The Great Sorting begins

First, gotta love it when a Pam Bondi gets a little hysterical about "the DOW is over 50,000!!!" and then it kinda craters the next day.

And I wonder if I'll get another chance to short this shit. Yeah - prob'ly.

BTW - let the big tech companies pay their own fuckin' bills when it comes to water and power and infrastructure. I'm sick to fucking death of having to subsidize The Epstein Class.

US stocks drop as investors try to separate AI losers from winners

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are dropping Thursday as the market splits further between perceived losers and winners from the rush into artificial-intelligence technology.

The S&P 500 fell 1.1% after erasing an early gain that brought it just below its all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 569 points, or 1.1%, as of 12:49 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.5% lower.

AppLovin tumbled 18.3% despite reporting a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Like other software companies, it’s come under pressure recently from worries that AI may undercut its business while fundamentally changing how people use the internet.

AppLovin CEO Adam Foroughi pushed back on such worries, saying in a conference call with analysts that indicators show his company is doing well. “There’s a real disconnect between market sentiment and the reality of our business,” he said.

Its stock nevertheless worsened its loss for the young year so far, which came into the day at 32.2%.

Cisco Systems dropped 11.6% despite likewise topping analysts’ expectations for profit and revenue last quarter. The tech giant indicated that it may make less profit off each $1 of revenue during the current quarter than it did in the past quarter.

Analysts said that could be an indicator of higher prices for computer memory that everyone is having to pay amid the rush driven by AI.

More broadly, questions are rising about whether businesses that are spending heavily on AI will end up seeing high-enough profits and productivity to make the investments worth it.

In the meantime, the companies serving customers with huge AI budgets are benefiting.

Equinix, for example, jumped 12.5% even though the digital infrastructure company’s results for the latest quarter fell short of analysts’ expectations. It gave financial forecasts for 2026 that topped analysts’ expectations, and CEO Adaire Fox-Martin said that “demand for our solutions has never been higher.”

The company’s data centers are helping to power the world’s move into AI.

Outside of tech, McDonald’s rose 2.2% after reporting a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The restaurant chain credited moves to improve its value and affordability, including cutting prices on some U.S. combo meals in September.

Walmart’s rally of 2.9%, meanwhile, was one of the strongest forces pushing upward on the S&P 500. It erased losses from earlier in the week after a report said spending at U.S. retailers overall stalled in December.

In the bond market, Treasury yields fell after a report said slightly more U.S. workers filed for unemployment benefits last week than economists expected.

The number was nevertheless lower than the prior week’s, which is a signal that the pace of layoffs may be improving. It also followed a surprisingly strong report on the job market from Wednesday, which said the nation’s unemployment rate improved last month.

A strengthening job market could push the Federal Reserve to keep its cuts to interest rates on pause, even if President Donald Trump has been loudly and aggressively calling for lower rates. That’s because lower rates can worsen inflation at the same time that it gives the economy a boost.

It all raises the stakes for Friday’s upcoming report on inflation at the U.S. consumer level. Economists expect it to show inflation slowed to 2.5% last month from 2.7% in December.

A separate report on Thursday said that sales of previously occupied homes slumped last month by more than economists expected, which also weighed on yields.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.13% from 4.18% late Wednesday.

In stock markets abroad, South Korea’s Kospi rushed 3.1% higher thanks to gains for Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and other tech stocks. The moves were more modest in other Asian markets and in Europe.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.9%, and France’s CAC 40 rose 0.3%.

Chip Franklin

It's one thing to be a sex predator and a pedophile. In a very important way, it's worse to know about the shitty things these fuckin' assholes are doing, and then ignore it in order to profit from it.

We're in the process of watching Rule 6 of the Daddy State Awareness Guide play itself out.

Total Criminalization

If we're all guilty, you can't hold me accountable without the risk of exposing your own culpability.

Today's Amanda

Dumbass Mayo-Americans (MAGA rubes) have to start understanding that their continuing support of Trump's Epstein Class buddies and their fucked up policies are costing them more than the alternative. ie: putting people in charge who are a bit more honest and a lot more competent at this whole government thing.

A good place for them to start is getting their tiny brains around the fact that a tariff is a tax - an extra tax - that they pay every time they buy the gas and the groceries and stuff at the hardware store that Trump told them was going to cost them less.

It's costing all of us more. Companies have done some very clever, very sneaky things to make it look like it's not as bad as it really is. There's been a massive move towards shrinkflation. Anybody with two brain cells they can rub together has to notice that we're all paying more and getting less.

And a little side-effect? Trump is figuring out ways to syphon that money into his own pocket. I know - everybody's really surprised by that one, right?

Ann Telnaes

Step Up, People

It's a huge thing. The largest criminal enterprise this side of the Roman Empire - involving sex peddling, and kid-diddling, and possibly torture and murder - is not something that grew out of nothing, and runs on autopilot.

Cooks and drivers and loaders and unloaders and maids and gardeners and plumbers and electricians and tilers and carpenters and garbage guys and every other trade you can think of - out of all of these people, there has to be a few who know things and will spill the beans if somebody bothers to look them up and ask them about that shit.

Concentration Camps

Drive Trump Out

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THE WOMEN'S MARCH

About That Bunny Guy

Ten years ago, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio was bussing tables, writing and producing his own tunes, and uploading them to YouTube in his spare time.

Now he's the hottest pop star in the world, and he just pulled off one of the best super bowl halftime shows ever - seen by something like 135 million people.

The guy's success story is all about grit and discipline and self-determination. Seems like MAGA should be celebrating him for it.

But they shit on him instead.

Why is that?

Steve Hoffstetter

It's the policies, stupid.

Sooprise Sooprise Sooprise

Howard Lutnick lied.

If they haven't done it already, Congress needs to put out the word that everybody who's ever seen, or touched, or just thought about doing something with the Epstein files needs to lawyer up.

Some of you people are going to prison - and some are going to stay there for a good long time.

And understand that Trump and his gang have been busy trying to politically inoculate themselves against charges of "weaponizing the DOJ" so they can continue to skate free. Dems will have to fix their forever problem with getting their message out to make it all work.