Should I make this a 2026 weekly newsletter?
đ¨ The Money Memo (working title) Edition: Week Ending Dec 17, 2025 Vibe: Markets are spicy, but your plan should be boring. â
The 60-Second Market Snapshot Stocks (risk-on, but with a weird limp): ⢠SPY (S&P 500 ETF): ~$673.90 ⢠QQQ (Nasdaq 100 ETF): ~$603.75 ⢠DIA (Dow ETF): ~$481.02 ⢠IWM (Small caps): ~$248.56 Crypto (still acting like crypto): ⢠Bitcoin: ~$86,569 ⢠Ethereum: ~$2,845.57 đ¤ Kyleâs read: Weâre not in âeverything is brokenâ mode⌠weâre in âstop paying any price for the shiny AI stuffâ mode. ⸝ â
What Mattered Last Week (and why it moved price) A) AI stocks stopped getting a free pass. Markets have been sliding for multiple sessions largely because big AI names have been taking heatâbubble talk, capex worries, and âhow soon is the payoff?â B) Data-center reality check = âshow me the money.â Reuters flagged a big snag around an Oracle-linked data center financing situation, which poured gasoline on the âAI spending is getting expensiveâ narrative. C) Crypto: year-end vibes + macro nerves. BTC has been drifting lower in cautious trade. And markets are eyeing big expirations (âtriple witchingâ + options expiries) as potential volatility fuel. â
The Week Ahead: Your âDonât Get Surprisedâ Calendar The big one: November CPI drops Thursday, Dec 18 (delayed schedule). Translation: liquidity is thinner into the holidays, so a ânormalâ inflation print can still create an abnormal move. đ§ Kyleâs playbook (simple): - If CPI surprises hot â yields up, growth/AI could feel it first. - If CPI surprises cool â risk assets breathe, but watch for âone good print doesnât fix everythingâ whiplash. â
Setups & Watchlist (how Iâm thinking, not what you âmustâ do) Theme 1: âAI â automatic wins.â This isnât anti-AI. Itâs pro-price. When the crowd gets emotional, I get selective. Theme 2: Small caps = sneaky tell. IWM matters because it hints at risk appetite beyond the megacaps. If small caps canât hold bids, the âbroad rallyâ story gets weaker.