Hey there weekday warriors,

I don’t know who needs to hear this… but don’t f*ck with Bill Ackman. Dude went scorched earth on the media and pretty much the entire Ivy League this weekend.

Here’s what else we’re getting into today…

• Boeing just had a blowout

• Wake up babe, new jobs data just dropped

• The US gets a budget

Enjoy the next 4 minutes and 11 seconds of blue-chip news and commentary.

Keep on snapping necks and cashing checks,

- tyler

PS, there’s an important EXIT INTERVIEW today. I’m bringing back the referral program and need your feedback. If you haven’t already, I would appreciate it if you scrolled allll the way to the bottom to answer (it’s multiple-choice).

+ US stocks “were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Telecoms, Financials and Consumer Services sectors led shares higher.” (Investing.com)

+ The 10-year Treasury yield “moved in mixed directions on Friday as traders weighed the U.S. economic outlook following the latest nonfarm payrolls data release." (CNBC)

+ Oil “prices settled higher on Friday as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken began a week-long sweep through the Middle East in an attempt to contain regional tensions stoked by the Israel-Hamas conflict.” (Reuters)

+ Bitcoin hovered around $44k for most of Sunday.

+ The three most talked about stocks on WallStreetBets in the past 24 hours were: 1) Boeing +1.66% 2) C3.ai -2.26% 3) Tesla -0.18%.

Blowout

Welp, guys, we finally found out what happens when you don’t put your phone on airplane mode…

On Friday night, a whole a** panel blew out of the side of an Alaska Airlines flight on its way from Portland to Ontario. And I’m not sure what’s a worse fate, getting sucked out of a jet or having to return to Portland…

Luckily, no one was hurt. Possibly because the blowout happened at 16,000 feet, which means the plane was still ascending, so passengers were seated with their tray tables in the upright position. Oh, and it just so happens there was no one seated next to the panel that pulled a D.B. Cooper.

So wtf happened?

The plane was rocked by “an explosive decompression at the window exit.” Turns out the specific exit where the incident occurred isn’t used on Alaska Airlines because of its seating configuration. So, it’s “plugged.” Or, so they thought…

Did I mention the plane was a Boeing 737 Max 9? As in, the same type of jet that crashed, not once, but twice (in 2018 and 2019, killing nearly 350 people in total.

To the surprise of literally no one, the FAA grounded all Boeing 737 Max 9s pending an investigation and inspections. Oh, and if you happen to see a huge chunk of a plane somewhere outside of Portland, please

You might recall that that just a week ago, Boeing urged airlines to inspect specific bolts on the rudder system of 737 Maxs.

The good news is that shares of Boeing didn’t drop on the news… because markets were closed when the midair catastrophe occurred. The bad news? Markets open again today…

+ Americans are racking up more ‘phantom debt’ — why that’s a problem (Read)

+ This Is How Much Warren Buffett Was Worth At Your Age (Read)

+ ICYMI... High earners have a little-known option to boost 401(k) plan savings: It’s ‘the best place’ to save more, expert says (Read)

+ The selfishness on the part of employers in this great nation knows no bounds…

US companies continue to hire, putting our portfolios at risk. Friday’s jobs report showed that the US added 216k jobs in December, well above the 170k expected. Thanks a lot, government (+52k jobs) and healthcare sectors (+38k jobs).

But wait, it gets worse. Wages jumped 0.4% on the month and were up 4.1% vs. a year ago. Both figures were above expectations.

So, what does it mean?

Well, investors got a little less sure of the Fed cutting rates in March following Friday’s print. Futures markets lowered the odds of a cut in Q1 to 56%. (Read)

+ “It’s so f*cking big.” - every American when they hear how much the US’ budget will be in fiscal 2024

Congress finally decided on how much the government can spend in the year of our lord 2024. The US will get $1.6T in fun coupons. For the record, $886B of that is earmarked for defense spending *’Fortunate Son’ by Creedence Clearwater Revival begins playing*

Of course, deciding on the top line is just one part of the equation. Congress still needs to figure out how to allocate the money and get spending bills signed… before a January 19th deadline. If a deal isn’t reached, certain parts of the government will shut down. (Read)

+ “Look how they massacred my boy.” - Steve Jobs, probably

It’s been a brutal 2024 for Apple. All 8 days of it. A couple of Wall Street downgrades that cited lackluster iPhone sales sent AAPL into a death spiral. Then on Friday the NYT (so take it with a grain of salt) said the US DoJ could be preparing an antitrust suit against the iPhone maker.

What's got the fun police ready to make Tim Apple their b*tch? A bunch of stuff. Like iMessages and the Apple Watch only playing nice inside the Apple ecosystem. Shares were down ~1% on the day. (Read)

+ Listen up, lot lizards…

It appears that the future of the Pilot Travel Center truck stops will be decided outside of court. A trial that would have pit Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway against the Haslam family has been canceled.

Berkshire, which had bought most of Pilot from the Haslam family, was accused of using “creative accounting” to decrease the value of the truck stop chain. Why would they do that, you ask? Because they wanted to buy the 20% they don’t own yet at a discount (allegedly). To be fair, Berkshire claims the Haslams were paying execs to boost the value.

It’s not entirely clear if the two sides cut a deal. (Read)

Here's what I'm keeping an eye on today...

+ Jefferies reports

+ CES, the ICR (retail), and the JPM Healthcare Conference all get underway

Here’s today’s question…

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Does this look like the face of a guy you should take financial advice from?

No, it’s the face of an individual who is financially irresponsible/dumb enough to be talked into spending money on a family photo shoot that he could have just done with his iPhone. So, act accordingly...

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