CLOSING BELL
More Like A Santa Crawl

 $SPY ( ▼ 0.12% )  $QQQ ( ▼ 0.23% )  $IWM ( ▼ 0.74% )  $DIA ( ▼ 0.21% ) 

Well, the market closed Tuesday down slightly, for the second day in a row. That must be what happens when the third day of the Santa Rally saw all time record prices. The rally is still slightly in the green if you zoom out, up about 0.26% at day’s end, equities moving at snails paces with about a fifth of the average volume for the S&P 500. It was surely the year of the Retail Trader^tm, coined every couple of years when retail traders like you and me buy stocks in a big way.

WSJ reported around Thanksgiving that retail buying tracked by JPMorgan was higher than even 2021, the meme stock era. As ‘25 comes to a close, it feels like that era never ended.

But Tuesday, outside the regular AI datacenter chip trade news, there was not much to keep prices rising. Silver and metals rebounded, as did Bitcoin, while the major indexes fell slightly. Silver futures jumped 11%, the most in a day since 2009.

FOMC meeting minutes from December’s cut decision came to show a mix of reluctance, eagerness, and disheartening indifference toward cutting rates. Well, reluctance comes from the fact that tariffs and brave consumers are still helping inflation climb.

Markets are open for regular trade tomorrow, New Year’s Eve, but shut for the new year. 🧨 

AI STOCKS
The AI Consolidation Wave

It truly would not be a day of trade in the year of our Lord 2025 without AI buyout or deal news, so here are your government-mandated updates, starting with an international purchase from your pals at Facebook.

Meta acquires AI agent startup Manus for $2B $META ( ▲ 1.1% ) is making a significant push into ‘autonomous AI agents’ by acquiring Singapore-based Manus for more than $2B. The company was on track for a $125M annual revenue run rate, and its CEO Xiao Hong will now report to Meta COO Javier Olivan while keeping the service available as a standalone product. 🤖

SoftBank completes historic $40B investment in OpenAI $SFTBY ( ▼ 0.75% ) has finalized its massive $40B funding commitment to OpenAI after transferring a final tranche of roughly $22.5B this week. The deal, which had valued OpenAI at $260B, gives SoftBank a stake of more than 10% and will help fund the ‘Stargate Project,’ a nationwide network of AI data centers. The move cements Masayoshi Son’s strategy to pivot SoftBank entirely toward a portfolio of artificial superintelligence. 💰

Nvidia in advanced talks to acquire AI21 Labs for $3B $NVDA ( ▼ 0.36% ) is reportedly in negotiations to buy an Israeli startup called AI21 Labs for a price tag between $2B and $3B, Bloomberg reported. The acquisition is primarily a talent play for AI21’s 200-person workforce, which holds deep expertise in reasoning-based large language models. The move aligns with Jensen Huang’s plan to double $NVDA’s presence in Israel, which he has called the company’s second home. 🧠

The Big Picture: Retail Ownership in the AI Era As 2025 draws to a close, retail investors are increasingly using these high-stakes AI deals as a ladder for financial agency. With the housing market frozen and wage growth cooling, the "positive feedback loop" of three straight years of double-digit stock gains has turned the market into a primary vehicle for wealth building. Retail sentiment on Stocktwits remains extremely bullish toward these infrastructure plays as the industry moves from training models to deployment (and hopefully, profit). 🚀

SPONSORED BY KNIGHTSCOPE
 This Silicon Valley Company Just Launched the Next Phase of Physical AI

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Across the United States, the cost of keeping people and property secure has spiraled out of control. 

That system is breaking under its own weight.

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Now the company is entering a new phase with the launch of its most advanced machine yet: the K7 Autonomous Security Robot.

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Download the Corporate Deck Now to see why the K7 could become one of the most important innovations in public safety today.

Examples that we provide of share price increases pertaining to a particular Issuer from one referenced date to another represent an arbitrarily chosen time period and are no indication whatsoever of future stock prices for that Issuer and are of no predictive value. Our stock profiles are intended to highlight certain companies for YOUR further investigation; they are NOT stock recommendations or constitute an offer or sale of the referenced securities.

