Week of 1/15/24

Prepared by Will Nelson for Tom Donohue

Stories that drove last week

• US and Allies escalate with Houthis in the Red Sea

• Caucus and Primary season kicks off

• Davos kicks off

Domestic News

• Politics

  • 2024 Race

    • Republican Primary Polling

      1. Trump (62.8%) [+3.5% since last week)

      2. Haley (11.9%) [+0.3% since last week]

      3. Desantis (11.8%) [-0.8% since last week)

      4. Ramaswamy (4.8%) [-0.8% since last week]

  • Other Stories

    • Iowa Caucus results:

      • Trump 51% (Winner)

      • DeSantis 21.2%

      • Haley 19.1%

      • Results

      • Analysis:

        • Trump wins as expected, Haley slightly underperforms but she and DeSantis split the leftovers. The big question is who stays in the race and how support consolidates between the top 3.

    • Vivek Ramaswamy out of the race, throwing his support behind Trump  

    • Chris Christie out of the presidential race, but he is supposedly being courted by No Labels for a third party ticket

• Biden Administration

  • The US, with the support of International allies, has started conducting direct strikes against Houthis target. However these strikes have seemed to show little deterrence effect

    • China is taking a different tack and staying out of it

  • Two Navy SEALs still missing after going overboard in the process of raiding a ship carrying weapons from Iran bound for the Houthis

• Economics

  • Equities Performance

    • S&P 500 (+0.44% last week)

    • NASDAQ (+1.14% last week)

    • DJI (-0.24% last week)

  • Big Stories

    • Good economic data clashing with consumer sentiments

    • Argentinian President Milei travels to Davos on a commercial flight with a small delegation in stark contrast to his predecessors

Global News

• Conflicts

  • Israel

    • Israel claims “intensive'“ phase of Gaza operations coming to a close

    • Israeli “Spy HQ” in Iraq attacked by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard missiles

      • US has condemned the strikes

    • Two more Israeli hostages are dead after a social media campaign by Hamas and videos of fellow captors released

  • Ukraine

    • President Zelensky lands in Davos to push for peace, advocating for a framework that has western support but has been rejected by Russia

    • Ukraine has supposedly shot down two large Russian command and control aircrafts

• Russia

  • Russia and North Korea growing closer

  • Factional feuds may be growing inside the Kremlin

• China

  • Scale models of US Naval ship decks have been constructed in the Chinese Desert for target practice

  • Chinese banks reviewing their relationships with Russian clients amid US sanctions

Reading List

1. A beautifully done documentary cataloging the the rise of Tim Cook and his effect on Apple. A good way to prepare for the launch of the Apple Vision Pro [Youtube, 30 minutes)

2. Why Vo2 Max and cardio training are critical to longevity and quality of life later as you age

3. Ever seen purple streetlights? Here’s why [BI] (h/t Brian Walker)

4. The insane story of a jump seat pilot who tried to crash a plane to wake himself up from a bad trip [NYT]

5. The Wikipedia page about the bridge that is responsible for 25% of US/Canada trade and used to be a publicly traded asset. Warren Buffet owned 25% of it before he was bought out by a local trucking magnate who took the bridge private. The owner has since gone to jail (and been released) after refusing orders to add on-ramps to the roadway that would’ve allowed drivers to bypass tax-free gas stations that made him over 60 cents/gallon. More about the bridge’s history of murders, suicides, and high dive record attempts HERE