The Rundown - Meta Hires Apple Design Chief, Sam Altman Explores a SpaceX Rival

Episode Date: December 4, 2025

Market update for December 4, 2025Follow us on Instagram (@TheRundownDaily) for bonus content and instant reactions.In today’s episode, we discuss:Small cap stocks rallyMeta hiring Apple design chief Sam Altman’s plans to build a SpaceX competitor Earnings Recap: Salesforce, SnowflakeFanatics launches prediction market

Public.com presents the rundown. Your daily market update in under 10 minutes. My name is Zadadmani, and today is Thursday, December 4th. In today's episode, we'll tell you why small cap stocks are surging right now. We'll also tell you about the latest executive leaving Apple to join meta and why Sam Altman wants to buy a space company. Then stick around to the end of the show to find out why a sports apparel company is launching a prediction market platform.

We got a great show for you today. Let's go. Markets continued to rip higher this week with the S&P 500 adding 0.3% on Wednesday, and the NASDAQ was up 0.2%. The real winner yesterday, though, was the Russell 2000, which jumped 1.8%. Now, the Russell 2000 Index tracks small cap stocks, which are companies with a market cap between $300 million and $2 billion. And the reason that investors are jumping into small caps right now

is because they seem to be confident that the Fed will cut interest rates at their meeting next week. Right now, the market is pricing in a 90% chance of a rate cut. And smaller companies are one of the biggest beneficiaries from lower interest rates because it reduces the cost of borrowing and allows these businesses to invest more in their company or hire more people. So we might see a rally in small caps as we close out the year. Now, speaking of hiring, we did get some data yesterday pointing to another sign of a cooling labor market. The payroll processing company ADP reported that the private sector lost 32,000 jobs in November.

So that's not great. But keep in mind, the ADP doesn't paint the full picture when it comes to the labor market. It doesn't cover government jobs. So we're going to have to wait for the government jobs report to drop on December 16th to learn more about the condition of the labor market. On top of that, we're getting an inflation report on December 18th. So the next two weeks are going to be very interesting with the Fed meeting and a ton of government data coming out. As always, we're going to be staying on top of all the drama. So make sure you guys are subscribed for the podcast and tuning in every day to stay in the loop.

Also, I wanted to give a shout out to everyone sharing their Spotify rap stats in the comments and on social media. You know, seeing the rundown being the top five or even top one of podcasts for some of you guys is just insane. Now, I'm just thinking back, this show has evolved so much this past year. We went from an audio-only show to then video over the summer, and now our videos have better editing and graphics. We're also doing weekly interviews now, and this would not be possible without all you guys listening every single day. So thank you guys again for all the support from me, from Mike, Connor,

and of course, public.com for listening throughout the year. And we're not slowing down either. We're going to continue to improve the show going into 2026. Let's just hope the markets keep ripping. Let's run through some headlines. Starting with Meta. Mark Zuckerberg just poached another executive from Apple. This time it's Alan Dye, who was Apple's head of user interface design.

Dye's been at Apple since 2006, and he took over major design responsibilities when Johnny I've left back in 2019. So this is a big loss for Apple. Alan Dye oversaw the UI of the iPhone, the Apple Watch, and also most recently, the Vision Pro, which might explain why Zug hired him. because at Meta, Alan Dye will lead the design for smart glasses and VR hardware. Now, speaking of VR, Bloomberg also reported that Meta is planning to slash the budget of the Metaverse division by as much as 30% next year, with most of the cuts hitting the Quest VR group

and the Horizon World's group. So I think Zuck is finally coming to the realization that VR is never going to be a mainstream thing. I mean, I've been saying this for years now. Nobody wants to put a thing on their face, you know? But I do think the AI smart glasses are very promising. I have a pair of the meta smart glasses. They're great. I use them all the time. And I think Zuck is doubling down on that. And now with Allen Dye leading the design, it could give META's products a more Apple-esque feel. By the way, Mena is also planning to open up retail locations in New York, L.A, and Vegas to give people a hands-on demo of their VR and AR products. Now, I was looking at some pictures. These stores kind of look like Apple stores to me. So META continues to be the best copycat company in the world. But overall, Zuck continues to be going all in. in on everything right now. He's spending a ton of money on AI and he's also pushing hard into hardware. Meanwhile, you have Apple continuing to lose talent. And we talked about earlier this week

