Hey there weekday warriors,

Not entirely sure what kinda websites JPMorgan employees are heading to on their company laptops, but the bank’s head of asset and wealth management said it’s fighting off 45B attempts to penetrate its systems… every day.

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

• Amazon is picking at the carcass of Diamond Sports

• Samsung drops some new phones

• Americans can’t stop, won’t stop buying stuff

Enjoy the next 4 minutes and 14 seconds of blue-chip news and commentary.

Keep on snapping necks and cashing checks,

- tyler

+ US stocks “closed lower Wednesday for the third-straight session as Treasury yields continued to advance to put the squeeze on tech after stronger-than-expected economic data muddied investor expectations for a Federal Reserve March rate cut.” (Reuters)

+ The 10-year Treasury yield “rose Wednesday, with the 10-year yield hovering near 4.1% as investors focused on stronger-than-expected December retail sales and the latest remarks from Federal Reserve members." (CNBC)

+ Oil prices “were near flat on Wednesday as severe cold that disrupted some U.S. oil production offset disappointing economic growth in China that stoked worries about energy demand.” (Reuters)

+ Bitcoin “fell to intraday lows prior to the Jan. 17 Wall Street open as the World Economic Forum (WEF) offered fresh mainstream criticism.” (Cointelegraph)

+ The three most talked about stocks on WallStreetBets in the past 24 hours were: 1) Nvidia -0.58% 2) Visa +0.52% 3) AMD +0.90%.

Bottom feeding

That vulture Andy Jassy and Amazon have picked dry the carcass of bankrupt regional sports network Diamond Sports. Diamond owns the TV rights to 11 MLB teams, half of the NBA, and ~1/3 of NHL teams.

AMZN is investing ~$100M in the bankrupt regional sports network. It will get a minority stake in the company, and more importantly, the rights to stream the games of 5 MLB teams.

Remind me what the f*ck happened…

Diamond Sports is the orphaned love child of Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox. You see, Uncle Sam forced Disney to divest Fox’s regional sports networks. And Sinclair scooped them up… and rolled them into a subsidiary called, you guessed it, Diamond Sports.

Diamond filed for bankruptcy back in early 2023… mostly because it’s a cable company in a streaming world. It paid a f*ck ton for sports rights (checks out) but faced slowing demand. Thanks, cord-cutters and bandwagon fans.

Oh, and there’s Diamond’s claims that its parent company Sinclair bent it over and showed it the 50 states. According to a lawsuit, Sinclair took more than $1.55B out of its subsidiary… beyond what was due to it. Luckily for Diamond bag holders, that sh*tshow appears to be nearing a resolution…

In addition to the Amazon news, we also found out on Wednesday that Sinclair settled the dispute with Diamond for ~$495M.

So why didn’t Amazon get the rights to all 11 teams?

Because like most leagues, the MLB is greedy af. Diamond only owned the streaming rights to 5 teams, and Major League Baseball wasn’t about to hand over the remainder to Amazon. It’ll need to bid on those…

So, for now, only fans of the Detroit Tigers, the Kansas City Royals, the Miami Marlins, the Milwaukee Brewers, and the Tampa Bay Rays (not exactly a murderer’s row of Major League squads…) will need to pony up for an Amazon Prime account.

The power play adds to Amazon’s roster of sports rights, which includes Thursday Night Football and some other random MLB games.

+ Grant Cardone Says, 'If You're Going To Buy A Car, Don't' — But This $158,000 Vehicle Is The Only One You Should Ever Own (lol) (Read)

+ ChatGPT is particularly useful for people in these 3 industries, says OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (Read)

+ ICYMI... Ever wondered how members of Congress cash in after they retire? Look no further than Tom Suozzi's financial disclosures (Read)

+ Samsung just dropped the latest phone tech that Apple will undoubtedly copy in 2-3 years. It unveiled its S24 phones and devices at its Unleashed event. And, you’re not going to believe this, but pretty much the only thing they talked about was AI.

The green text bois are jamming AI directly into devices vs. putting everything in the cloud to reduce lag. New artificial intelligence features (that most users will probably never use) include real-time translations, more organized note-taking, and updates to Android Auto, like notification summaries. (Read)

+ Americans will literally buy everything instead of going to therapy…

Exhibit A: the Commerce Department reported that retail sales rose 0.6% in December. And before you go all “but it’s not inflation adjusted”… keep in mind that consumer prices rose 0.3%. For the full year, retail sales jumped 5.6%.

Exhibit B: the National Retail Federation reported that retail sales during the holiday season (November and December) jumped 3.8% year over year to $964B. That’s not only in line with expectations but matches pre-pandemic growth. We are so back, baby. (Read)

+ Imagine being the guy who convinced Tim Cook that including blood oxygen sensors in Apple Watches was non-negotiable.

Early on Wednesday, Apple was dealt another setback by a judge who revoked an injunction of a ruling that banned the import of certain Apple Watches during the company’s appeal. Translation? It would not be allowed to import the watches in question.

Then, last night, news broke that Apple would be able to circumvent the ban and begin imports again by simply disabling the blood oxygen feature.

You might recall that the US International Trade Commission banned the import of two Apple Watch models because the oximeter sensor was a direct ripoff of Masimo’s patented tech. For the record, the ITC is still reviewing Apple’s appeal of the initial ruling. (Read)

What else?

+ A day after shares tumbled more than 50%, Spirit Airlines fell another 22%. Listen, I don’t like to point fingers, but US antitrust regulators are about to have blood on their hands… (Read)

+ Former COO Sheryl Sandberg said on Facebook (because she even hates Threads) that she’s stepping down from Meta’s board after 12 years. (Read)

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

+ Truist, KeyCorp, and Birkenstock report

+ The Sundance Film Festival gets underway in Utah. Spoiler: lots of media dealmaking.

+ Meanwhile, in Davos… the World Economic Forum continues all week

Yesterday, I asked What is the defining quality of a great boss?

Bosses… here’s EXACTLY what you need to be doing…

• “Being open to hearing other perspectives/ nice enough that people aren't afraid to ask you questions”

• “Allowing employees to work at their natural pace (assumes you get your sh*t done and you're a good employee)”

• “One that focuses on results, but doesn't micromanage how you achieve them.”

• “If the boss is fair, knowledgeable, considerate, an effective communicator, and maintains high standards of performance for self and team, then that is a key set of ingredients for high morale. And high morale usually accompanies higher performance, quality, standards, safety, the whole thing.”

• “Consistency in a structured management style is best for most workers. You never have to worry about where they are coming from.”

Here’s today’s question…

You get to spend an hour with one person (they have to be alive), who is it? And why?

Reply directly to this email and I’ll share the results tomorrow.

Oh, and one more thing…

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...

This is not financial advice. Nothing in this newsletter is an investment recommendation. All content is created for entertainment, educational, or informational purposes only. Do your own research, or do yourself a favor and hire a professional