In his final State of the Union Address, President Obama took a victory lap on the progress the United States has made with clean energy.  He cites the decimation of the coal industry, something still plaguing Chinese lungs at precipitous rates.  He also touts a 60% reduction in foreign energy purchases.  He also gives a shoutout to all the hard working solar panel installers, check it out:

Literally all at once Snapchat is being thrust onto the main stage of social media.  If you are looking for a catalyst, my best guess is DJ Khaled.  Yes, the DJ guy who shouts his name out at the beginning of rap songs.  The White House did a copycat snap depicting Khaled’s “major key” catch phrase during an ominous night-walk video.  The social media company is not wasting time flexing their business muscles either.  According to Reuters, Snapchat wants to get into the roboadvisory business.

They see their target audience, mostly millennials, as a group who collectively want more input into the way their money is managed.  This is extremely interesting.  I have taken to putting out tons of content on snapchat after realizing how simple it is to use.  The feedback has been insane. I am seeing way more interaction then I do on Twitter or the blog.  I can definitely see using the platform as a money manager.  As for Snapchat being the actual advisor, I am not so sure.

I think it makes more sense to have an intermediary of sorts, but perhaps that is just my attempt at making financial professionals relevant.  Right away I see the potential for this platform to disrupt the money management business–but my perception is for advisors to streamline interaction with their clients via the simple face-to-face interaction.  This could just be wishful thinking.  Perhaps millennials, even high net-worth ones, would rather prefer to make their own financial decisions.

At least until they blow up a few accounts.

Bottom line–if you are in finance and unaware of how disruptive Snapchat is to our industry, fret not.  I am all-in on Snapchat this year, I get it.  I realize just how powerful this platform is and how it perfectly fits into the social media ecosystem.  It is likely to be the biggest one of all.  I’m serious.  If you follow me, you will get up to the minute updates on the order flow in the stock market.  I will also keep you abreast with the other ways this platform can improve your business.  If you do not have snapchat go now.  Get one.  Pray your name has not already been taken.  Then add me by my username, VCali.

Either you beat them or you join them, but change is one of the few inevitable forces in nature.  I intend to always and as much as possible go with the flow.  You should too.

I just don’t know if I can trust this guy.  Mr Kirkpatrick throws shade on my homie Elon Musk several times during this Bloomberg interview.  Elon sees auto-driving cars in 2 years.  This guys says no way, and when we do see them it will be for fleet cars only.

He is missing the point entirely.  If Uber gets their hands on autonomous cars the entire world will change.  Cities will no longer be built around the car.  City blocks wasted as parking lots will vanish.  Homes will once again not need garages.

Also, the dude says only Tesla will be making a non-fleet autonomous car soon, but that the common man will not be able to afford them.  It is like he is completely unaware that Tesla plans to roll out their affordable Model III this spring.

You ever just want to correct someone with your fist but you have to use your words instead because you’re not a caveman?  That’s how I feel like right now.  The struggle:

Every month I try and unplug from the charlatans at Comcast, and every hour-long conversation ends with stipends and another month of my obedience.  Yet I never consider cancelling Netflix.  It is just so reasonable, and good.  So while the rest of my life teeters on the brink of destruction via a calamitous stocked market, I have a beacon of hope in Netflix.

The stock was up 9.10% today, TODAY–a day when breadth was stank and churn was the best outcome.  Look at the January seasonality on these guys.  The weather goes south, and NFLX goes north:

Quarter after quarter these guys grow their revenues, like clockwork:

Propelling the shares higher today was news out of the Consumer Electronics Show that the website is now streaming to over 130 countries, including India.  India is freaking huge, let’s all be clear about that.

This is great news for America.  We are exporting our greatest industry, movies, worldwide via the internet.  Gone are the days where spools of film were flown about the globe.  Also, despite easily accessible piracy channels, Netflix remains supreme.  Celebration!

The race is on for autonomous on-demand cars.  Last July Uber CEO Travis Kalanick promised to buy 500,000 Teslas if they can deliver the autonomous whips by 2020.  Today General Motors announced they invested half a billion dollars into competitor Lyft.  The dollars are earmarked for the development of the autonomous grid.  This is the biggest opportunity in the world right now.

