🔮 The futuristic edition

…9 big trends for the new year and beyond   Ring in the future (Gremlin/Getty Images)   Last Week’s Market Moves   Dow Jones 37,690 (+0.81%) S&P 500 4,770 (+0.32%) Nasdaq 15,011 (+0.12%) Bitcoin $41,920 (-4.76%) Dow Jones 37,690 (+0.81%) S&P 500 4,770 (+0.32%) Nasdaq 15,011 (+0.12%) Bitcoin $41,920 (-4.76%) Hey Snackers, NYE’s Champagne has gone flat, but the future’s sparkling with promise. We’re looking ahead to trends that could shape this year and beyond, including humanoid bots, gene-editing therapies, and brain implants. Stocks had a winning year, with the S&P 500 up nearly 25% and the techy Nasdaq up 45% — a sharp turnaround from 2022, the market’s worst year since ’08. Optimism was fueled by cooling inflation, the Fed pausing interest-rate hikes, and expectations of several rate cuts this year. With the US avoiding a predicted recession last year, investors and economists are entering 2024 with higher hopes for a soft landing. Btw... Do you want to start getting Snacks daily? Or prefer to unsubscribe? Manage your subscription preferences [here](. NEXT YEAR The future is now… Apple ushers in a new reality… [Apple]( long-awaited mixed-reality headset could hit stores as early as next month. With the $3.5K Vision Pro, Apple wants to popularize “spatial computing” (no screens involved). It places digital content in your physical space (think: five tabs open in your living room), which you navigate without touching anything. But the price tag (7X higher than [Meta]( Quest 3) could hamper its goal of selling at least 400K units, already revised down from 3M. Still, Apple has shown it can define and expand the markets it enters, and this headset could revive interest in the meta-reality. Gene editing rewrites medicine… The US recently approved the world’s first gene-editing therapy using Nobel Prize-winning Crispr tech, which could transform the medical industry. By genetically modifying patients’ cells, Crispr can correct mutations that cause diseases. The first approved treatment (called “exa-cell”) is for sickle cell disease, but there are about 280 gene-editing therapies in the works. Because Crispr targets a disease’s root cause, experts think the tech could create once-and-done cures, especially for hereditary diseases like cystic fibrosis and certain cancers. AI licensing becomes a thing… As genAI copyright-infringement claims intensify, household names are launching legal battles that could set a precedent. Last week, [The New York Times]( sued OpenAI and [Microsoft]( alleging they trained their bots on millions of Times articles. Authors including George R.R. Martin had already sued. 550+ publishers have installed blockers to prevent their articles from being used by bots. Last month, OpenAI said it would pay Axel Springer (Business Insider, Politico) to use its content in ChatGPT. Such deals may become common as AI companies try to avoid lawsuits that could wreck their biz model. IN 5 YEARS Around the corner… The Ozempi-conomy… Weight-loss drugs have raked in billions as folks look to curb their cravings. In November, the FDA greenlighted [Eli Lilly]( new appetite-suppressing prescription, Zepbound, which is predicted to become the best-selling drug ever (joining go-tos like [Novo Nordisk]( Ozempic and Wegovy). Nearly half of US adults are obese, but that could change with ~7% of Americans forecast to be on weight-loss meds by 2035. Analysts fear suppressed appetites could also trim the economy. [Walmart]( already seeing them hit grocery spend, while snack biggies like [Pepsi]( plan to keep a close eye. Humanoid robots rise up… and clock in. As corporates including [Tesla]( and [Amazon]( build and test human-shaped robots, [Goldman Sachs]( said AI + automation could affect 300M jobs. Amazon said it’s deploying humanoids in warehouses, and over the past decade the # of bots it made shot to 750K from 10K. Companies including Agility Robotics and Figure AI are rushing to develop dexterous bots to replace flesh-and-blood workers, and NASA’s building a humanoid to operate in space. Experts say the next five years could see