Last Week in Investing:

A Noisy Finish, But a Broader Setup for 2026

As 2025 heads toward the finish line, markets have become noisier, not weaker.

December has been choppy despite a strong year overall, with investors debating whether a traditional Santa rally will appear.

Beneath the surface, however, recent data and market behaviour point to something more important than short-term seasonality.

Leadership is starting to broaden.

Recent inflation and labor reports were heavily distorted by the government shutdown, but even in their imperfect form, they suggest cooling wage pressures, easing inflation, and a labor market that is softening, not breaking.

That combination keeps the Federal Reserve biased toward gradual easing in 2026, even if the path won’t be perfectly smooth.

At the same time, cracks have begun to show in crowded areas of the market.

AI and mega-cap tech, which have led for years, paused as investors questioned valuations and the pace of returns on massive capital spending.

Yet this didn’t trigger a broad sell-off. Instead, capital rotated quietly into other areas, cyclicals, mid-caps, and parts of international equities, while bonds remained relatively stable.

This is a classic late-cycle dynamic:

• Strong themes cool without collapsing

• Liquidity improves as rate expectations ease

• Opportunity widens beyond a narrow group of winners

For investors focused on a single asset or narrative, weeks like this feel confusing.

But multi-asset investors see a different picture: risk is being redistributed, not removed.

Rather than asking whether one sector will keep winning, they look at how stocks, bonds, and different equity segments interact and how portfolios should rebalance as leadership changes.

The takeaway isn’t that 2026 will be easy or linear.

It’s that markets appear to be setting up for a broader, more balanced environment, where diversification and process matter more than chasing the loudest theme.

Managing Decisions Across Markets

Most investors focus on what to buy next year.

The better question is how they’ll manage their decisions.

That’s why we’re giving away our 2026 Holistic Asset Journal.

A limited-edition portfolio tool designed to manage multiple investment assets in one place, across different market conditions.

Valued at $397, this all-in-one journal helps you:

• Track and plan across stocks, options, forex, crypto, and property

• Structure strategies and execution for different asset classes

• Review performance and decision quality over time

How to Enter The Giveaway

1️⃣ Follow our Instagram account Stay connected with future insights and updates

2️⃣ Like the giveaway post

3️⃣ Comment and tag 3 friends in the comments of the giveaway post to confirm your entry

📌 Contest ends: 25th December, 6pm

📌 10 winners announced: 26th December via DM

Start the year with a clearer framework before the noise returns.

Thinking Beyond a Single Asset

One reason we built the Holistic Asset Journal as a multi-asset portfolio tool is simple:

Markets don’t move in isolation.

When capital rotates, opportunities often shift between stocks, options, forex, crypto, and property.

Investors who compare across asset classes, rather than committing to a single narrative, tend to remain more consistent through different market environments.

This kind of multi-asset thinking is what we’ll be exploring at Invest 360, a live session where investors across different asset classes share how they structure decisions and prepare for 2026.

If you’d like to be part of that conversation, early bird tickets are available here:

Go-LEAP Community

For those who want to stay closer to the learning, community, and opportunities within the Next Level ecosystem, Go-LEAP is our official member network.

As a free member, you’ll have access to:

• Curated weekly market insights across asset classes

• AI tools and templates to support research and decision-making

• A private Telegram community for discussion, updates, and signals

• Optional affiliate opportunities to earn commissions by sharing programs you believe in

If this sounds useful, you can create a free Go-LEAP account here:

Next Level Live: What You’ve Missed

If you missed our recent Next Level Live sessions, these are the discussions our community has been revisiting.

Each session focuses on real market breakdowns, real strategies, and real-time thinking, the kind of context that’s often clearer before headlines catch up.

If you want to be notified when the next session goes live, you can subscribe to our channel and turn on notifications here:

That’s a wrap for this week.

Investing is better when you’re not doing it alone.

If you’d like to learn and grow alongside fellow Next Levellers, our Telegram community is open to you here:

As always, Next Levellers, let’s keep levelling up.

We educate. We build wealth. We transform together.

— Next Level Academy Team