Wealthy investors are voting with their feet. In Q1 alone, more than $10.1 billion in redemption requests have poured into some of the largest private-credit and direct-lending funds. Blackstone, BlackRock and Morgan Stanley have already begun rationing payouts, honouring roughly 70% of requests.
China's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030) promotes a '15-minute happiness circle' for sports access. Pickleball is now catching the attention of state planners and private capital alike. Domestic sports spending is up 38% since 2020.
The Lunar New Year of the Fire Horse opened with Unitree robots performing kung fu at the Spring Festival Gala. China shipped 10x more humanoid robots than the US. 7,705 Chinese patents vs 1,561 US ones over five years.
AI and robotics promise hyper-growth while the foundations of income, labour, and value are crumbling. Governments face an unprecedented question: how to generate revenue in an era of abundance.
Agentic AI systems are threatening entry-level roles at scale. Stanford's 'Canaries Paper' revealed a 13% employment decline in exposed categories. The WEF projects a net gain of 78M jobs by 2030 — but the transition will be painful.
The inaugural LIT TLP tournament in the Greater Bay Area drew 400+ players, including Ryan Lam (world #1 PCS). Pickleball now claims 40M+ players globally. China is building infrastructure at scale.
Trump nominated Kevin Warsh — former Fed governor and Druckenmiller partner — to chair the Fed. Markets lost $5 trillion in value: Gold fell 10.9%, Silver -37.2%, Bitcoin -6%, Nasdaq -0.94%.
The DXY tumbled to ~96, a four-year low and -11% over 12 months. Gold surged past $5,500/oz. Bitcoin slumped from ~$96,000. A tale of two hedges with very different outcomes.
The Fed held rates steady at 3.5%–3.75% after three consecutive cuts since September. The FOMC noted the economy is 'expanding at a solid pace.' Unemployment held at 4.4% in December 2025.
Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Meta have effectively become power companies. The Trump administration is urging PJM Interconnection to auction power access to data centres. US data centres already consume 4% of national electricity.
Z.ai (formerly Zhipu AI, 02513.HK) listed on January 8, 2026 on HKEX, becoming the world's first publicly listed large language model company. Priced at HK$116.20, market cap exceeded HK$51 billion.
Goldman Sachs projects 2.6% real GDP growth in 2026 with an S&P 500 target of 7,600. Morgan Stanley is more cautious at 1.8% GDP. Five key risks to the constructive base case are identified.