The Rundown - Jobs Report Signals Slowdown, Meta Secures Nuclear Power Deals

Episode Date: January 9, 2026

Market update for January 9, 2026Follow us on Instagram (@TheRundownDaily) for bonus content and instant reactions.US economy adds 50k jobs in December, unemployment fallsMeta signs nuclear energy deals to power its AI data centersTSMC beats revenue estimates as AI and iPhone demand stay strong, easing fears of an AI bubbleIntel jumps on manufactering optimism and Trump praiseGM slides after taking another EV-related chargeFun fact: Millions of people  (and doctors)  are turning to AI for health advice as OpenAI launches ChatGPT Health

Public.com presents the rundown. Your daily market update in under 10 minutes. My name is Zadadmani, and today is Friday, January 9th. In today's episode, we'll break down the December jobs report and what it signals about the economy. We'll also tell you about meta's nuclear deal to power its AI data centers. Then stick around to the end of the show to find out how many people are using chat GPT as their doctor. We got a great show for you today. Let's go.

Stocks are coming off a mixed day of trading. The S&P 500 was pretty much flat all of Thursday, ending the session up 0.01%. The NASDAQ was actually in the red dropping 0.4%. Small cap stocks were the big winners yesterday. The Russell 2000 jumped more than 1% and closed at record highs. One of the predictions I made on our predictions episode last weekend was that the Mag 7 stocks, would underperform the broader market in 2026, and so far that prediction has been right. I know we're very early here, but the overall Mac 7 is down 0.1% this year.

Meanwhile, the S&P 500 is up around 1% and the Russell 2000 is up nearly 5%. You know, we are continuing to see a rotation out of mega cap tech stocks and into other parts of the market. This started happening late last year and it's continuing this year. And it could be a sign that investors are feeling more optimistic about the overall economy. Small caps tend to benefit more from an income. increase in economic growth. Now, speaking of the economy, we just got the December jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics this morning. And according to the report, the U.S. economy added 50,000 jobs in December, which was well below the 73,000 jobs that was expected. On top of

that, the BLS revised down the data from October and November, now saying that 76,000 less jobs were added than previously reported in those two months. But it wasn't all bad news, though, according to this jobs report, the unemployment rate did take lower to 4.4% and wage growth held steady. To me, this jobs report is showing what we already know, that we are currently in a low, higher, low-fire environment. No, companies aren't rushing to hire people, but they aren't laying off a bunch of people just yet either. Now, we'll have to see how the Federal Reserve reacts to this data. Remember, their job is to keep employment high and inflation low. I wonder if the Fed is going to keep cutting interest rates, given that the unemployment rate is at 4.4%. The next big data to watch

is going to be the inflation numbers. We are getting a CPI report next week on January 13, so we'll definitely break that down. And remember, next week is also the start of earnings season. So we were about to enter into a busy period in the market. So if you're new here, it's a great time we get subscribed to the podcast to stay in the loop. Let's run through some headlines, starting with Meta. Meta just signed multiple nuclear energy deals to power its next generation AI data

centers, including its massive Prometheus AI supercluster being built in Ohio. Meta announced a deal with three nuclear energy companies, including Vistra, Oklo, and Terra Power. Now, Vistra and Oklo are both publicly traded companies, and both of their stocks are up more than 10% this morning at the time of this recording. You know, for these AI hyperscadalers like Meta, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, getting access to power has become just as important as getting access to GPUs. Training and running large AI models requires an insane amount of electricity, so these tech

companies are all turning to nuclear power. Meta said this deal will help fund Vistra's nuclear power plans in Ohio and Pennsylvania, extending the lifespan of those facilities and also increasing their energy production. The other two companies' nuclear projects are still being developed. You know, even if AI ends up being a bubble and the demand never materializes like these tech companies are expecting, at least we're getting a lot of investments in power infrastructure in nuclear energy. To me, more energy is always a good thing, so I take that as a win. Now, sticking with the AI theme, let's talk about TSM. The chipmaker just reported fourth quarter revenues that beat expectations. Sales in the December quarter jumped about 20% year over year to just over $33 billion.

