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• Big Donnie T is about the same age as Uncle Joey B was when the 2020 campaign started, and as a result, maybe they're both just tired old-a** men now?
• Wait, so are we bullish on tech stocks again? Goldman Sachs might be, at least on these names
• Like socks and sandals, China is (apparently) back, and here's how Barron's says you should play it
• Soft landing, hard landing; to be honest, I'm just happy to be there. But we'll get more of a hint as to which scenario fits right with this week's jobs report

Quiet Entrepreneurship

If you're a TikTok addict like myself (unfortunately), you're well up to speed on all this talk about "quiet quitting."

But while the boomers use this trend to feed the fire of their "every young person is lazy" narrative (like every older generation throughout history says), nobody is talking about the exact opposite phenomena occurring right now as well.

Skip down to Data Peel real quick.

You back? Perfect. That Data Peel chart shows a massive uptick in new business formation brought on since the pandemic. I don't know about you, but I'd say starting a business is the exact opposite of "quiet quitting."

That's not to imply that all the job leavers out there are the next Steve Jobs or Sam Bankman-Fried (lol), but during times of economic hardship, we often see the formation of new businesses pump through the roof.

Anecdotally, Airbnb, Uber, Stripe, Slack, Square (aka Block), Instagram, WhatsApp, and even BTC itself were all founded in the throes of the GFC. Hard times make strong companies, or however the expression goes.

You get the point now (I hope). Since mid-2020 and continuing up until now, the New Business Formation rate has held relatively steady on a higher plateau than pre-pandemic. Maybe it's WFH, maybe it's all the layoffs, or maybe it's just OnlyFans, but something in the air seems to have changed.

In December, New Business Formation rates did tick down slightly from November across almost all US regions. The one where it didn't? The same one that everyone's moving to-the great American South.

While the big upswing in New Business Formation bodes well nationwide, it's particularly beneficial for the region hogging all the entrepreneurs. Cities like Atlanta, Miami, Charlotte, Raleigh, and Nashville have seen both an influx of people and, along with that, an influx of new business.

Historically, those two factors have been leading indicators for a multi-year, secular trend of positive data ranging from employment figures to general well-being among the population.

This is one of those trends that won't move markets on a daily basis but leads to economic growth over the long term-our favorite kind of economic growth.

To speculate wildly for a moment, coming out of the GFC, California and the North East (aka Boston and NYC) hogged all the new businesses. As a result, we got a whole lot of new SaaS, fintech, and biotech firms.

Coming out of the South, especially in regions like the Research Triangle in North Carolina, we could see an outsized amount of new agritech or industrial companies, for example.

There are a lot of possibilities, and it's not like the South is dominating so much that the rest of the country will be left behind. NYC, SF, Boston, and Chicago, to name a few, will likely remain on trend, which is great for them, but it's particularly advantageous for the previously named cities like Miami and Raleigh.

Maybe it's WFH, maybe it's inflation, or maybe it's just OnlyFans, but as entrepreneurship is seen as the key to the American Dream, this is a huge sign that the Roaring '20s 2.0 could be a lock. Place your bets now.

Tesla($TSLA) ↑ 11.00% ↑

• Would you say this past week was your personal best week since May 2013? No? Well, in that case, you're definitely not Tesla stock.
• Shares have been PUMPIN' recently, gaining well over 60% so far just this year and almost 40% in just the last week. Earnings dropped recently and were nothing short of stellar, but generally when Tesla reports actual good news, shares dump as a result of profit-taking.
• Not this time. Elon is absolutely balling out as traders buy up shares in fear of missing out on the next record-setting run (they hope) and because the stock is still down over 50% from all-time highs. You buying the dip?

American Express ($AXP) ↑ 10.54% ↑

• What's more American than credit card debt? That's right, absolutely nothing. And American Express-along with their shareholders-is loving it.
• Friday was earnings day for the financial services/airport lounge giant, and although the firm's profits did fall nearly 10% YoY, the company is still killing it compared to these other card issuers (aka losers).
• The firm's revenues have ballooned 32% over just the past 5-years after adjusting for inflation. Despite spending nearly $20bn on rewards and benefits for members in 2022, the sales those benefits drove far outweighed any costs.
• That's because American Express loves rich people. Have you ever been in line in Harry Styles's "Pleasing" store or something and realized the line next to you was moving way faster? Yeah, that's the line for AmEx card holders. Merchants have to pay a hefty fee to the company for customers to use their cards, but as AmEx holders spend an average of 3x that of regular (broke) customers, it's all well worth it, apparently.