Good Morning! Good Morning! Oracle got crushed post-earnings, briefly losing $100B in market cap and $25B of Larry Ellison’s net worth. U.S. home prices just turned negative YoY for the first time since mid-2023. And VanEck renamed its gaming ETF ($BJK) the “Degen Economy ETF.”

Disney is investing $1B in OpenAI to bring its characters into Sora, Broadcom beat earnings and says AI chip sales will double this quarter, and Trump signed an executive order pushing a single national AI regulatory standard.

Plus: Trump says he may eliminate taxes on gambling winnings, Jamie Dimon warns the biggest threat to national security might be America’s workforce, and the underrated power of simply staying in the game.

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SQUEEZ OF THE DAY

Boutique Banks’ New Superpower

The biggest competitive advantage for an investment bank coming into 2026 might not be the best rainmakers, the biggest balance sheet, or even the best relationships or proprietary models. It might be their own deal history.

After years of hyping up AI, banks are finally doing the grunt work that creates real leverage: wiring together decades of pitch books, valuation models, fairness opinions, covenant matrices, and precedent transactions into clean AI-ready datasets.

Boutiques are leading the charge. Moelis and Houlihan Lokey are building industrial-scale datasets from nearly two decades of transactions. The pitch is simple: if AI can ingest every deal you’ve ever done, your bankers can see patterns no competitor can replicate.

Moelis’ Navid Mahmoodzadegan says the entire deal archive is now being fed into the firm’s internal AI stack to tighten pitches, upgrade advice, and accelerate execution. Houlihan, with its massive mid-market volume, says its dataset can analyze markets and valuations from a vantage point the rest of the industry simply does not have.

Some banks are even monetizing the data itself. Houlihan has leveraged its portfolio valuation practice to launch a private-credit data platform built from more than 60,000 loan valuations, turning internal insights into a client-facing product.

The obvious question is whether AI replaces junior bankers. For now, leadership says no. Productivity rises, and execution speeds up, but headcount does not shrink. Moelis is hiring its largest analyst classes ever.

Older MDs say that spreadsheets, broadband, cloud storage, and mobile didn’t replace junior analysts; they just made banking faster. PJT founder Paul Taubman said: when bankers get better tools, they simply do more for clients. AI is likely to follow the same pattern.

The deeper strategic story is that relationship banking is being quietly fused with data banking. Firms are arming senior bankers with sharper comps, insights, and faster prep. Junior bankers are getting tools that compress workstreams that used to take days. And client conversations are shifting from anecdotes to analytics.

Takeaway: Bankers finally understand their greatest asset is not a mode, it is their deal history. And AI is here to unlock it for them. The firms that organize their archives first will win more mandates and accelerate execution. The future of banking is not replacing analysts; it is monetizing and weaponizing the past.

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Founded by Mukund Jha, the platform uses autonomous AI agents to handle everything from frontend to deployment. The result: 2.5 million users and $25 million ARR in just five months since launch.

Google’s AI Futures Fund just made a strategic investment in Emergent, backing the company alongside Lightspeed, Prosus, Y Combinator, and Together Fund. Mukund previously worked at Google, learning how to build at scale. Now the company that taught him is backing what he built.

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HEADLINES

Top Reads

• Oracle posts weak cloud sales, raising fear of delayed payoff (BB)

• US home prices negative for first time in two years (CNBC)

• VanEck turns online slang into strategy with degen economy ETF (CNBC)

• Disney to invest $1 billion in OpenAI, license characters for use in ChatGPT Sora (WSJ)

• Broadcom forecasts upbeat quarterly revenue (YF)

• Trump signs executive order for single national AI regulation standard, limiting power of states (CNBC)

• Trump says consider wiping federal gambling winning taxes (YF)

• JPMorgan says biggest threat to national security may be America’s workforce (Axios)

• Lululemon CEO Calvin McDonald departing as retailer struggles to compete (CNBC)

• Jamie Dimon says AI will eliminate jobs but these skills will get you opportunities (CNBC)

• Harness is worth $5.5 billion in round led by Goldman Sachs (CNBC)

• TPG prepares for real estate fundraising push across firm (BB)

• Nine large US banks engaged in debanking practices, OCC says (BB)

• Bessent to propose major overhaul of regulatory body created from financial crisis (CNBC)

• Wall Street prepares for $3 trillion IPO gusher (Axios)

CAPITAL PULSE

Markets Rundown

Market Update

• Stocks finished higher Thursday, extending gains after the Fed’s rate cut, as materials and financials led the advance.

