project Of This Era”

Image Source: Free Malaysia Today

The title is what Sam Altman proclaimed as he stood beside Trump, who continued his content goldmine of an inauguration day (and yes, we’re so loving it) with a $500 billion AI mega-venture. Stargate, backed by OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle, promises to fuel AI’s future by building data centers, high-capacity power grids, and all the infrastructure AI dreams are made of.

Naturally, the announcement came with a side of drama. Elon Musk crashed the party by claiming SoftBank “doesn’t actually have the money,” prompting Sam Altman to clap back and invite Musk to tour construction sites already underway. The spat quickly revived memories of Trump’s past promises, like Wisconsin’s “Eighth Wonder of the World,” aka the Foxconn factory that became the eighth blunder instead.

Wall Street, however, didn’t much care. Investors flocked to Stargate’s orbit. In 24 hours after the announcement, SoftBank shares soared over 10%, Oracle shot up nearly 11%, and Nvidia—because what’s AI without their chips?—climbed 3.44%. Even Arm Holdings, a seemingly irrelevant semiconductor manufacturer, jumped 5%.

Jan 22

No Matter What You Do, There Will Always Be An Asian Better Than You

Image Source: n/a

ByteDance just lobbed a grenade at OpenAI on Wednesday by unveiling the Doubao-1.5-pro, an upgraded version of their AI model that claims to outperform OpenAI’s o1 in a performance benchmark. Doubao also significantly undercuts OpenAI in price, costing just 2 yuan ($0.30) per million tokens versus OpenAi’s 438 yuan ($64) for the same usage.

But there’s more, the startup, Deepseek, also launched its DeepSeek-R1 model on Monday, which reportedly ALSO rivals OpenAI’s o1 in several performance benchmarks, all while being available to use for free and being open-source3.

With OpenAI off-limits to Chinese IPs, Sam Altman is left watching from afar as Chinese AI companies gobble up domestic market share.

Jan 22

🦑📈Squid Game to Stock Gains

Image Source: Flickr

Netflix shares soared 14% on Tuesday after the company smashed Q4 expectations, blowing past both top and bottom lines. For the first time, Netflix crossed 300 million paid members, fueled by a record-setting 19 million new subs in a quarter.

Here's how Netflix performed in Q4 compared to Wall Street estimates:

Actual

Estimate

Earnings per share

$4.27

$4.20 (LSEG)

Revenue

$10.25 billion

$10.11 billion (LSEG)

Paid memberships

301.63 million

290.9 million (StreetAccount)

Netflix credited its diverse global content slate, including Squid Game Season 2 and live events like the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight, for driving its record growth.

Looking ahead to 2025, Netflix raised its revenue forecast by $500 million to $43.5–$44.5 billion and raised prices on its Standard tier by $2 (now $15.49 per month) and its Premium tier by $1 (now $22.99 per month) in the U.S., signaling confidence in the value of its offering.

Jan 24

🏘️ Fewer Homes, Bigger Bills

Image Source: Rawpixel

Existing home sales in the U.S. fell to their lowest level since 1995—back when the population was 23% smaller and people thought Friends might not get renewed. Only 4.06 million homes were sold in 2024 which represents a 0.7% drop from the year before. A far cry from the 6 million sold in 2022.

Blame the high mortgage rates! Which lingered between 6% and 8% all year, making homeownership more expensive. Rising property taxes and insurance costs added to the financial pain. Despite sluggish sales, the median home price climbed to $404,400 in 2024, a 6% increase from the previous year.

Why are sales so low, yet prices so high? 

Supply, duh. Even though inventory increased by 16.2% in 2024 compared to the year prior, it’s still far below historical norms. Many homeowners who bought their property during low mortgage rates are holding onto their homes, unwilling to sell and trade up to a higher rate.

With fewer homes available, buyers are forced to compete for a limited supply, squeezing the market from both ends.

  • Tech titans turned up in style at Trump’s inauguration, stealing the spotlight—and some of the best seats—from Trump’s own cabinet. Notable attendees included Elon Musk (Tesla), Tim Cook (Apple), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), and Sam Altman (OpenAI), many of whom were once vocal critics of Trump during his first term.

  • Trump says he will “demand” lower interest rates immediately. However, US interest rates are set by the Federal Reserve, which is independent and makes its decisions based on market dynamics and not presidential directives.

  • Walmart market managers now earn up to $620,000, with base salaries up 25% to $160,000. This is part of Walmart’s efforts to retain talent amid booming sales.

  • Trump pardons Silk Road founder, Ross Ulbricht, who was sentenced to life for operating the Bitcoin-powered digital marketplace where buyers and sellers of illegal items can transact anonymously.

  • Instagram unveils Edits, a video editing app that is a “near clone” of rival CapCut, which briefly went offline alongside TikTok. Edits is now available for preorder on the IOS App Store.

  • Biden issues pardons for family members, Dr. Fauci, Gen. Milley, and January 6 investigators, claiming it protects them from politically motivated attacks. Critics call it an attack on justice.

  • MicroStrategy Buys $1B More Bitcoin While Handling Debt: MicroStrategy bought 11,000 Bitcoin for $1.1B this week, bringing its total to 461,000 BTC (worth $47.9B). The company uses convertible notes (a type of loan that can turn into company shares) and stock sales to fund these purchases. The company’s shareholders have recently approved a 30x increase in authorised class A shares, allowing more fundraising for future Bitcoin buys. This strategy has made MicroStrategy one of the largest Bitcoin holders, owning over 2% of all BTC that will ever exist.

  • Trump Launched Meme-coin with Suspicious ‘Token-omics’: Trump’s new cryptocurrency, TRUMP, hit $75 per coin before plummeting to $28 as of today. Critics call it a stunt with poor design since Trump’s team controls 80% of the coins. While some see it as a sign crypto is going mainstream. Melania Trump also launched her own meme-coin that plummeted in a similar fashion.

  1. ANWR: Short for The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It is an area in Alaska rich in wildlife and oil reserves that is now open to oil exploration and drilling.

  2. Remain in Mexico Policy: A policy that requires asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border to stay in Mexico while their cases are processed. Critics argue that the policy exposes vulnerable migrants to dangerous conditions, while supporters claim it deters fraudulent asylum claims.

  3. Open Source: This means that the DeepSeek-R1 model’s code and design are freely available for anyone to view, use, and share. DeepSeek released the model under the MIT license, which permits free commercial and academic use.

RJ Matson, courtesy of CQRollCall

###Cartoon does not reflect the opinions of the TWC crew, we just thought it was funny###

~Newsletter friendies we think are equally cool~

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  • Show Both Sides: Unbiased political coverage with a lil’ humor sprinkled in.

  • WriteOff: Tax & Finance life hacks to help put an extra buck back into your pocket.

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DISCLAIMER: This newsletter is for educational purposes only, and is not intended as financial advice, investment guidance, or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets. While we strive for accuracy, we cannot guarantee all information is error-free. Always exercise caution and conduct your own research before making financial decisions.