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Happy Friday. There are wildly different numbers floating around about large wealth transfers. CNBC’s Robert Frank explains why the estimates vary so widely.
Stock futures are falling this morning following yesterday’s decline.
Here are five important things investors need to know to start their trading day.
1. The fuse has blown.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) sign on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Friday, January 2, 2026 in New York, USA.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Nasdaq 100 futures Tech stocks continued to lead the market decline, dropping as much as 2% in pre-market trading this morning. of VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) The stock is down nearly 7% this week as of Thursday’s close, and is on track to be one of the sharpest weekly declines in a year.
Here’s what you need to know:
2. Net negative
Aerial view of the Netflix logo displayed at the company’s offices on May 12, 2026 in Los Angeles, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
Netflix‘s second-quarter results were broadly in line with Wall Street expectations, but the stock fell more than 11% in after-hours trading on a disappointing earnings outlook from the streamer.
Netflix also announced Thursday that it will reduce the frequency of its “What We Saw” engagement reports. This metric has gained attention following reports that viewership for the streamer’s series declines after the first season. Still, the company said engagement with the content is “healthy.”
Netflix raised subscription prices earlier this year. The company said the results of these rate hikes are consistent with expectations and past rate hikes.
3. Pulse check
U.S. President Donald Trump meets with New York Mayor-elect Zoran Mamdani at the White House in Washington, DC, on November 21, 2025.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
Americans are increasingly pessimistic about the economy and are blaming President Donald Trump, according to CNBC’s latest National Economic Survey released this morning.
About 60% of those surveyed said they had a negative view of the current state of the economy and its future prospects, the highest figure since late 2023. About the same percentage said they disapproved of President Trump’s handling of the economy. According to opinion polls, the president’s net approval rating has reached 40%.
The survey also found that voters were more likely to support democratic socialist candidates than candidates supported by President Trump or those associated with the “Make America Great Again” movement. But polls show that socialism remains less popular than capitalism in the United States.
4. Retail Theft
The next wave of organized retail crime is here. Police say Chinese gangs make up to $1 billion a year through digital forms of theft, such as tap-to-pay schemes and app fraud.
Rather than stealing from store shelves, scammers are using stolen credit cards and digital payment systems to purchase gift cards. Experts say thieves target retailers because they don’t have the same security as banks, but their systems still store sensitive information.
Although there is no hard data on how much this type of crime costs retailers, CNBC found about a dozen criminal cases related to digital retail theft in the United States.
5. Regulators and operators
This photo shows a setup screen displaying the logo and homepage of US-based prediction market platform Carsi in Saint-Mande, east of Paris, on April 29, 2026.
Martin Lelièvre | AFP | Getty Images
The exchange of event contracts has long been regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. But legal experts are now hoping that its sister agency, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, will play a role in monitoring market predictions as platforms such as Calci and Polymarket boom.
A spokesperson for Polymarket told CNBC that the company is working with both the CFTC and the SEC on the definition framework for prediction market offerings. Mr. Carsi declined to comment.
Meanwhile, the CFTC is investigating President Trump’s longtime teleprompter operator for allegedly placing bets on Trump’s statements. White House press secretary Caroline Levitt announced Thursday that the teleprompter operator has been placed on unpaid leave.
daily dividend
Here are some articles you may have missed this week.
—CNBC’s Sean Conlon, Annika Kim Constantino, Lillian Rizzo, Gabrielle Fonrouge, Scott Zamost, Anna Gleason, Steve Reisman, Garrett Downs, Ananya Chettiar and Davis Giangiulio contributed to this report.
Luke Fountain helped produce this newsletter. Josephine Rozzelle edited this version.
Disclosure: CNBC and Kalsi have a commercial relationship that includes customer acquisition and minority ownership.