And that growth has been driven almost entirely by demand for advanced chips used in AI applications. Now TSMC is one of the most important companies in the world. There's a go-to chip manufacturer for companies like Nvidia, AMD, Apple, Qualcomm, pretty much everyone. So when these tech companies are doing great, there's a good chance that TSM is also doing great. Now, just a few days ago at CES, Nvidia said that revenues from its current quarter and future data center chips

is now expected to top half a trillion dollars in 2026, which is stronger than the already massive targets that had previously laid out. At the same time, Apple's iPhone 17 has seen solid demand. So that should all trickle down to TSMC that the company will give investors a full update when it reports earnings next week, including a new guidance and capital spending plans.

The last time we heard from TSM back in October, they raised their 2025 revenue growth outlook to the 30 to 40% range. One last ripple effect I want to mention here. Good news for TSMC is usually good news for ASML, the Dutch company that sells the ultra-specialized lithography machines that TSM uses to make these advanced AI chips. Shares of ASML are up 3% this morning on the backs of this TSM report. Let's talk about some stocks making moves today.

Intel stock is getting a bump this morning after President Trump, praised the company and its CEO in a truth social post last night, highlighting their efforts to bring more chip production to the U.S. It's been a big week for Intel. Earlier this week, they showed off their new 18A2 nanometer PC chip at CES, which the company says is the most advanced CPU ever manufactured in the U.S. Now, President Trump also played up the fact that Intel stock has gone up 75% since the U.S. government took a 10% stake in the company for $9 billion back in August.

So this shout out from the president is giving the stock another boost this morning. It's up around 3% at the time of this recording. Now, on the flip side, general motor shares are sliding this morning after the U.S. automaker announced that it was taking a $6 billion EV-related charge in the fourth quarter. Basically, GM spent a ton of money on supplies and factories for EVs that it no longer needs because the demand never materialized. The company is now pumping the brakes on its EV ambitions and riding down the value of its EV assets. GM also warned investors that this likely won't be the last time that it takes a charge when it comes to EVs. As a result, GM stock is down 2% this morning in reaction to this news.

By the way, speaking of EVs, this weekend's deep dive is about Lucid Motors, one of the last pure play EV companies left. We're going to break down the bull case, the bear case, and whether Lucid can even survive this EV winter. So if you want to learn more about the company, keep an eye on your podcast feed tomorrow morning. Let's wrap the show with the fun fact. About 40 million people ask chat GPT health-related questions every single day. That works out to roughly 5% of all messages on the platform. And I'm not going to lie, I'm one of those people. And Open AI is now leaning into being Dr. GPT.

This week, they announced Chat-GPT health, which will be a dedicated health experience as its own tab inside Chat-GPT. You'll be able to upload medical records, connect data from apps like Apple Health, and get more personalized explanations around labs, trends, and your overall health. There's currently a wait list for this feature, but I kind of want to sign up because I do use chat GPT a lot for health-related questions. In fact, I've set up a chat GPT project with custom instructions and I've uploaded all my health records and lab results and I ask questions all the time. And now doctors are starting to use AI a lot more as part of their day-to-day job as well.

A survey from the American Medical Association conducted in November of 2024 found that two-thirds of US physicians reportedly used AI in their work. And let's be honest, if that survey was done today in 2026, that number would be way higher. I bet it's closer to 80, maybe 90%. So it makes sense for Open AI to lean into this. I'm sure they're going to try to turn it into some sort of revenue stream. Now, am I a little uncomfortable that Open AI has all this health data about me?

Yeah, but I'm probably still going to sign up for chat GPT health. I mean, you got to admit, using chat GPT is way better than what we used to do, which was Google our symptoms. And then immediately be told that we had six months to live. based on an article on WebMD. But I don't know. Let me know what you guys think. Are you comfortable using ChatGPT as a pseudo doctor?

Well, all right, guys, that's the rundown for today. That's the rundown for this week. Hope you guys enjoyed today's episode. If you did and you have like five extra seconds, consider giving us a five-star rating on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you listen to your podcast. If you are listening on Spotify, don't forget to vote in today's Spotify poll.

Leave us a comment. on Spotify, all that engagement really does help us out and it helps other people find the show. As a reminder, we got a big weekend of content coming up on Saturday morning. We're going to be posting a deep dive about lucid motors. And then on Sunday morning, we're posting an interview with CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin. So definitely keep an eye on your podcast feed this weekend for that. And again, thank you guys again for listening, watching, and commenting. Shout out to Mike and Connor for all the work behind the scenes. And we'll see you guys back here. here tomorrow for the deep dive.

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