Happy Thursday afternoon to everyone on The Street. Here's a snapshot of where markets ended the trading session, plus tomorrow's trade idea delivered to you today.

• US markets are closed today in honor of the late President Jimmy Carter, who passed away at age 100 on December 29, 2024. But we’re still here, eating Planters (HRL) in honor of the Peanut Farmer, while bringing you the latest word from Wall Street.

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OVERHEARD ON THE STREET

Reuters: In 2024, US employers hiring announcements hit a nine-year low, with less than 770,000 job openings, a 1.3% decline from 2023.

WSJ: The LA wildfires intensified overnight, burning tens of thousands of acres, destroying thousands of homes, and causing at least five deaths.

CNBC: Fed Governor Michelle Bowman said that the December reduction should be the final step in the easing process, citing ongoing inflation risks despite the cuts.

CNN: JCPenney is merging with the owner of Forever 21 and Brooks Brothers to create a “zombie mall store king”.

AP: 200 Utah ski patrollers returned to work after accepting a new labor contract, ending a nearly two-week strike at the nation's largest ski resort.

TOMORROW’S TRADE IDEA, TODAY

The Market’s Having a Private Party. We’re All Invited

Private Party

The biggest stocks of 2025 might not be public companies. Investors are increasingly allocating their capital beyond publicly traded assets to the private market.

It’s not just venture capitalists. The barrier to private investments has historically been high — but it’s also never been lower. Emerging platforms allow accredited retail investors to trade private securities, and more and more are jumping on board.

Bank of America (BAC) found that 3 in 4 independent financial advisors plan to raise allocations to private markets in the coming year. This trend might primarily benefit private companies, but a couple of public firms could see a boost from it, too.

KKR

KKR & Co (KKR) is one such company. It’s one of the largest alternative asset managers in the world, coming off a year when the sector grew twice as fast as the S&P 500, or roughly 51%. Shares of KKR soared more than 75% in 2024.

But the party might just be getting started. Gabelli Funds portfolio manager John Belton trumpeted the firm’s broad exposure to areas that could grow in the coming year, such as the life insurance business. KKR acquired Global Atlantic last year. He also credited the firm’s management and long-term revenue plan.

KKR was recently listed as a top pick by Wolfe Research and Goldman Sachs (GS) too. The former specifically highlighted KKR’s rising earnings estimates.

Apollo Global Management

Another giant in the alternative asset space, Apollo Global Management (APO), saw its stock balloon more than 75% last year as well. But Rational Dynamic Brands Fund portfolio manager Eric Clark doesn’t see it slowing down anytime soon.

Last month, his portfolio beefed up its holdings in Apollo to a more than 5% weighting. He called the company and its peers “incredibly under owned” despite their exposure to the “lion’s share of the asset flows” into the private markets — a current that could continue to rise in the coming year.

Alternatively (get it?) some adventurous investors might skip the private equity firms and go straight to the source. Augment is one of several growing marketplaces for shares of pre-IPO companies with major growth potential, like Stripe and Cerebras.

In 2025, the avenues for diversification have never been more, well, diverse. And with a high degree of uncertainty regarding federal policy and inflation, the best-performing portfolios of the new year may well be the ones that explore every avenue.

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ON OUR RADAR

Reuters: Here’s what the Kremlin said in response to President-elect Donald Trump's remarks about acquiring Greenland and the Panama Canal.

CNBC: Elon Musk said his effort to cut the federal budget likely won't achieve $2T in savings, revising his earlier goal as co-head of DOGE.

Bloomberg: A sinkhole threatens Ecuador's main hydroplant, which supplies 30% of the nation's electricity, worsening an ongoing energy crisis.

CNN: A group called The People's Bid for TikTok, including billionaires Kevin O'Leary and Frank McCourt, offered to buy TikTok's US assets from ByteDance.

The Verge: Apple denied that Siri sends conversations to advertisers, saying it never used Siri data to create marketing profiles despite a privacy-related lawsuit settlement.

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