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by Vista Partners LLC December 17, 2025

Cancer Therapy & Broad‑Spectrum Vaccine Protection: GeoVax’s Expanding IP and Pipeline -( $GOVX $IBB $XBI )

GeoVax’s (NASDAQ: GOVX) recent appearance in the British Journal of Haematology increasingly resembles the deliberate, early‑stage build‑out of a meaningful new franchise rather than a one‑off academic mention of a new immunotherapy franchise, now reinforced by fresh patent news from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. For clinicians and investors tracking the company’s progress in both cancer and infectious disease, the latest developments sketch a consistent theme: a small Atlanta biotech intent on turning its multi‑antigen vaccine know‑how into a durable competitive moat.

MVA platform Addressing Multiple Vaccine Needs

GeoVax’s core technology is its modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA) platform, already advanced in its dual‑antigen COVID‑19 vaccine candidate GEO‑CM04S1, which is in multiple phase 2 trials spanning immunocompromised patients and healthy adults and is applying it into multiple indications. i.e. a pivotal phase 3 trial in MPOX is due to be initiated in the second half of 2026.

BJH spotlight

On Dec.15, GeoVax announced the publication of interim Phase 2 clinical data on its next-generation COVID-19 vaccine in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). The Research Letter in the British Journal of Haematology reports that GEO-CM04S1 met the study’s primary immunologic endpoint, generating significantly stronger and more durable SARS-CoV-2–specific T-cell responses than BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) – a population known for poor vaccine responsiveness. Importantly, following interim analysis, the trial’s Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) ruled to discontinue the randomized, double-blind comparator arm after the mRNA vaccine failed to meet the predefined primary immunogenicity endpoint. Enrollment is now proceeding exclusively in a single-arm cohort receiving GEO-CM04S1, as previously described in GeoVax’s clinical update at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2025 Conference. GEO-CM04S1’s superior performance in enhancing cellular immune response against SARS-CoV-2 in individuals with CLL, a patient population that generally responds sub optimally to vaccines designed to induce humoral (antibody) responses, underscores its potential to fill a protection gap for profoundly immunocompromised patients. More than 40 million adults in the U.S. and 400 million globally have some degree of compromised immunity, many of whom fail to mount meaningful responses to currently authorized COVID-19 vaccines. GEO-CM04S1 is specifically designed to address this gap through its dual-antigen (Spike + Nucleocapsid), MVA-based platform, which promotes robust, durable T-cell responses that are less impacted by immune dysfunction and viral variation

New U.S. patent: broad‑spectrum COVID design

This week’s news also adds a crucial legal and strategic pillar: the USPTO has issued a Notice of Allowance for a U.S. patent application covering GeoVax’s broad‑spectrum COVID‑19 va`ccine design, which uses its MVA platform to express three key SARS‑CoV‑2 proteins—Spike, Membrane, and Envelope—rather than focusing solely on the Spike proteins, as current mRNA vaccines do. By including multiple antigens, the construct is designed to drive more extensive and durable immune responses, particularly important as the virus continues to evolve and as vulnerable populations remain at risk despite widespread prior vaccination.

Strengthening the IP fortress

This new COVID‑19 patent joins a growing intellectual property estate that support GeoVax’s ambition to use a single MVA backbone to express tumor‑associated antigens, emerging pathogen targets, and multi‑antigen COVID constructs, effectively turning the platform into a modular chassis rather than a one‑product bet.

Why this matters now

For hematologists, an expanding vaccine IP portfolio suggests that GeoVax’s efforts are tied to a broadly applicable, well‑protected technology rather than a narrow, single‑indication play. For investors, the Notice of Allowance underscores that the company’s value proposition spans both oncology and pandemic preparedness, bolstered by a patent strategy that seeks to secure long‑term upside from multi‑antigen vaccines just as the industry looks beyond first‑generation, Spike‑only approaches.

