Good morning. Welcome to January 2nd—the day the real new year starts, because let’s face it, January 1st was just a soft launch.

Fun fact: January is named after Janus, the Roman god of beginnings, endings, and doors (yes, doors). With one face looking back and the other forward, Janus isn’t here to judge your shaky resolutions. He’s all about transitions, not perfection.

Now, let’s dive into today’s news:

• ByteDance denied $7 billion NVIDIA chips rumor

• Physicists bend atoms in quantum experiment

• IBM aims for quantum supremacy in 2025.

• ETFs hit a record $10 trillion in assets

• What to expect from stocks in 2025

• Walmart’s $78 “Birkin”

  and more…

The US markets closed 2024 with a rare achievement, the kind you only see every few decades. While December ended on a sour note—Dow dropped over 2,000 points (5%), and the S&P 500 slipped 2.5%—the year as a whole was a winner. The S&P 500 gained more than 23% this year, building on 2023's 24% rise. Back-to-back gains like that haven’t happened since 1997-98, making this a standout performance in stock market history. For those keeping track, the stock market was closed on Wednesday, January 1, 2025, along with the bond markets—giving traders a well-earned day off to reflect on a historic year.

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U.S. ETFs Hit $10 Trillion Milestone in 2024

ETFs hit a record $10 trillion in assets this November, with $156 billion flowing in just one month. The S&P 500, up 24% this year thanks to tech giants like Nvidia and Tesla, led the charge. Funds tracking the index, like Vanguard’s 500 Index Fund, dominated inflows as investors flocked to low-fee, high-liquidity options.

Alternative ETFs also exploded, growing 93% year-over-year and crossing $400 billion in assets. Digital assets and leveraged equity ETFs drove much of the growth as investors looked beyond traditional funds.

Crypto ETFs made their mark too, with bitcoin ETFs leading new launches in 2024. Despite skepticism, more financial advisors are addressing crypto as client interest grows.

As ETFs continue to evolve, 2024 proved they’re here to stay, whether you’re chasing tech gains, alternative strategies, or the latest crypto trends.

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US stocks crush it again. The S&P 500 jumped 23.3% in 2024, its second straight year of 20%+ gains. Big tech and AI were the stars, with Nvidia skyrocketing 172% and Meta up 65%. Meanwhile, Europe and Asia barely showed up to the party. The Stoxx 600 crawled up 6%, the FTSE 100 managed 5.7%, and Asia-Pacific stocks hit 7.6%. Looks like AI made Wall Street the cool kid, while everyone else is stuck catching crumbs.

What to expect from stocks in 2025. Wall Street predicts another good year for stocks in 2025, with the S&P 500 expected to rise 14.8%, according to FactSet. Tech and AI stocks, which dominated in 2024, are likely to lead the way again. Strong economic growth, cooling inflation, and rate cuts are keeping optimism high, but analysts warn of risks like Trump’s tariff plans, possible inflation spikes, and global tensions. “It’ll be a good year, just not as flashy as 2024,” says Jurrien Timmer of Fidelity. Investors, keep your hopes realistic.

ByteDance Shoots Down $7B NVIDIA Chip Rumor

ByteDance has denied reports claiming it plans to drop $7 billion on NVIDIA chips by 2025 for its AI expansion. The report, from The Information, also suggested ByteDance is gearing up to spend over $20 billion on AI infrastructure, including data centers and hardware like submarine cables. A ByteDance spokesperson dismissed the NVIDIA chip claims as “inaccurate,” leaving everyone to wonder just how much the TikTok owner is actually spending to keep its AI ambitions afloat.

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Elon’s Grok chatbot gets its own iOS app. Elon Musk’s xAI is testing a standalone iOS app for its chatbot, Grok, now in beta in Australia and a few other countries. Grok rewrites text, summarizes, answers questions, and generates photorealistic images—even using public figures and copyrighted material. Once exclusive to X subscribers, Grok is now open to everyone, with a web version teased at Grok.com (currently just “coming soon”). Looks like Musk’s AI is ready to go solo.

Nonprofit joins Musk in fight against OpenAI. Encode, a nonprofit known for backing AI safety legislation, has thrown its weight behind Elon Musk’s push to stop OpenAI from transitioning to a for-profit company. In a court brief, Encode argued that the move undermines OpenAI’s mission to create safe, transformative technology for the public good. Encode’s founder, Sneha Revanur, accused OpenAI of “profiting from AI while dumping the consequences on humanity,” calling for courts to step in. AI legends like Geoffrey Hinton and Stuart Russell have also voiced their support for the brief, adding extra firepower to the effort.

Physicists achieve the ‘impossible,’ bend atoms in quantum experiment. Physicists have done the unthinkable: they’ve shown that entire atoms can behave like waves in a classic quantum experiment. Once considered impossible, this breakthrough could lead to revolutionary detectors capable of picking up gravitational waves that today’s tech can’t even dream of detecting.

IBM aims for quantum supremacy in 2025. IBM is going big—really big—with plans to build the largest quantum computer ever by 2025. Instead of just making their 1121-qubit Condor chip bigger, they’re linking multiple machines to break records and reclaim the qubit crown from Atom Computing’s 1180-qubit device.

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Walmart’s $78 “Birkin” Dupe

Walmart’s $78 “Wirkin” is out here clowning the $10,000+ Hermès Birkin bag, and social media is eating it up. If you shelled out $300,000 on a Birkin just to see a $78 dupe steal the spotlight, this might sting a little.

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‘Noctourism’ is the big travel trend of 2025. Noctourism, aka traveling for nighttime experiences, is all the rage for 2025. Booking.com says people want to “ditch daylight crowds for midnight magic.” Think stargazing, chasing cosmic events, and even truffle hunting in the dark. Welcome to travel’s newest excuse to stay up past your bedtime.

New year, new rules: what’s changing in NY for 2025. As 2024 rolls into 2025, New York is rolling out a batch of new laws. Minimum wage is going up, and fare evasion on NYC transit will come with revamped penalties. Drivers will face a new point system for license suspensions, and pregnant women can now count on mandatory paid time off for prenatal medical visits.

Confetti be gone: NYC sanitation starts 2025 strong. Huge thanks to NYC Sanitation for their insanely quick cleanup after the Times Square Ball Drop.

GTA 6 fans lose it over trailer remaster. Rockstar dropped a remastered version of the first GTA 6 trailer. 

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TikTok of the day: watch here