how Apple's head of AI stepped down. They also lost a ton of AI talent to meta earlier this year. On top of that, longtime C.O. Jeff Williams retired. And even Tim Cook is getting to retirement age with rumors of him retiring in the next few years. So there's a lot of turnover happening at Apple right now. But it doesn't seem to be impacting their stock price. Apple's stock just hit all time highs this week and they're inching closer to overtaking nVIDia to be the most valuable company in the world again. I guess ultimately all that matters for Apple is can they keep selling iPhones? And based on the success of the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 pro, that answer seems to be yes. Next up, let's talk about Sam Altman because I feel like we don't talk about

him enough. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, has looked into either investing in or acquiring a rocket company called Stoke Space to build a competitor to Elon Musk's Space X. According to this report, talks between Sam and Stoke Space picked up over the summer and into the fall, and one offer would have Open AI invests across multiple rounds into Stoke Space until it eventually held a majority stake in the company. Stoke was founded by X Blue Origin engineers, and they're working on a fully reusable rocket called Nova, which is a direct challenger to SpaceX's Falcon and Starship programs. Now, one reason that Sam Altman might be considering this investment isn't just to beat

Elon Musk or whatever. It's because he might want the option to build AI data centers in space because according to Sam, Earth might not have enough energy to meet the demand. I don't know about you guys, but I feel like Open AI should kind of figure out how to make a profit first on Earth before they start investing billions of dollars into a space company and start talking about space data centers. Let's talk about some stocks making moves today. Salesforce stock is taking higher this morning after the company beat on earnings and provided a strong Q4 outlook. It looks like Salesforce's bet on AI is starting to pay off. Their agent force platform, which automates sales, services and IT workflow, has become a monster product for them. Annualized revenue for agent

force jump 300 and 30% year over year to over $500 million. So between the upbeat guidance and the AI momentum investors are starting to buy into Salesforce, the stock is up nearly 2% this morning. Now on the flip side, Snowflake is getting hammered this morning. Despite technically beating earnings, the company's product revenue grew 29%, which beat expectations, but growth slowed from 32% last quarter. You know, Snowflake has been one of the low-key winners of the AI boom. Their AI agent called Snowflake Intelligence gives companies insight into their data. And it's seen one of the fastest adoptions in Snowflake's history, which is one reason why the stock price is up more than 60% this here. But I think investors are starting to get a bit nervous when they saw that growth had slowed down,

and as a result, Snowflake stock is down 8% this morning. Let's wrap the show with the fun fact. The sports merchandising company Fanatics is launching their own prediction markets this week in 24 states. And just like the other prediction market platforms like Cali She and Polymarket, it will allow users to trade events contracts on sports, but also things like finance, economics, and politics. You know, prediction markets are becoming more and more popular, but they've essentially become a loophole for sports gambling. See, sports books like Draft Kings and Fandul have to go through rigorous regulations to launch in each state, and many states like Texas, California, and Florida don't allow sports gambling. So that's a huge chunk of the U.S. population that these sports

books can't serve. But see, prediction markets offer a loophole. They're overseen by the CFTC, not individual state gaming regulators. So companies like Cal She, Polymarket, and now Finanautics, don't have to jump through the same regulatory hoops that sports books deal with. And they offer a similar product to the sports books because you can go on these prediction market platforms and buy a contract on who's going to win a certain game. You can also buy contracts for who the next head coach is going to be or who's going to win the Super Bowl. I mean, it's pretty much sports gambling.

In fact, it's estimated that 70 to 90% of the volume on Kalshi is just sports related. And that's one reason why Draft King's stock is down 5% this year. And Fandul's parent company's stock is down $4.5%. 15%. But it looks like Kalshi and Polymarker are about to have a lot more competition. Fanx is entering the space. And Draft Kings and Fandu are also planning to launch prediction markets soon. And it makes me wonder if this sports gambling loophole is going to be. Now personally, I think that prediction markets are interesting, especially looking at economic data, like seeing what the market is pricing in for a rate cut or who the next Fed chair is going to be. But these days, it's just turned into a sports betting platform. Let me know in the comments if you guys have used prediction markets before and what your thoughts are. Well, all right, guys. that's the rundown for today. 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. And 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. 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 tomorrow. Frozen lasagna, medium power, 15 minutes. Sounds like Ojo time. Let's play. Feel the fun with Play Ojo. The online casino with all the latest slot and live casino games. What you win is yours to keep with no wagering requirements, instant payouts, and no minimum withdraws.

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