Editor’s Note: The best investment opportunities often come out of big changes – especially when most people aren’t paying attention yet.
My friend and colleague Luke Langopoints to one of the biggest changes we’ve seen – AI. Most of the attention from it focuses on what it means for tech stocks, but Luke is looking at something bigger – how it’s reshaping the economy and the job market, and what it means for all of us.
To do that, he put together a special presentation explaining what makes this opportunity different, why it matters for investors and the steps you can take now to stay ahead.
In 1811, as England’s Industrial Revolution was gaining momentum, a group of textile workers decided to fight back.
Led by the mythical “General Ludd” of Sherwood Forest, what began as a concentrated movement in central England quickly spread across the nation. Traditional workers took hammers to the stocking frames and power looms – the machines erasing their jobs, their wages, and centuries of hard-won craft.
They weren’t irrational or anti-progress. They were simply watching their livelihoods evaporate in real time, and they understood that no one was coming to help them.
And it took generations of political struggle to rebuild something resembling dignity for working people.
Right now, a similar story is unfolding. This time, AI is the existential threat.
While investors are worrying about if Big Tech is spending too much on AI, the ground beneath our feet – the very foundation of how we earn a living – is turning into quicksand.
The biggest risk we face isn’t a bear market or even a crash in the Nasdaq.
It’s the permanent devaluation of human labor…
The Iceberg Index: The Truth About AI Job Loss in America
The latest research shows just how far this displacement has already advanced beneath the surface.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, partnering with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, recently released what it calls the “Iceberg Index” – and it’s terrifyingly blunt.
The study’s models suggest that roughly 12% of existing U.S. jobs could be replaced by AI right now.
That’s 1 in 9 people whose economic output can be matched by a software subscription that doesn’t need health insurance and doesn’t take bathroom breaks.
We aren’t even talking about what happens when the AI further matures.
When an AI agent can not only write the email but also plan the project and execute the code migration without human intervention, the need for human “managers” in the middle evaporates.
We are already seeing the results…
HP Inc.(HPQ) just announced it is cutting up to 6,000 jobs by 2028 to “fund AI investment.”
United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) cut 12,000 corporate roles earlier this year, explicitly stating that automation means those jobs aren’t coming back.
This isn’t recessionary. This is a capital pivot. Companies are trading variable-cost, high-maintenance human workers for fixed-cost, exponentially improving silicon ones.
AI Is Breaking the Link Between Productivity and Wages
For the last century, as technology improved, productivity went up. As productivity went up, wages did, too. A rising tide lifted all boats, even if some boats were lifted higher than others.
But AI is breaking that link.
When a company deploys an AI system that allows it to double its output without hiring a single new employee, where does that extra value go?
It does not go to the remaining workers. It goes to the company’s bottom line, and then to dividends, buybacks, and a higher share price.
And that doesn’t even take an economic downturn into account.
Right now, we have historically low unemployment (around 4%). The economy is showing cracks but is still fairly stable. And yet, companies are aggressively automating.
Imagine what happens in a recession.
Economists call it the “cleansing effect.” When revenue dips, companies are forced to cut costs and jobs mercilessly.
The recession will be the accelerant. The recovery will be jobless.
While retail buys Nvidia at all-time highs, institutions position into something else. Why? AI needs POWER. Louis Navellier, who spent 46 yrs Wall St. and called Nvidia at $1, reveals that his grading system shows where the money is REALLY flowing. Companies you’ve never heard of. Stocks the media never covers. Before Stage 3 begins… click here for the full story.
Workers Must Shift From Labor to Capital to Survive the AI Era
So, if the value of labor is crashing and the value of capital is skyrocketing, the solution is uncomfortably simple.
You need to stop thinking like a laborer and start thinking like a capitalist.
This brings us to the “stock bubble.” You might be worried that Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) is overpriced at its current valuation. Fair enough.
