Stocks set for mixed open on virus risk; oil falls
Stocks looked set for a mixed start Monday and oil slid amid concerns about more curbs to tackle the omicron virus variant, tightening monetary policy and a setback for President Joe Biden's economic agenda.
Futures earlier slipped for Japan but rose for Hong Kong. Australian stocks edged down, while U.S. equity futures fluctuated. Global stocks retreated last week in part on an outlook of diminishing central bank stimulus as officials pivot toward fighting inflation.
Risks pile up for millions of day traders buying India stocks
Nithin Kamath, the chief executive officer of India's largest online brokerage, estimates that his platform handles 10 to 12 million orders on the average day. They're increasingly from first-time investors under the age of 30, executing dozens of trades at lightning speed off their mobile phones.
Young investors like those on Kamath's Zerodha Broking -- which has come to be known as India's Robinhood -- helped drive its stock market to records this year, but many are now buying at a time when risks are building up.
European power prices for Monday rise to record on cold snap
A combination of colder weather, low wind and nuclear outages, combined with very expensive natural gas prices, saw daily power prices in Spain jump to a record while French equivalent rose to its highest level since a rare price peak in 2009.
With benchmark natural gas prices seen seven times higher than at the start of the year due hampered supplies from Russia, traders are bracing for even higher prices in the coming coldest winter months.
Crypto attracts more money in 2021 than all previous years combined
Need more proof that this is the year digital assets went mainstream? How about the fact that venture capital funds have poured about $30 billion into crypto, or more than in all previous years combined for the little more than decade-old technology.
As other established firms such as Coinbase Ventures, Digital Currency Group and Polychain Capital bet on the next big crypto thing, all manner of experimental projects — a social media app that turns celebrities into tokens, a play-to-earn NFT game inspired by Elon Musk or a collectible consisting of a list of words — secured funding.
Cathie Wood says innovation stocks are in 'deep value' territory
"After correcting for nearly 11 months, innovation stocks seem to have entered deep value territory," she wrote in a blog post she said was intended to share ARK's thought process. "We take advantage of volatility during corrections and concentrate our portfolios toward our highest conviction stocks."
Chinese electric car start-up Nio reveals a new sedan, augmented reality glasses
Chinese electric car start-up $NIO Inc (NIO.US)$'s second electric sedan, the ET5, is set to begin deliveries in September 2022, CEO William Li said Saturday at the company's annual "Nio Day" event. Li also announced custom augmented reality glasses for the car that are made by Nreal, a Chinese start-up backed by Nio's investing arm.
On the global front, Nio plans to enter Germany and three other countries in Europe next year, Li said.
'Cash could be your friend': Wilmington Trust sees a deeper pullback providing better opportunities for investors
Despite a bullish 2022 outlook, Wilmington Trust's Meghan Shue expects the wild swings to ramp up as investors digest a less accommodative Federal Reserve and assess new risks tied to the Covid omicron variant.
"While we're overweight to equities, we're holding elevated cash because we think there are probably going to be more opportunities presenting themselves," the firm's head of investment strategy told CNBC on Friday. "Cash could be your friend over the coming months."
Slim chance U.S. stocks will rack up another year of gains
The $S&P 500 Index (.SPX.US)$ is poised to end higher for the third year in a row, having added more than 20% so far in 2021. Another rally in 2022 would make for a four-year winning streak, which has happened only five times in nearly a century.
Analysis shows a three-year streak -- like the one now -- is uncommon, but not terribly out of the ordinary, occurring 11 times for data going back to 1927, and making another year of gains a toss-up. The longest-ever wining streak was the eight-year period from 1982 to 1989 (even with a dramatic crash in October 1987, the S&P 500 still eked out a gain).
Source: Bloomberg, CNBC

By Julianna
Reddit, the home of WallStreetBets, announced on Wednesday that it has confidentially submitted a draft registration statement with the SEC to go public.
The San Francisco-based company did not determine the number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering. The listing is expected to occur after the U.S. SEC completes its review process, subject to market and other conditions.
Reddit was valued at $10 billion by investors in a funding round this summer, didn't disclose what valuation it would seek in the IPO.­­
--- according to Bloomberg, 'Reddit is raising funding at a $10 billion value' published in this August.
At the time of that funding round, the company said that it had reached $100 million in advertising revenue during the second quarter of 2021, up 192% from a year prior.
Learn more about the company profile and details about the IPO: Reddit confidentially filed for IPO and seek $15 bln valuation
2021 Meme Stock Frenzy
Reddit saw a surge of interest this year after a forum on the site, WallStreetBets, jolted the stock market. The WSB community currently have 11.3 million members (they usually call themselves 'retards', 'degenerates', 'apes'). The trading frenzy, driven largely by post on the site, whipsawed the prices of $GameStop (GME.US)$, $AMC Entertainment (AMC.US)$, and silver. The result was a rewriting of the previously understood rules of Wall Street trading.
Want to know what WSB is disscusing today? Check out: WallStreetBets top 10 ticker sentiment 12/16: TSLA, AAPL, NVDA and more
2021 Top 3 Most Popular Post on WSB
Top 1: Times Square right now- 445k in votes, 13.2k in comments
Top 2: We got SUPPORT- 323k in votes, 12.9k in comments
Top 3: GME YOLO- 287kin votes, 23.5k in comments (YOLO*: "you can only live once")
Comments from WSB degenerates about the IPO
*Karma: rewards points that users could gain after thier posts or comments get upvoted.
What do you think about Reddit's IPO? Would you invest in the company?
Source: Reddit, PR Newswires, Bloomberg