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☕️ GM Munchers! This might be our last email of the week—Santa's coming and we're taking a break. Before you get emotional about missing us, remember: you're not paying for this, so technically you can't complain. House rules.

On today’s menu:

• 📉 Billionaires Want Warner Bros. & Gold's Having Its Villain Era

• 🇯🇵 Japan Just Flipped the Script

• 😂 Citigroup’s Chart Is Crazy

• 🤑 Wall Street’s 2026 S&P 500 Targets

• 😬 The Quality of US Economic Data Is Deteriorating

Yesterday’s numbers:

BREAKING NEWS

🎬 When Billionaires Play Monopoly With Your Favorite Streaming Services

Paramount just went all-in on Warner Bros. Discovery, and they brought the big guns: Oracle founder Larry Ellison is personally guaranteeing $40 billion to bankroll the deal. That's not a typo—$40 billion with a B.

Warner Bros has rejected Paramount's offer multiple times, choosing Netflix's $27.75/share bid instead. But here's the twist: Paramount upped its breakup fee to $5.8 billion (matching Netflix's offer) and raised its bid to $30/share. WBD stock jumped 4% on the news.

The Munch Take: 
This is desperation dressed as ambition. Paramount's financing is backed by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi's royal families, which has Warner Bros questioning if the money's legit. When you need a billionaire to personally guarantee your deal and still get rejected, that's not confidence—that's panic. Media consolidation is dying a slow, expensive death. Watch WBD for volatility, but don't chase this merger chaos.

🪙 Gold's Having Its Villain Era (And We're Here For It)

One year ago, gold was $2,600. Today? Over $4,400—up 2% just yesterday. That's a 69% gain in 12 months while Bitcoin's busy having an identity crisis.

Why?

Central banks and countries like China, Poland, and India are panic-buying gold to diversify away from US debt. It's not retail investors—it's nations treating gold like a strategic asset.

The Munch Take: Gold's winning because it's the "antidote to debt." Bitcoin's struggling because it's still viewed as a "speculative bet." In scary markets, people want insurance, not lottery tickets. We're holding Bitcoin long-term, but gold's currently the smart money play for capital preservation.

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FOREX

🇯🇵 Japan Just Flipped the Script (And Your Forex Trades)

Japanese inflation just surpassed US inflation for the first time since 1979. Translation? The economic rules you've traded for 45 years just changed.

Here's what matters: The Fed might cut rates (dovish), while Japan's raising rates (hawkish). This strengthens the Yen and kills the "carry trade"—where investors borrowed cheap Yen to buy US stocks and crypto. Now they're selling everything to pay back those loans.

The Munch Take: 
Watch USD/JPY closely. If the Yen keeps strengthening, expect stock and crypto sell-offs. This isn't theory—it's already happening. Risk assets pumped by cheap money are the most vulnerable.

MARKET OVERVIEW

🍿 Tasty Movers & Shakers

$GOOGL – Want to make money? Stop listening to Warren Buffett and start copying Nancy Pelosi's trades. Apparently she just made Google her largest position, which either means she knows something we don't or insider trading laws are more like "insider trading suggestions." Either way, the world's most profitable congresswoman is loading up on GOOGL. Do with that information what you will.

$NVDA – Nvidia's building a $1.5 billion campus and server farm in Israel because when your stock's up 30% this year and you're worth $4.4 trillion, you can basically build wherever you want. At this point Jensen Huang could announce they're building data centers on the moon and analysts would call it "conservative capital allocation." The AI money printer continues printing.

$SWK – Stanley Black & Decker jumped 4% after selling their aerospace-manufacturing business for $1.8 billion. Wait—aerospace? We thought they just sold hammers and drills at Home Depot. Turns out they've been quietly making aerospace parts this whole time, which is either impressive diversification or proof we know absolutely nothing about the companies we follow. Probably both.

$C – Citigroup just hit its highest level since 2008, up 68% this year. Congrats! But before you start celebrating, zoom out to the 2007 chart. Pre-financial crisis, Citi traded at $500/share. Today? $118. So yes, it's having a moment, but it's still down 76% from its peak nearly 20 years ago. The ultimate reminder that "all-time highs" are extremely relative when you've spent two decades recovering from your own mistakes.

TRADING SUCCESS

🤑 Tuesday Motivation

🚀 Pre-Market Fuel

1. 🤑 Wall Street’s 2026 S&P 500 targets.

2. 😬 The quality of US economic data is deteriorating.

3. 🤔 Prop firms vs personal capital.

4. 🥵 The world is burning more coal than ever.

🍪 Munchy Memes

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