But if you have zero exposure to the companies building the infrastructure of the future, you are betting your entire financial existence on your ability to outwork software that doubles in ability every 18 months.
That is a terrible bet.
The only true hedge against the devaluation of your labor is to own stock in the companies that are benefiting from labor devaluation. You need to be on the receiving end of that wealth transfer.
If the AI boom continues, these companies will generate unprecedented cash flows. If the “AI bubble” pops, the tech doesn’t go away. It just gets cheaper for companies to deploy, accelerating the labor displacement even faster.
In either scenario, capital wins.
How to Protect Yourself From AI Job Loss: A Two-Part Strategy
Now, I know what you’re thinking. “Great advice. I’ll just take this spare $3 million and buy a diversified portfolio of AI infrastructure stocks so I can live off the dividends when my job is automated.”
Indeed, replacing an entire salary with capital returns requires a massive amount of money that most of us simply don’t have.
So, you need a two-part “barbell strategy” for survival.
Immediate Financial Exposure: You cannot afford to sit this market out because it’s “frothy.” You need exposure to the picks and shovels of this gold rush – the chip designers, hyperscale cloud providers, foundational model companies, etc.
Become ‘Human Capital’: Until you have enough capital to retire, your labor is still your primary asset. You have to upgrade it.
The labor market is bifurcating into two categories: commodity labor versus agency labor.
You need to be the latter. Stop writing copy. Start orchestrating the brand voice that AI brings to life.
The people who will thrive in the transition period aren’t just the ones owning Nvidia stock. They are the ones who can walk into a panicked C-suite and say: “I can replace your inefficient 20-person department with myself, three sharp lieutenants, and a fleet of AI agents – and save you 40%.”
Wield AI as a weapon for your own advancement.
The Labor Market Is Approaching a Breaking Point
Exponential curves look flat for a long time … and then, suddenly, they go vertical.
We are right at the knee of that curve. The window to prepare is closing faster than most think.
It’s best to stop agonizing about whether we are in a 2000s-style stock bubble. A stock market crash hurts your portfolio temporarily. A structural shift in the value of human labor hurts your family permanently.
As automation accelerates and data centers explode in size, the U.S. is quietly executing what many insiders are calling a modern “Manhattan Project for AI.”
And Washington isn’t just funding this initiative. It’s partnering directly with select American companies it views as essential to winning the AI race – and those stocks are erupting.
This year alone, several smaller U.S. firms surged 200%… 300%… even 400% in a matter of days after government investment or contract news broke.
These aren’t hype-driven rallies. They’re the early winners of America’s AI buildout – the companies being positioned at the center of a multiyear national transformation.
And while millions of workers brace for AI-driven disruption, investors who understand where Washington is placing its strategic bets could be on the receiving end of one of the last great wealth transfers of our lifetime.
I’ve identified a handful of overlooked American companies that I believe are next in line for government backing – and each has the potential to soar 10X as this new AI buildout accelerates.
I reveal the first one – 100% free – in my new briefing.
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Nike Beats on Earnings But Struggles in China and Faces Tariffs
By Leo Miller. Originally Published: 12/19/2025.
Key Takeaways
Nike beat revenue and EPS estimates in its latest earnings report but still showed underlying operational weaknesses.
The company’s DTC strategy faces challenges, especially in China, while wholesale and running product lines are performing well.
Nike’s long-term recovery hinges on its Sport Offense strategy and managing tariff impacts, but investor confidence remains shaky.
The last three years have not been kind to U.S. apparel giantNike (NYSE: NKE). As of the Dec. 18 close, shares had dropped approximately 34%, with sales, margins and profits all down significantly over the same period.
A series of strategic missteps contributed to this, including weaker product innovation compared with emerging competitors like ON (NYSE: ONON). Nike’s push toward direct-to-consumer (DTC) sales also had unintended consequences: as the company focused on its own channels, competitors gained visibility through retailers such as Foot Locker, which filled shelves with alternative products.
