What do Credit Markets Know? *Bloomberg Terminal data.

A New Record in Passive Dysfunction S&P 500 Composition: Two Largest Stocks 2026 Apple $AAPL + Nvidia $NVDA: 15.4% 2016 Apple $AAPL + Microsoft $MSFT: 5.0% *For every $1M in the S&P 500, $154,000 is invested in two stocks, trading at 11x and 17x sales.

Today's Headline "Apple $AAPL is Wall Street’s Favorite AI Haven as Spending Fears Hit." *Bloomberg Terminal data.

How can the Fed hike rates? Net interest on the U.S. debt is > $1T, approaching a *record* 20% of every tax dollar collected > defense spending. We’re not borrowing for the future anymore, we have to pay the bill on the past. This isn’t a fiscal problem. It’s a math problem.

Color from our dinner - "ECB needs to stop QT rolloff, indeed. The other thing is, they all want out AHEAD of the French elections- rats deserting the ship (sarcasm); no one wants to clean up that mess. See, recent reporting indicates the timeline for a possible early ECB exit by Christine Lagarde is accelerating, mainly linked to a potential world economic forum (WEF) chair role." CIO Latam

Credit - Leads - Equities: Markets are speaking - Loan market stress is building / see CLO equity players like Oxford Lane. Ladies and gentlemen, pay attention.

Quick update - a few things you need to know right now. CIO level Ideas Dinner - Special thanks to Astrid & Gaston! An outstanding venue.

So many lessons in here - A great Christmas gift for that someone special. Pick up these two today on Amazon! Worth more than a few years at Harvard Business School :)

Looking down the road ahead. Special thanks to StoneX for hosting us in Lima, Peru this week. Pension funds, family offices, some of Latam’s best. Gratitude 🙏

WH Sr. Adviser Hassett: Inflation looks like it's back and needs some work. *From 2012-2020 (the Lost World), the highest year-over-year inflation print was 2.9%, vs. 3.7% in last week's CPI data.