robots taking repetitive and potentially dangerous jobs, like lifting heavy boxes. Crypto’s reverse “flippening”… [Ethereum]( fans have argued that the blockchain’s market cap would one day overtake [bitcoin]( (aka: the flippening), sealing ether’s place as the one true crypto. Yet things might be trending in the opposite direction: over the past month, bitcoin dethroned ethereum as the top chain for NFTs as [ordinal]( inscriptions surged. Looking forward, a proposal that’d let the OG chain have ethereum-style smart contracts could see bitcoin eat ether’s lunch. But soaring BTC transaction fees (at a two-year high last month) may be a roadblock. IN 10+ YEARS Down the road… Brain software update… Elon Musk’s controversial Neuralink has been seeking a person with quadriplegia to be its first human volunteer to receive a brain implant. The goal: allow people with paralysis to communicate by using a cursor or keyboard with their mind. Rival Synchron has implanted chips into 10 patients, and startups including Precision Neuroscience and Motif Neurotech have tested less-invasive alts. Eventually, the tech could help with conditions like dementia and depression. While Neuralink said it plans to perform 22K surgeries by 2030, experts say it could take at least a decade to get approval for commercial use. US high-speed rail leaves the station… The US is woefully behind on high-speed rail (imagine: cruising at 220 mph), but American trains could pick up steam. Brightline West, a high-speed line connecting LA to Vegas in 2 hours, should start zooming before the 2028 LA Olympics. A section of a publicly funded project linking LA and SF is set to wrap by 2033. Amtrak proposed a 90-minute Dallas-Houston line and is evaluating more city pairings. Other futuristic transpo concepts like hyperloop are way off track (last month, Richard Branson’s Hyperloop One shut down). Petri poultry hits plates… Last year the US became the second country after Singapore to approve the sale of lab-grown meat, but it could take a long time for cultivated chicken to go mainstream. Cell-grown meat is slaughter-free and has been touted as a way to reduce emissions, but current production ain’t cheap (cultured beef costs $17/lb). Plus, it could take a while for consumers to overcome the “ick” factor (Italy banned the meat last year). But if lab-grown startups can scale production and nail the marketing, it might fly. The industry was worth ~$250M in 2022 and is projected to hit $25B by 2030. What else we're Snackin' - [Clock]( Longevity startups are raising billions as the well-heeled aim to extend their lifespan with innovative treatments like repairing damaged cells. The anti-aging market, poised to hit $183B by 2028, is also sparking a wave of “wellness” snake oil. - [WinMo]( Waymo said its robo taxis are safer than human drivers, but the industry’s facing renewed scrutiny after a Cruise self-driving car dragged a pedestrian 20 feet (the biz since paused operations). - [Charged]( [Exxon]( plans to become a top seller of lithium, the metal used in EV batteries, by 2030. While Exxon and its oily peers are investing in renewables, they’re still pouring billions into fossil fuels. Want your Snacks daily? The Daily Newsletter Get fresh takes on financial news every week day. Try a sample: 🛍️ [BNPL’s self-checkout boom]( • Dec 22, 2023 🚀 [Bezos spaces out]( • Dec 21, 2023 🚢 [Red Sea rerouted]( • Dec 20, 2023 [Subscribe to the Daily]( Snack Fact Of the Day Half of today’s 5-year-olds in the wealthiest countries are expected to reach age 100 [Read more]( This Week - Tuesday: First official day of New Year’s resolutions 😉 - Wednesday: November job openings. Earnings expected from Cal-Maine Foods - Thursday: Earnings expected from Conagra Brands, Walgreens, Simply Good Foods, and Kura Sushi - Friday: December jobs report. Earnings expected from Constellation Brands Authors of this Snacks own bitcoin and ethereum and shares of: Amazon, Apple, Eli Lilly, Exxon, Microsoft, Tesla, and Walmart Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate... 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