Excess inventory and tariff pressures have also squeezed margins.
Still, analyst price targets continue to point to upside potential for Nike shares. Below, we look at the company’s Dec. 18 earnings release to assess its path to recovery.
Nike Beats on Top and Bottom Lines
In its latest quarter, Nike reported revenue of $12.4 billion, a 1% increase (flat on a currency-neutral basis). That topped Wall Street expectations of just under $12.2 billion.
Nike’s diluted earnings per share (EPS) were $0.53, down 32% from the prior year but well above consensus of $0.38, which implied a decline of nearly 53%.
For the next quarter, the company expects revenue to decrease by low-single digits and anticipates gross margin to decline roughly 200 basis points at the midpoint, driven largely by tariff headwinds.
Mixed Operational Metrics Highlight Strengths and Weaknesses
Gross margin fell 300 basis points to 40.6%, largely because of tariff-related pressures. Nike expects tariffs to continue weighing on results but is taking steps to reduce the drag to about 120 basis points in FY2026.
North American sales were a bright spot, rising 9%, while every other region posted negative currency-adjusted growth. Greater China was especially weak, with sales down 16%.
Wholesale revenue improved, rising 8% as Nike’s partner ecosystem stabilized. By contrast, Nike Direct Digital — the DTC e-commerce channel — saw sales fall 14%, including a 36% decline in China.
CEO Elliott Hill has pointed out that Chinese consumers tend to take an e-commerce-first approach to purchasing.
That makes Nike’s poor performance in China particularly concerning. The company plans to “reset its approach to the China marketplace” as part of its broader recovery strategy.
A notable positive: Nike’s running product line posted 20% sales growth for the second consecutive quarter, with double-digit increases in both wholesale and DTC. This is an early sign the company’s Sport Offense strategy may be working.
Under Sport Offense, Nike is reorganizing into teams focused on specific sports to produce products that consistently resonate with particular consumer groups. As a multi-sport brand, this approach could help Nike regain relevance — though implementation is still in the early stages.
Nike Shares Drop After Earnings as Recovery Remains Slow
Despite topping estimates on both the top and bottom lines, markets reacted negatively. In after-hours trading on Dec. 18, Nike shares fell nearly 10% after management guided to negative growth next quarter and highlighted ongoing operational challenges.
Trading near $59 after hours, Nike needs a substantial rebound in long-term free cash flow to justify a higher valuation. Management remains committed to long-term investment, but progress appears slower than markets had hoped.
Nike is still one of the most recognizable sports apparel brands in the world, a brand advantage that provides a solid foundation for recovery. If the company can reverse weakness in China, mitigate tariff headwinds and rebuild its DTC business, it could stage a meaningful rebound.
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Taken to an extreme, dishonoring of parents leads to anarchy, first in the family and then in society, as the decay of this basic component spreads. Eventually, a person will expend much, if not most, of his energies just surviving, effectively destroying the development of spiritual, creative, and intellectual qualities essential to his and society’s well-being.
Not honoring parents also causes immaturity. Because children do not respect their parents’ advice, they grow up missing the significance of much they encounter, and so wisdom comes to them very slowly. In some cases, they may never learn wisdom. Lack of honor manifests itself in self-willed and self-indulgent people who seem to simmer just beneath the point of rebellion. Their motto in life becomes, “Just do it.” So they condemn themselves to learning the lessons of life through hard experience, which may be a good teacher, but a painful one.
2026 Sector Playbook: 3 Sectors Trading Below Fair Value
Written by Chris Markoch on January 1, 2026
What You Need to Know
Sector rotation into financials, industrials, and utilities could continue in early 2026 if crowded growth trades cool off.
Sector ETFs can work, but stock selection may offer better value where forward valuations sit below sector norms.
Rate expectations, capex trends, and data center power demand are three practical catalysts to watch across these sectors.
