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Remember the mysterious AI gadget that OpenAI is cooking up under the direction of former Apple design guru Jony Ive? According to CEO Sam Altman, the product is now in the prototype phase, and he vaguely disclosed some of the details, adding to the earlier tidbit that the tool will be “multimodal.” Apparently this isn’t even the first prototype, but the last one didn’t inspire a feeling of “I want to pick up that thing and take a bite out of it,” which is… not generally how we judge our devices, but you do you, Orb-man. 

The S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Russell 2000 all climbed markedly higher on Monday. Broadcom was the best-performing stock in the S&P 500 as rave reviews for Google’s Gemini 3 boosted the appeal of its custom chips. Tech led the pack among sector ETFs as the AI trade was back in favor, followed by consumer discretionary, driven by gains in Tesla. In fact, every BATMMAAN stock rose. Dovish commentary from Fed Governor Christopher Waller fueled December rate cut optimism.

Just six months ago, Google was criticized by some investors for being a little lost. Its ultimate cash cow, Google Search, seemed threatened by ChatGPT, many of its nascent bets were far from making a positive impact to its bottom line, and the US government was still toying with the idea of breaking up the Search-Ads-Maps-Gmail-Chrome-YouTube machine.

But a lot has gone right over the last six months.

Meanwhile, its self-driving arm, Waymo, has rapidly expanded to include freeways and new cities (with a 2,500-car fleet in service that outnumbers Tesla’s robotaxis), its search business is notching record revenues, Google Cloud business is signing deal after deal — most recently with NATO this morning — and YouTube remains the biggest thing on TV.

Things were looking pretty shaky there for a moment, but Google proved that one thing that massive companies with its kind of scale are capable of is resisting the challengers that are trying to rattle the company. Size has lots and lots of advantages — hence the antitrust issues to begin with — and it’s tough to find a better example of a company exploiting its massive footprint better than Google. 

The U.S. is the world’s largest natural gas producer and exporter.¹ As rising global power consumption propels demand, Global X’s new U.S. Natural Gas ETF (LNGX) offers investors a way to capture potential growth in American companies with high natural gas exposure across the value chain — from production to processing, transportation, and exports.

While U.S. natural gas stands to benefit from the surging power needs of AI and data centers, LNGX isn’t just another “AI play.” Rising LNG exports, growing energy demand, and supportive energy policies are all driving expansion of the natural gas sector.

For ETF investors, LNGX provides a tactical opportunity as the US strengthens its role as a global energy leader — with potential for long-term structural growth as power demand intensifies. See how LNGX from Global X ETFs could strengthen your portfolio.

The rout in bitcoin is poised to produce a bearish technical signal that has meant “substantial more downside to come” in four of its prior five instances.

The signal in question is the MACD, the monthly moving average convergence/divergence indicator, which takes the difference between the 26-month exponential moving average (EMA) of an asset with its 12-month EMA. When that MACD crosses below its own nine-month EMA — what’s known as the signal line — that’s considered to be bearish.

It’s been a rough month for bitcoin, which is poised to have its worst month since 2022 if things don’t turn around. In the world of crypto, where there are no fundamentals to use for analysis, traders lean on technical analysis to find patterns in the charts to guide their trading decisions. Bearish signals like the death cross or this MACD crossover can become almost self-fulfilling prophecies in crypto as traders react more in line with what should happen after the sign, and therefore that very future comes true.

Prediction markets are booming, with much of the growth in activity consisting of what are, in the plainest terms, wagers on sports. Bank of America analysts flagged that these activities tend to result in an increased incidence of financial hardship, with young men and lower-income consumers particularly vulnerable. And this convergence of entertainment and speculative finance could introduce new risks for lenders and others.