Here’s what we’re getting into…

Enjoy the next 4 minutes and 34 seconds of blue-chip news and commentary.

Keep on snapping necks and cashing checks,

- tyler

+ US stocks “closed mixed on Friday with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite logging a fresh record high as the prospect of a reversal from interest rate hikes buoyed investors' spirits.” (Yahoo! Finance)

+The 10-year Treasury yield “fell on Friday, with the 2-year Treasury yield sliding below 4.6% as investors considered when the Federal Reserve will begin interest rate cuts.” (CNBC)

+ Oil “slipped on Friday and were flat on the week as the possibility of a ceasefire in Gaza weakened crude benchmarks, while the war in Europe and shrinking U.S. rig count cushioned the fall.” (Reuters)

+ Bitcoin climbed steadily over the weekend.

+ The three most talked about stocks on WallStreetBets in the past 24 hours were: 1) AMD +0.5% 2) Nvidia +3.1% 3) Digital World Acquisition Corp. -13.7%

The market moves you need to know about…

+ Canopy Growth mooned 68.6% on news that Senator Chuck Schumer had sent around a petition supporting the SAFER Banking Act, which would give cannabis businesses access to banking services.

+ FedEx went off after management pointed out that its turnaround plan was working. Shares rose 7.3% Friday.

+ Masimo (yes, the Masimo that sued Apple over the tech in their Watch) jumped 14.0% after it said it was considering spinning off its consumer audio and health biz.

Reddit: “I’m definitely the only social media company going public this week.”

Truth Social: “Hold my beer.”

At long last, Trump Media & Technology Group (aka Truth Social) got the greenlight to go public. Shareholders of special purpose acquisition company Digital World Acquisition Corp. voted to make the relationship official.

The “new” company could begin trading as early as next week under the ticker DJT, which, is honestly, just so good.

The deal to merge the parent company of Truth Social with DWAC was first announced back in 2021. You know, when SPACs were hot in the streets and Chamath was the next Warren Buffett.

Trump’s Twitter clone as well as DWAC have been plagued with issues. DWAC has been the target of DOJ and SEC investigations. And delays nearly derailed the deal.

At least one thing has been consistent…

Truth Social has continued to bleed money. According to financials, through the nine months ended September, TMTG lost $49M on $3.5M in revenue.

In fact, last year it warned it could go bankrupt without the merger, which is expected to infuse ~$275M in straight cash homie.

Tyler’s take… I still have major PTSD from getting burned by this stonk back in 2021 (listen, I never said I was a good investor…), so forgive me for being a little bitter…

The way things are shaping up, this deal could go really, really poorly for investors. You see, Donny Politics needs cash. And fast. He owes $454M to the State of New York. The deadline is… today.

Trump owns 58% of TMTG. His stake is currently valued at about $3B. The concern is that he could unload his stonk to pay his legal fees or, you know, help fund his run for the Presidency.

And before you go all “He HAs To hOLd HiS StoCk fOr 6 MOntHs,” consider this… the merged company’s board will be stacked with Donald’s homies. Like his son Don Jr.

+ Yale happiness expert: Feeling too busy—all the time—actually hurts your brain. Here are 3 easy ways to fix it (Read)

+ Some of the Best Credit Cards for Balance Transfers (Read)

+ Here’s how much money Americans in their 30s have in their 401(k)s (Read)

BTW, some of these links contain affiliate offers.

+ Today in things that are zero percent surprising… China has reportedly moved to block the use of US chips in government servers and computers.

And, they have a point. I mean, I’d be mad if we weren’t bugging cranes and doing other shady stuff.

The companies that stand to be impacted most include Intel and AMD.

Oh, and the Windows operating system isn’t safe either under the new guidelines.

The plan to rid itself of US tech dependence is nothing new. The rules to outlaw foreign tech began rolling out years ago. And the most recent chip guidance went into effect in December, but Chinese officials have only recently begun playing by the rules.

+ Annnd it’s gone. On Friday, Reddit fell more than 8%. Spoiler: that means it closed below where it opened on Thursday.

Tyler’s take… Just wait until the lockup period ends…

+ Being President is basically just being the final boss of Managing Directors, isn’t it? Congress works all night… just so POTUS can review their work in the AM when he damn well pleases…

The Senate agreed on and passed a $1.2T spending bill at 2 AM Saturday morning.

In what might be the most rational thing ever done by the federal government, the White House held off on shutting down the government despite the budget being signed 2 hours past the midnight Friday deadline. President Biden signed it into law later on Saturday.

If it feels like you’ve seen this movie before, it’s because you have. We’re roughly halfway through the government’s fiscal year… and have yet to finalize a federal budget. A series of stopgaps have kept the lights on. Until now. This is a “full year” budget. So, no more narrowly avoiding government shutdowns… until next year.

+ Thank you for your service, Reddit. Following Reddit and (to a lesser extent) Astera Labs’ successful IPOs, digital promo, and cash back manager Ibotta filed to go public. Its client list is a who’s who of consumer brands (see: Pepsi and Coke)… and it’s backed by Walmart. Perhaps you’ve heard of them?

Here's what I'm keeping an eye on today...

Not a whole lot going on today. Nurse your March Madness hangover or something.

Friday, I asked, “Is the first Friday of March Madness the least productive work day of the year?”

This was a close one. 53.6% of you said yes. A lot of votes for Super Bowl Monday. The week between Christmas and New Year’s also got some nods.

Here’s today’s question…

Elon said he uses ketamine (and that shareholders should be happy). Pretty much everyone is microdosing at work. So…

Oh, and…

Does this look like the face of a guy you should take financial advice from?

No, it’s the face of an individual who is financially irresponsible/dumb enough to be talked into spending money on a family photo shoot that he could have just done with his iPhone. So, act accordingly...

This is not financial advice. Nothing in this newsletter is an investment recommendation. All content is created for entertainment, educational, or informational purposes only. Do your own research, or do yourself a favor and hire a professional