🇺🇸 Americans' Belief in Paranormal Phenomena (Gallup)

Interestingly, the more likely you were to go to church, the more skeptical you were likely to be about the paranormal...

The question format: For each of the following items I am going to read you, please tell me whether it is something you believe in, something you're not sure about, or something you don't believe in. How about — ?

👻 I N T E L R U N N E R 👻

🇺🇸 Employment Growth Has Weakened Considerably (ADP) [Monthly Change in US Private Employment, 000s]

Every day, it appears more and more likely that we will be grappling with a surge in unemployment before the resurgence of inflation.

Inflation has been cooling off again, but unemployment has been heating up, and we all know the enormous issue with underemployment that Americans are and have been facing.

Not to mention the statistical games that are played with people dropping out of the workforce or working multiple jobs...it's a whole lotta rose-colored glasses polish out there.

Whether people still have jobs is likely to be one of the most important factors to keep an eye on—especially regarding the real economy....

📊 I N T E L R U N N E R 📊

🇺🇸 Top 10 American Companies' Collective Market Cap

It peaked & stalled out in October. It's been chopping sideways in that $24–26 trillion range.

📹 I N T E L R U N N E R 🍏

🇫🇷 Macron's Approval Rating Now Less Than Half of What It Was When He Took Office

Macron is starting to dip into Hollande territory...

Gallup asks: Do you approve or disapprove of the way [...]* is handling his job as president?

* 2012: Nicolas Sarkozy,
2013-2016: François Hollande,
2017-2025: Emmanuel Macron

🧿 I N T E L R U N N E R 🧿

🇬🇧 Share of people who believe “It is possible to become truly British if a person makes an effort” compared to “A person has to be born British to be truly British” (2023 vs. 2025)

I wonder if, at the end of all of this when everything is in total shambles and dangerous rogues roam every corner, whether it will dawn on the "progressive" useful idiots that they've been used by this priest class they uphold.

Probably not. Until the day they embrace the slightest bit of self-reflection, expect to see nativist sentiment on the march.

More: December 18th Polling on Parliamentary Elections

📊 I N T E L R U N N E R 📊

🇺🇸 An Average Year Isn't So Average – S&P 500 Gains Between 8-10% Are Quite Rare (1950 - 2025)

📊 I N T E L R U N N E R 📊

🇺🇸 Reminder of the -88 point swing in George W. Bush's approval polling between 2003 & 2007...

This was before the housing market crash & the election of Obama made everyone forget Iraq is a country.

Trump is starting his Venezuela boondoggle from a much weaker position, having already pissed everyone off with Iran & Epstein.

🇮🇶 I N T E L R U N N E R 🇮🇶

🇺🇸 Gas Prices are down again this month. This time they've slipped to an average of $2.75/gallon.

That's the lowest since March 2021. Here's a chart of the past five years in average American gas prices (before taxes & other undue burdens).

⛽️ I N T E L R U N N E R ⛽️

🟠 Bitcoin's price has swelled 7% so far this year, rising $6,000+.

I had noted the decline in long-term holder distribution a week ago...

📈 I N T E L R U N N E R 📈

🌍 The Returns Leaderboard for the week ending in January 2nd:

🥉 Emerging Markets Equities 🇰🇷 (+2.3%)

🥈 Bitcoin 💰 (+3%)

🥇 Ethereum 🔷 (+6.8%)

🔽 Gold 🥇 (-4.8%), Commodities 🪵 (-2.6%), Magnificent 7 🍏 (-1.8%)

🔼 I N T E L R U N N E R 🔽

🇺🇸🇻🇪 I could've sworn I posted about Chevron and Venezuela but I guess I accidentally kept that one to myself.

We're up 7.7% this year...

Chevron has extensive interests in Venezuelan oil and definitely stands to gain from recent developments (presuming it doesn't melt down into an insurgency or something).

🛢 INTELRUNNER 🛢

🇺🇸 The S&P 500 ended 2025 with $61.1 trillion market capitalization.

More on the S&P 500
🛑The Forward P/E Ratio Does Not Portend Well a Decade Out
🛑What Does the SPX-to-Gold Ratio Tell Us About Valuation?
🛑Wall Street Expects the Rally in $SPX To Continue in 2026

$SPX gained a globally modest 15.3% over the past year.

5️⃣ I N T E L R U N N E R 5️⃣

🇺🇸 🇨🇳 2025 was the year China's BYD surpassed Tesla, the one-time American leader in electric vehicles globally.

$BYD is now selling 2.26 million vehicles to the 1.64 million of $TSLA, representing a 38% edge. Their production advantage is slightly lower at 34%.

$BYD actually sold 40,000 more units in 2025 than they produced.

🚘 I N T E L R U N N E R 🚘

🇮🇷 The market for predicting whether the Ayatollah Khamenei will be out as the Supreme Leader of Iran by the end of June projects almost 2 in 5 odds—1 in 4 by March's end...

Here are the percent chances for various removal-by dates:

🟢January 31st: 12%
🟢March 31st: 24%
🟢June 30th: 37%
🟢December 31st: 49%

🇮🇷 I N T E L R U N N E R 🇮🇷

🇺🇸🇻🇪 Barrick Mining Corporation is up 8.15% year to date.

$B is another company with one-time interests in pre-Chavez Venezuela (the CEO advocated regime change at the time).

Unlike Chevron ($CVX), but like Exxon Mobil ($XOM), Barrick fled Venezuela after the socialist takeover...

💰 INTELRUNNER 💰

🌍 Will 2026 Be Better Than 2025? In a 30-Nation Survey, 71% Think So.

The nation most optimistic about 2026 is Indonesia (90%), followed closely by Columbia (89%). Chile, Thailand, and Peru tied for third at 86%.

The least optimistic nation is France at 41%. Second is the Japan (44%) followed by Belgium (49%) third from the bottom. These three countries are the only majority pessimistic countries in the sample.

🇮🇩 I N T E L R U N N E R 🇨🇴

🇬🇧 UK's Most Popular Cosmetic Surgeries By Gender (BAAPS
2024)

💉 I N T E L R U N N E R 💉