In partnership with |  |
|
|
| Greetings N2K reader! | Vote for the winner of this week’s world-famous news haiku competition™ in today’s poll! And now for something totally Boxing Day… | —Matt Davis, Need2Know Chedditor | | News You Need2Know | | | What’s the stock market up to, eh? | $SPX ( ▲ 0.32% ) $DJI ( ▲ 0.6% ) $NDX ( ▲ 0.22% ) | | Companies mentioned in today’s newsletter | $DVAX ( ▲ 38.19% ) $SNY ( ▲ 0.08% ) | | The ‘sleeper hit’ movies you missed in ‘25 and five not to miss in ’26 | —This is the latest in a series of weekly guest columns on the business of movies by Grant Keller. | | Everyone may be talking about the death of movie theaters, but having watched a ton of great films in ‘25 and looking at these upcoming releases on the schedule, I’m confident movie-going isn’t going anywhere, with all this great art to admire. | Here are my five that may have fallen through the cracks for you, and the five that you shouldn’t miss next year… | | | Song of the Day: Amber Mark, ‘Sink In’ |  | Amber Mark - Sink In (Official Visualizer) |
|
| Amber Mark’s “Sink In,” from 2024, features a hypnotic, self-produced late-night groove. It blends Jersey club beats, jazz piano, and disco influences for an immersive, dancefloor-ready experience — just like this newsletter! | | Free yourself from advertising forever! | Now you can sign up for an optional ad-free version of Need2Know! Subscribe for just $5 a month, or $50 a year, and you can continue to enjoy this reasonably high-quality newsletter uninterrupted. Bonus: The immense satisfaction that comes from supporting journalism*! | *This counts as journalism, right? | | | ADVERTISEMENT | Colorado’s Most-Awarded Brewery Did Something Totally Unique | | Some companies make lofty promises to investors and never deliver. Others use those dollars to unlock new levels of scale. | That’s Westbound & Down’s story. Already Colorado’s most-awarded craft brewery, they opened their doors to investors for the first time to help open a flagship Denver-metro-area location. | With 2,800% distribution growth since 2019 and a retail partnership with Whole Foods, it’s no shock investors maxed out that campaign in less than 60 days. | But it’s what comes next that’s even more exciting. Fresh off Brewery of the Year honors at the 2025 Great American Beer Festival, W&D is scaling toward 4X distribution growth by 2028. | Become an early-stage W&D investor before their Denver-metro location opens and momentum accelerates further. | Invest in W&D Now | This is a paid advertisement for Westbound & Down’s Regulation CF Offering. Please read the offering circular at https://invest.westboundanddown.com/ | |
|
| Wall Street hovers near record levels | Wall Street spent Christmas Eve’s shortened session in mixed but mostly positive action as major indices signaled economic resilience amid inflationary pressures and market uncertainty. The S&P 500 is up 16% this year, and even with the 2022 downturn, its Compound Annual Growth Rate since 2021 is 12.72%… | Year | President | Annual Return (Nominal) | Key Market Events | 2021 | Joe Biden | +26.89% | Post-pandemic recovery and stimulus-driven growth | 2022 | Joe Biden | -19.44% | Inflation spike and aggressive Fed interest rate hikes | 2023 | Joe Biden | +24.23% | "Magnificent Seven" tech rally and cooling inflation | 2024 | Joe Biden | +23.31% | Strong corporate earnings and "Goldilocks" economy | 2025 | Donald Trump | +16.20% | Record highs followed by volatility from new tariffs |
| |
|