*3rd Party Ad. Not an offer or recommendation by Stocktwits. See disclosure here.

RETAIL NEWS
Trends to Cap Off the Year of the Retail Trader

INTERNATIONAL NEWS
China's 2026 Stimulus Strategy: Decoupling and Demand

China is entering 2026 with a two-pronged economic strategy: aggressive "technological decoupling" from the West and massive state-funded subsidies to jumpstart domestic consumption. The news and expected stimulus plan came from Beijing following a year-end policy meeting. In laymen’s terms, China is going to spend its stimulus toward keeping Trump from screwing with their exports, and ensuring their chip industry buys local.

The Semiconductor Shift

In one of its most aggressive moves toward self-reliance, Beijing is now requiring domestic chipmakers to use at least 50% locally made equipment for all new capacity expansions. The mandate aims to insulate China’s semiconductor industry from foreign reliance, though Nvidia and AMD were just recently lined up for sales there. $BIDU ( ▲ 4.39% ) and other state-backed firms are expected to benefit. 🇨🇳

Along those lines, Samsung and SK Hynix secured 2026 China export licenses from Uncle Sam. The U.S. government granted Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix licenses to ship American chipmaking tools to their Chinese factories through 2026.

In the same announcement, Beijing officially extended its vehicle trade-in program, offering consumers up to 20,000 yuan, roughly $2,850, to scrap older cars for new energy vehicles. The news sent U.S.-listed shares of $NIO ( ▲ 3.0% ) and $XPEV ( ▲ 3.81% ) climbing nearly 6% intraday, as the subsidies provide critical "policy visibility" to counter a recent slump in retail passenger vehicle sales.

Meanwhile, at home, Tesla $TSLA ( ▼ 1.13% ) fell after it posted its delivery estimates for the new year, something it usually just shares privately with analysts in the investing industry. Earnest is great, but the numbers are not- showing a 15% drop in expected production for Q4, car making at the EV giant shrinking 8% for the year.

It’s the second year in a row of falling numbers. Musk said he was all in on AI, but there were not acconmpaniying figures for how many X subscriptions would make up for the decline. 😏 

But hey, Dan Ives said Tesla robot cars could add $1T more to the firm’s market cap.

POPS & DROPS
Top Stocktwits News Stories 🗞️ 

• U.S. markets remain open for regular trading hours on New Year’s Eve.

•  Applied Digital gained attention following reports of a potential cloud business spinoff.

• Sidus Space rallied massively following a key defense contract win.

• Tesla could gain $1 trillion in value through self-driving ambitions, Ives said.

• Bitcoin faces its first-ever post-halving year ending in the red.

• Disney settled child privacy violation allegations for $10 million.

• Warner Bros. Discovery reportedly plans to reject Paramount’s $108.4B bid.

Don’t miss a story! Follow @StocktwitsNews for a live feed in real time. ✍️ 

STOCKTWITS VIDEO
Finding the Alpha at CES: Send Her Questions!

Michelle Steel wants YOU to send your questions for her to cover the CES Vegas conference next week!

Links That Don’t Suck 🌐

📈 Something big may be coming to town—check out IBD’s guide to the Santa Claus Rally*

🤑  Cathie Wood's Top Two Funds From 2025 Hold This Stock

😨 Wedbush Names Its Top 5 AI Stocks for 2026 that Are Not Nvidia

🏠️ Home prices are getting slightly more affordable, but down payments are still holding buyers back

💰️ 'We're in a metals war': Gold, silver rebound after sharp sell-off

📺️ U.S. sanctions Iranian, Venezuelan groups tied to weapons trade

Trump’s shadow war in Venezuela grows, but country’s strongman leader still clings to power

*3rd Party Ad. Not an offer or recommendation by Stocktwits. See disclosure here. 

Get In Touch 📬

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