January 25, 2026, Issue 21

The World According to WEF

Davos, Switzerland is a small, picturesque town of about 11,000 permanent residents. Each year in mid-January about 3,000 CEOs, politicians, and members of the media descend on the village and turn it into the center of the business and political universe. This year saw a record 400+ political leaders, including 60 heads of state. 830 CEOs and Chairs of companies showed up under the theme of “A Spirit of Dialogue”. And dialogue there was. Here are 3 takeaways and 1 burning question remaining from the conference:

1. President Trump continues to create his own special drama, and Davos was no exception. He backed away from the idea of using force to overtake Greenland, part of the NATO alliance. Then he wanted to know why everyone thought he would do that in the first place. Uhhh, because you said you would do so two days earlier. Stocks fell big and then rose big when the threat faded.
2. Mark Carney, Canada’s Prime Minister found out first hand how difficult it is to try to thread the needle between standing up to Trump and drawing his ire. His speech was frankly excellent and well received in Canada. He talked about “middle powers” banding together. Special kudos for the line “if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu”, I wish I wrote it. Here’s the other side though. Carney negotiated a deal with China for 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles to come into Canada at 6% duty, overriding the 100% duty that had been imposed months ago when Carney viewed China as a huge threat. Never mind the flip flop on whether China is friend or foe, the fallout is that the USA is and always will be extremely important as a trading partner for Canada, for better or worse. So pissing off Trump just before negotiations are set to begin on the USMCA free trade pact may not be the best strategy. Here’s another little tidbit on those Chinese EVs. A company called Clarios makes the batteries for many Chinese EVs. That company is owned by Brookfield Asset Management. If that does not ring a bell, Mr. Carney was chairman of the board at Brookfield before resigning the position as Prime Minister. He does however, hold an ongoing financial stake in the company. Surely both the President of the USA has made oodles of cash since taking office, even though he does not take the salary that comes with the job. Maybe the Prime Minister of Canada has learned a thing or two. Man I hate politics.
3. Business leaders all spoke about the coming impact of AI. It is going to improve productivity, and it will surely cause job losses. However, perhaps those jobs will simply transition to something as yet unknown inside the technology universe. It seems that since the industrial revolution, we have always feared job losses to new technology. While jobs have been lost, new ones have always been created. I imagine AI will be no different. Here is the scary part that no one talks about. The quality of the scams already out there thanks to AI are downright scary. As usual, the crooks are one step ahead. What was rarely talked about in Davos? Cybersecurity. I believe this is where companies will need to drastically increase spending. We should be buying stocks in companies like Crowdstrike (CRWD) or Palo Alto Networks PANW) and hang on.
4. My burning question from the World Economic Forum: What is Katy Perry doing with Justin Trudeau? Any thoughts out there on this one?

Netflix Goes All Cash

Seriously, who buys anything with cash these days? Well, Netflix does for one. They “improved” their offer for Warner Brothers by making it payable all in cash instead of cash and stock. What they did not do was increase the price or overall value of the offer. Paramount still has a competing outstanding offer for a few bucks more, but the Warner board is recommending shareholders take the Netflix deal.
Now I have always loved the Netflix business, and have been wanting to jump in at these levels which are very close to 52 week lows on the stock. I mean, monthly recurring revenue from over 325 million global subscribers, who for the most part are willing to pay price increases whenever they have to. Who doesn’t like that kind of business? However, I don’t believe this battle ends here. The Ellisons, the largest shareholders who run Paramount will not go away quietly, and they may be supported by Trump. There is also the issue of anti-trust which will surely come up in multiple jurisdictions when it comes to Netflix. While this takeover wanders through courts, fights, and probably increased offers, we will keep an eye an NFLX, and let you know if and when we take a position.

Some Transitioning in Portfolios

As I mentioned late in the week, we have begun a small position in Capital One Financial. We have been heavily invested in technology, and continue to believe that area will provide outsized returns. However, there is an increasing feeling that caution is required this year. To that end, financials make sense. Also, we are watching stocks that pay a heathy dividend with increasing interest. Here is the plan over the next number of months. We will watch earnings of SNAP and Peloton, two of our speculative positions. As they move toward our target prices we will reduce or completely dispose of these shares. That cash will be deployed into some of the dividend we have mentioned in the past. As always, I will keep you informed of any moves we make in advance.

Current Portfolio

I don’t recall the last time we displayed our current holdings. So with no further ado, here is how it looks as of today:

STOCK	SHARES	AVG. COST	CURRENT PRICE	FIRST PURCHASE
SNAP	800	$8.15	$7.62	8/5/2025
GOOGL	5	$238.74	$327.93	10/10/2025
AMZN	10	$135.49	$239.16	2/10/2023
AAPL	5	$258.98	$248.04	1/9/2026
NVDA	20	$47.72	$187.67	1/2/2024
NKE	40	$71.12	$65.04	9/11/2025
SOUN	445	$4.94	$10.33	3/14/2024
ARKB	45	$19.46	$29.69	5/1/2024
MSFT	5	$410.38	$465.95	10/31/2024
DELL	45	$102.37	$115.43	12/19/2024
BA	15	$210.44	$252.15	5/20/2025
PANW	10	$166,03	$180.18	8/7/2025
JOBY	250	$14.23	$13.93	8/19/2025
PTON	800	$6.74	$5.80	10/14/2025
META	5	$634.56	$658.76	10/30/2025
COF	10	$218.75	$217.33	1/23/2026
LEG	550	NA	$12.15	NA

Thought of the Day

Close friends of ours had to put their beloved Golden Retriever down yesterday. This hit us hard as we loved Ginger as if she was our own. We knew her for over 8 years, we babysat her when her parents were away, and our Goldens and her were great friends. I have said it before and I’ll say it again. Making that decision, and going through that ordeal is one of the hardest things humans have to go through.
Have you lived this experience? What are your takeaways if you have?