As we kick off 2026, it’s likely the sector rotation that began in December 2025 will continue. Some investors believe that many of the best-performing stocks of 2025, notably artificial intelligence (AI) stocks, are simply overvalued.
This belief extends beyond concerns about an AI bubble and falls into the category of value for the price. Many growth-oriented technology stocks simply feel overvalued and may require a correction before their valuations become attractive again.
As investors rotate out of the tech sector, they’ll look for stocks in sectors that may be trading below fair value. Three of the key sectors to consider are financials, industrials, and utilities.
This has been a stock picker’s market, so there have been some names in these sectors that have performed well. Many investors may choose to keep riding the hot hand into 2026.
But there are other names that are still trading at attractive valuations to their sector and the broader market. By focusing on individual names, investors have the opportunity to outperform some of the leading ETFs in the sector.
A couple of years ago, we started playing with the massive amounts of data that MarketBeat takes in everyday trying to figure out if there was a way to identify short term trading wins. By analyzing earnings data, news sentiment, analyst recommendations, insider transactions and dozens of other data points, we think we’ve found an algorithm that finds interesting short-term stock ideas. We call that algorithm the IdeaEngine and its stock ideas are published on MarketBeat All Access every Monday morning. We make one IdeaEngine idea available free every Monday as an SMS alert. We’ll be releasing the next IdeaEngine alert on Monday morning, so make sure you are signed up before then.Get MarketBeat IdeaEngine Alerts (Free)
Financials: Lower Rates Could Unlock Undervalued Bank Stocks in 2026
Finance stocks are expected to do well in 2026, no matter which direction interest rates go. However, with the scale heavily tilting to at least one rate cut in the first half of 2026, this could be an attractive sector. The overarching theme is that lower interest rates will stimulate the economy, which is more supportive of bank earnings.
Industrials: Capex Revival and Infrastructure Demand Point to Upside
Industrial stocks were one of the hottest sectors in the first half of the year. But the sector has leveled off in the back half, and that’s observed in the stock chart for the Industrial Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEARCA: XLI).
Industrials are expected to have another strong year in 2026 as infrastructure demand of all types is likely to get a boost if lower rates spur capital expenditures.
The XLI ETF is up about 18%, which closely approximates the performance of the S&P 500. Many of the top holdings in the fund are overvalued compared to the sector P/E average of around 24x, which is above the S&P average.
Your account is not currently signed up for MarketBeat’s free Monday morning stock ideas. Our team is going to be releasing an important pick on Monday morning and we want to make sure that you are able to see it.Add your name to the distribution list here
Utilities: A Quiet Value Play Powered by Data Center Energy Needs
The utilities sector is another place to unlock value in 2026. That could lead you to the Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEARCA: XLU). The ETF finished 2025 up around 13%, below the broader market. However, that was largely due to a 5.5% pullback in the last month of the year.
Utilities stocks are expected to benefit from increased demand from data centers, as well as the need to update aging electric infrastructure.
A controversial new law (S.1582) just gave a small group of private companies legal authority to create a new form of government-authorized money. Today, I reveal how to use this new money, why it’s set to make early investors fortunes, and what to do before the wealth transfer begins just weeks from now if you want to profit. Go here for details now.Bill Gates, Marjorie Taylor Greene Bet On The Same 5 Stocks: Some Might Surprise You
Something far more consequential for your money than tariffs is unfolding behind the scenes… Tucked inside this overlooked directive is a plan set to be executed for the first time in in U.S. history. One Stansberry Research’s Senior Partner says it’s set to trigger a rare window for potentially explosive gains in ONE asset immediately. (Not AI or crypto). Wall Street insiders are already positioning themselves… and he insists you should, too, before it’s too late. Get the full story here.5 Stocks Investors Couldn’t Stop Buzzing About This Week: TGT, TSM, GOOG And More
When in doubt over picking which stocks to own it’s wise to look at what the experts are saying. Here are the 8 stocks with the highest percentage of buy ratings among analysts on Wall Street today.
