🗓️ This Week in The Markets
Macro/Market News
Although Silver and other metals had a great year last year, $SLV ( ▲ 0.53% ) fell by more than 25% yesterday, as President Trump appointed a new Fed Chairman that relieved the markets fears about the Fed losing it’s autonomy.
According to CNBC, homebuyers are backing out of purchase agreements at the highest rate since Redfin began tracking this datapoint in 2017, as more than 20,000 signed home purchase agreements were cancelled in December.
SaaS stocks like Salesforce ($CRM ( ▼ 1.27% )), Intuit ($INTU ( ▼ 2.11% )), and HubSpot ($HUBS ( ▼ 2.45% )) fell as advanced AI agents now allow companies to cheaply build custom tools, threatening the traditional subscription model.
Company Specific News
Apple ($AAPL ( ▼ 0.87% )) confirmed the acquisition of Q.ai, an Israeli startup specializing in audio-focused AI and facial micro-movement interpretation, for nearly $2 billion.
Amazon ($AMZN ( ▼ 0.19% )) is reportedly considering a $50 billion investment into OpenAI, which would give the company exposure to two out of three frontier labs in the US.
According to a16z, iOS ($AAPL ( ▼ 0.87% )) app releases have been skyrocketing as “vibe coding” has become increasingly prevalent. We’ll dive deeper into this in this month’s deep dive on “Claude’s Favorite Tools”, set to release early next week.
Want Even More Insight and Data Visualizations?
🛒 What the Haul?
Out of 291 TikTok hauls analyzed, these companies appeared the most:
Shein - 21 Appearances (7.2%)
Zara - 14 Appearances (4.8%)
Brandy Melville - 14 Appearances (4.8%)
Louis Vuitton - 14 Appearances (4.8%)
H&M - 12 Appearances (4.1%)
Target - 10 Appearances (3.4%)
Chanel - 10 Appearances (3.4%)
Hollister - 9 Appearances (3.1%)
Aritzia - 9 Appearances (3.1%)
Hello Kitty - 9 Appearances (3.1%)
Bershka - 9 Appearances (3.1%)
Adidas - 9 Appearances (3.1%)
Free People - 8 Appearances (2.7%)
Aerie - 8 Appearances (2.7%)
Primark - 8 Appearances (2.7%)
Gucci - 8 Appearances (2.7%)
ASOS - 8 Appearances (2.7%)
Victoria's Secret - 8 Appearances (2.7%)
Fashion Nova - 8 Appearances (2.7%)
Garage - 7 Appearances (2.4%)
Skims - 6 Appearances (2.1%)
Ross - 6 Appearances (2.1%)
Ugg - 6 Appearances (2.1%)
Old Navy - 6 Appearances (2.1%)
Lululemon - 6 Appearances (2.1%)
Apple - 6 Appearances (2.1%)
Five Below - 5 Appearances (1.7%)
Stradivarius - 5 Appearances (1.7%)
Dove - 5 Appearances (1.7%)
Nike - 5 Appearances (1.7%)
Prada - 5 Appearances (1.7%)
Key Takeaways
High prevalence of high-end luxury items suggests that much of the low to middle-income cohorts are still reeling from the holiday shopping season, with little money to spend on impulse buys in the new year.
Target's ($TGT ( ▼ 0.08% )) "dupe culture" is a double-edged sword. Creators love Target as a one-stop shop for beauty and fashion dupes, but inventory friction is real; tampered packaging, mismatched sizes, and rapid seasonal sellouts are generating frustration that could erode the impulse-buy magic that drives basket size.
"Viral" sellouts are the leading indicator across the board. Brandy Melville's camo sweats, Target's ($TGT ( ▼ 0.08% )) swimwear, and Hollister's ($ANF ( ▲ 1.27% )) low-rise baggy jeans all triggered "buy it now" urgency from creators. When influencers start warning followers about stock levels, it's a reliable signal that demand is outrunning supply planning.
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🤖 This Week in AI
Google ($GOOG ( ▲ 0.22% )) added agentic features to Chrome, including Auto Browse, which can navigate websites and complete multi-step tasks like logging into accounts on your behalf. It also introduced a Gemini 3 side panel that acts as a cross-tab assistant.
OpenAI released Prism, a free collaborative scientific writing platform powered by GPT-5.2. It integrates LaTeX-native writing, revision, and publishing workflows to accelerate research.
Anthropic integrated popular tools like Slack, Figma, Asana, and Canva directly into the Claude chat interface, allowing users to perform tasks without switching tabs. Additionally, Claude in Excel went live for Pro subscribers, enabling cell-level analysis and debugging.
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