The Sources

by Vista Partners LLC December 17, 2025

Bullish on 2026: Why Wall Street Is Betting Big on the ‘AI Supercycle’ -( $BA $NVDA $NOK )

Investors are tiptoeing into 2026 like diners at a three-star restaurant: hungry, optimistic, and just nervous enough to keep an eye on the fire exits. The consensus is bullish on profits, AI, and a gentler Federal Reserve, but not so euphoric that anyone is willing to leave before dessert.

Cautious bulls in designer seatbelts

Bank of America’s (BA) latest fund manager survey shows the “AI bubble” fear is down from 45% to 38%, yet it still ranks as the top tail risk on investors’ worry lists. That is Wall Street’s version of progress: people are less terrified of the same thing, but they remain united in believing it will be the thing that ruins their weekend.

Strategists talk about 2026 as an “unstable but upward” environment, a kind of bull market with a mild anxiety disorder. Earnings growth, AI-driven productivity and lower rates form the upbeat chorus line, while sticky inflation and lofty valuations handle the heckling from the balcony.

The AI supercycle gets a chaperone

The market’s newfound restraint is less about turning bearish on AI and more about demanding that the math show up to the party. Investors now want profit pathways, not just poetry about disruption, which explains why survey clients tell BofA that the recent cooling in AI exuberance actually makes the space more attractive again.

Even the more sober outlooks concede that AI’s economic impact is likely to be significant, while warning that overenthusiasm can inflate valuations faster than earnings can catch up. The result is a peculiar equilibrium: AI is simultaneously the engine of the bullish narrative and the leading candidate to spoil it.

NVIDIA: still the poster child

At the center of this tension sits NVIDIA (NVDA), the company Wall Street now treats as both a stock and a sentiment survey. Strong AI capital spending remains one of the pillars supporting the 2026 bull case, and NVIDIA’s leadership in data center accelerators keeps it wired directly into that thesis.

Yet this success comes with the kind of valuations that even optimists admit already price in a generous slice of tomorrow’s growth. NVIDIA has become the market’s Rorschach test: to the bulls it is the infrastructure of a new economic era, to the skeptics it is a beautifully engineered justification for taking some profits.

Nokia’s AI glow-up

One of the more intriguing side stories of the AI trade is Nokia (NOK), a name more associated with the ringtone era than with next-generation compute — until NVIDIA showed up with a $1 billion investment and a vision for AI-native mobile networks. That deal, involving NVIDIA taking roughly a 2.9% stake via newly issued shares, sent Nokia’s stock surging and recast the company as a contender in AI-powered 5G and future 6G infrastructure.

Nokia’s quarter did its part too, with revenue and earnings topping expectations and management leaning into an “AI supercycle” to justify a higher profit outlook for 2025. Analysts note that the real earnings boost from AI-driven networks may not arrive until closer to 2030, but in a market that rewards credible optionality, being on NVIDIA’s dance card is not a bad way to pass the time.

Positioning for an “unstable uptrend”

Across Wall Street, the guidance for 2026 sounds less like a victory lap and more like instructions for flying business class in turbulence: enjoy the ride, keep your seatbelt buckled. Asset allocators talk about broadening beyond mega-cap tech, adding “bolt-on” AI plays in areas like utilities, industrials, and non-U.S. technology, while quietly trimming exposure to more cyclical pockets like energy.

For now, the working assumption is that the bull market survives, helped by AI, lower rates and solid profits — just not in a straight line and not without the occasional reality check. In that sense, NVIDIA and Nokia capture the mood perfectly: one is the emblem of AI’s present, the other a call option on its future, and both sit in a market that is bullish enough to believe, but disciplined enough to bring a calculator.

The Sources

by Vista Partners LLC December 16, 2025

Jenga Tower Markets: Soft Jobs, Inverted Yields and an AI‑Heavy Top Floor – December 16, 2025 -( $AAPL $AFRM $AVGO $EPRX $INTG $META $NVDA $OPEN $ORCL $PLTR $RIO $TSLA $VMAR Rise!)