• Technology and communication services lagged after Oracle shares dropped sharply following weaker-than-expected revenue and continued heavy spending on data centers.

• Overseas, Asian markets slipped overnight, while European equities climbed, supported by the Swiss National Bank’s decision to hold rates at 0%, in line with expectations.

• The U.S. dollar weakened modestly against major currencies, while WTI oil prices declined after the U.S. seized a sanctioned tanker off Venezuela’s coast.

Economic Data Highlights

• Initial jobless claims rose to 236,000, above forecasts and marking the highest level in three months.

• Continuing claims fell slightly to 1.84 million, suggesting the labor market is cooling gradually but remains stable.

• The unemployment rate held at 4.4%, while job openings rose to 7.7 million, still above the number of unemployed workers.

• We believe this mix of data supports a soft-landing scenario, where slowing hiring and modest layoffs coexist with steady consumer spending and real wage growth.

Sector Trends

• Financials and materials led Thursday’s rally, benefiting from the improved economic outlook and steeper yield curve.

• Technology stocks underperformed following Oracle’s miss, though AI-related names remained resilient.

• Energy declined alongside oil prices, while utilities traded modestly higher.

Bond Market & Outlook

• Treasury yields rose slightly, with the 10-year yield closing at 4.15%.

• Following Wednesday’s Fed decision, markets are pricing in two additional cuts in 2026, exceeding the Fed’s projection of one.

Earnings Today

• No significant earnings reports scheduled.

Movers & Shakers

• (+) Gemini Space Station ($GEMI) +32% after the company got approval to offer prediction markets.

• (–) Robinhood Markets ($HOOD) -9% because November trading volume declined.

• (–) Oracle ($ORCL) -11% after AI costs jump past Wall Street estimates.

Prediction Markets

• These companies have been growth machines. It’s a race to the top.

• Trade on real-world events with Kalshi. Use code OWS to get a $10 bonus when you trade $10.

Private Dealmaking

• Arcline sold Medical Manufacturing Technologies, a provider of medical device manufacturing solutions, to Perimeter Solutions for $685 million

• Grasshopper Bank, a New York–based digital lender, sold for $369 million

• Harness, a software delivery startup, raised $240 million 

• D3 Bio, a Chinese oncology company, raised $108 million

• Port, a platform for building internal developer portals, raised $100 million

• Nu Quantum, a quantum networking startup, raised $60 million

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BOOK OF THE DAY

After the Spike

Description: A provocative look at humanity’s future that flips the overpopulation narrative on its head. Spears and Geruso argue that the world’s real crisis isn’t too many people — it’s too few. As birthrates collapse across nations, they warn that shrinking populations could stall innovation, strain economies, and erode progress. Their message is clear: if we want a thriving planet, we need to make it one where people want to live, work, and create.

Book Length: 320 pages
Release Date: July 2025

Ideal For: Economists, futurists, policy thinkers, and anyone curious about the long-term effects of demographic decline.

“Progress isn’t just about ideas — it’s about the people who generate them.”

DAILY VISUAL

Vintage Year

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DAILY ACUMEN

Margin

Amazon's Jeff Bezos keeps his calendar 70% empty.

Warren Buffett's daily schedule has massive white space.

They understand that margin, breathing room in your schedule, is where magic happens.

It's where you think strategically, respond to opportunities, and avoid burnout.

Your calendar should have space for the unexpected and the important, not just the urgent.

What could you remove from your schedule?

Remember, being busy is a choice, and usually a bad one.

ENLIGHTENMENT

Short Squeez Picks

• 10 ways to become instantly likable 

• The hidden power of staying in the game

• How going back to the basics can break the anxiety loop

• The rise of worn-in luxury

• NYC’s coolest street is home to the city’s saltiest cocktail

MEME-A-PALOOZA

Memes of the Day

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