While retail buys Nvidia at all-time highs, institutions position into something else. Why? AI needs POWER. Louis Navellier, who spent 46 yrs Wall St. and called Nvidia at $1, reveals that his grading system shows where the money is REALLY flowing. Companies you’ve never heard of. Stocks the media never covers. Before Stage 3 begins… Click here for the full story.Tesla Rival Nio Caps 2025 With Record Deliveries
The U.S. military operation that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and flew him out of the country early Saturday has also disrupted Caribbean travel at a busy travel time for the region. More Info ➔
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On January 8, Wall Street legend Marc Chaikin will reveal his brand-new “Top 10 Stocks for 2026” (and you can tune in for free).
But there’s something else you need to know…
Marc is rushing this broadcast out from his home in Connecticut because he needs to warn you about a stock market signal that can predict the year ahead for stocks with 100% accuracy.
If you’re unfamiliar with Marc, he is a 50-year Wall Street veteran and founder of Chaikin Analytics (our corporate affiliate).
His award-winning Power Gauge system has helped him identify some of the best-performing stocks for nearly a decade now. For example, in 2025, it flashed bullish on a stunning 86% of the market’s top 50 stocks.
It also identified 8 of the top 10 stocks every year from 2016 through 2024.
But with the “January Trigger” looming, Marc says it has never been more crucial to get this shortlist of stocks into your hands.
This online broadcast is free to attend, and we strongly encourage all readers to reserve a seat immediately.
Dan Ferris Senior Editor & Analyst, Stansberry Research
Published by Stansberry Research.
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Please join us, our Zoom Link is below for this Saturday’ssession at 8:00 AM PST 01/03/2026. I am thankful for all of you. This week has been a week of contemplation. As you all know I am a big fan of the NT and in all my years as a practicing Christian; I have often said that if I were a practicing theologian I would have difficulty getting past the richness of the first three chapters of Genesis. From there I would jump to [Matt. 1:1] – The Genealogy of Jesus.
My working Bible, still in use today, went into service on or about 06/12/1996. This past week I was telling someone the story of Leila’s visit to America in 2005 as a translator. She and I, with two others, had gone for a walk in San Gorgonio Pass (near Palm Springs) and I had placed my Bible on a rock when a gust of wind came along and blew out about 30 pages. Fortunately the third member that day was Vadim who leaped and raced to recover ALL the pages. That evening I reassembled my Bible with shipping tape and Scotch tape.
As I was telling this story I was lovingly turning the pages most with many handwritten notes. I came upon the Title page – the very first page and one of the pages reestablished with shipping tape. Long ago I had written above all the printing on that page: “What message does my Lord have for His servant?” [Joshua 5:14b]
We will have fellowship this morning. I would like to explore Joshua’s words with you and what they mean to each of you.
The week has been filled with The Lord’s special holiday, family and life. Please allow us to take the time to share yourselves with your Christian brothers and sisters.
Trump’s sweeping policy changes are creating significant profit opportunities in unexpected places.
While most investors chase the obvious plays, we’ve identified 6 overlooked stocks positioned to benefit from the administration’s biggest priorities:✅A nuclear energy pioneercapitalizing on AI’s massive power demands (Trump’s energy security focus could send this stock to the stratosphere)…✅An equipment rental giantbenefiting from infrastructure spending and private-sector construction booms (deregulation is driving demand through the roof)✅A medical device leaderpositioned to profit from faster FDA approvals and healthcare deregulation (innovation is about to accelerate)…
Plus 3 more stocks positioned in the path of Trump’s policy hurricane.
Our presidential picks have an impressive track record. Previous recommendations soared +196%and +277% in the months after the 2020 election.¹
The stocks in our new report could be just as profitable, but the window to get positioned is closing.
The 6 stocks in our new Special Report, Presidential Profits: 6 Stocks to Ride Under the New Administration, could climb even higher.
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