Most of you cannot wrap your mind around this concept because you were born and raised in towns built around the car.  Cities that were once marvelous to walk and take public transit have been slaughtered by 10-lane superhighways.  Whole city blocks were leveled and replaced with parking lots.  Insane, stupid, and for a long time, seemingly irreversible.

Then Uber came along and made a kickass app to cue up your own personal driver.  Soon others like Lyft followed.

Now all we need are autonomous cars.  This will eliminate the need to own a personal car.  Cities can stop worrying about providing parking spots.  Life will improve.  And someone is going to make.a.fortune.

It comes down to who you think wins this game.  GM is throwing some major funding behind Lyft.  I am partial to Uber because on New Years eve their app was working in Philly and Lyft wasn’t.  Nevertheless, one cannot solely base decisions off their microcosm.  This could be huge for GM and Lyft.  Keep it on your radar.

Click here to read the full news release on PR Newswire.

FedEx is playing it off cool, blaming their failure to meet Christmas day deliveries on an ‘unprecedented’ e-commerce surge, but some suspect it was also the crap weather Newark was experiencing during the days leading into Christmas.  Either way, people are going ape-shit, saying FedEx is the Grinch and whatnot, ruining their Christmases.  Jackasses and their first world problems.  Anyhow, Bloomberg has the FedEx mea culpa up on their site.

Rumor has it everyone received their packages in the days following Christmas.  Someone on reddit posted my cover pic, which is a package from 1996 that rattled loose in the UPS systems during the holiday surge.

Package delivery is reaching a new realm as online retailers swell in size.  It is no wonder Amazon is getting creative with their delivery methods, becoming the Uber of the postal game, toying with drones and whatnot.

Boeing President and CEO Dennis Muilenburg declared an increase to the company’s share repurchase program, replacing the original $12 billion dollar authorization approved last December.  They also raised their dividend by 20% to $1.09 per share.

Investors were mildly pleased after hours and sent the shares up to about $144 aka where they opened earlier today.

All that dollar firepower just to undo one day of downward trade.  Money ain’t what it used to be.

Heading into lunch, this market is not looking lazy.  Price is busy exploring lower in a desperate campaign to reveal buyers.

Early on the NASDAQ put on a  bit of a show by oscillating 30 handles, back-and-forth, in 2 minute increments.  The moves look like EKG bursts as the higher time frame slugged each other in the face, Ali vs Fraser style.

It eventually gave way to more selling.  Although it is true every transaction on the market has one buyer and one seller, right now no one is buying.  Liquidity is low and we are on the verge of another credit crisis.

The market is having one last extreme bipolar fit before the year end–thus assuring itself nothing but coal and a straight jacket for Christmas.

Hohoho

The most powerful drug trafficker in the world is threatening to destroy the caveman ISIS terrorist.  Joaquín Guzmán aka El Chapo sent a threat to ISIS after one of his shipments to the Middle East was compromised by the islamic nation.  According to info wars, El Chapo issued a warning to the terrorist dogs via encrypted email:

“You [ISIS] are not soldiers. You are nothing but lowly pussies,” the e-mail stated. “Your god cannot save you from the true terror that my men will levy at you if you continue to impact my operation.”

“My men will destroy you. The world is not yours to dictate. I pity the next son of a whore that tries to interfere with the business of the Sinaloa Cartel.”

I say we let these two criminal organizations face off in a Scarface-style mansion fight.

Since bitcoin officially launched on January 9th, 2009 it has been a mystery who created the crypo-currency.  But with its rapid adoption and expanding value, the quest to uncover the creator is tantalizing.  Investigative journalists have been seething for year over the mystery, but Wired finally put all the pieces together and linked bitcoin to an Australian genius named Craig Steven Wright.  Literally the next day the man’s home was raided by the Australian Federal Police.  Cool, great job Wired.

Apparently this guy owns some of the largest super computers in the world, not something your everyday civilian keeps in their garage.  Anyhow, whether or not CSR is the Bitcoin mastermind, his home has been torn open.  No word on whether he is in custody.

This is probably why the guy has been so low-key.  Anytime you create something this disruptive and decentralized, someone is out to get you.  Good luck Satoshi Nakamoto.