Markets ended Tuesday with a distinctly defensive posture, as investors digested a soft jobs report, a stubbornly inverted yield curve, and a commodity complex that looked more like late‑cycle indigestion than reflation. The tone was less panic than fatigue, with large‑cap tech once again asked to hold up a market that increasingly resembles a Jenga tower built on interest‑rate expectations and AI optimism.

Major index performance

The S&P 500 eased about 0.2% to roughly 6,800, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped about 0.6% to near 48,100, reflecting pressure in cyclicals and financials. The Nasdaq Composite managed to eke out a modest gain of around 0.2% as megacap tech provided a thin cushion, but the small‑cap Russell 2000 fell about 0.45% to 2,519.30, underscoring lingering skepticism about the domestic growth outlook. Underneath the surface, decliners handily outpaced advancers, leaving the session feeling weaker than the main benchmarks suggested.

Macroeconomic data and Fed outlook

The day’s narrative was dominated by the delayed November jobs report, which showed nonfarm payrolls expanding by only about 64,000, with the unemployment rate ticking up to roughly 4.6%, the highest in nearly four years. That combination of slowing job creation and rising joblessness sharpened concerns that the labor market is gliding from “cooling” to “soft,” even as wage pressures continue to ease. In the background, Fed officials have framed their December cut to a 3.50%–3.75% federal‑funds target as a pivot toward balancing inflation risks with emerging labor‑market fragility, while insisting that any further easing in 2026 will depend squarely on the data.

Yield curve and interest rates

Rates markets reacted in textbook fashion to the softer data, with buying in longer‑dated Treasurys nudging the 10‑year yield down toward the low‑4.16% area, while the 2-year came in lower at 3.50% and keeping the curve modestly inverted. That configuration signals a market still convinced that additional cuts are more likely than hikes over the next year, even if policymakers themselves refuse to pre‑commit beyond a cautious “wait and see” stance. Fed‑funds futures continued to price multiple cuts through 2026 if the slowdown gathers pace, transforming each incremental employment or inflation print into a referendum on whether “higher for longer” has quietly become “lower, carefully.”

FOMC calendar and policy communication

The Federal Reserve’s most recent policy decision came earlier this month, when officials delivered a widely expected 25‑basis‑point cut and retained their 2% inflation target, while tweaking language to acknowledge a more “balanced” risk profile between prices and employment. With the December meeting in the rear‑view mirror, attention now shifts to speeches and minutes as investors hunt for any hint of the Committee’s tolerance for a rising jobless rate and the threshold for accelerating cuts. The next full FOMC gathering in late January is now positioned as a key checkpoint on whether the Fed will treat recent labor softness as noise or the first stanza of a more familiar downturn ballad.

Trade policy and tariffs

Tariff policy contributed more to background anxiety than breaking headlines, with no major new measures unveiled on Tuesday but continued debate over the long‑run impact of existing levies on supply chains and prices. Fed and regional‑bank commentary has generally characterized the inflation impact of past tariff rounds as more gradual and contained than initially feared, though officials remain wary of renewed protectionist pushes in an election‑charged environment. Markets, for their part, are treating tariff risk as a slow‑burn structural issue that could flare up but does not yet warrant daily repricing of equities or credit.

Notables

Here’s how they finished: Eli Lilly (LLY, $1,054.29, -.74%), TSMC (TSM, $286.87, -.30%), NVIDIA (NVDA, $177.72, +.81%), Apple (AAPL, $274.61, +.18%), Tesla (TSLA, $489.88, +3.07%), Broadcom (AVGO, $341.30, +.44%), Meta (META, $657.15, +1.49%), Nokia (NOK, $6.29, +1.25%), McDonald’s (MCD, $314.50, -1.33%), Rio Tinto (RIO, $75.99, +.22%) Oracle (ORCL, $188.65, +2.02%), Intel (INTC, $37.31, -.53%), Oklo (OKLO, $83.51,+1.43%) Opendoor (OPEN, $6.73, +4.02%), Affirm Holdings, Inc. (AFRM, $73.39, +11.77%) and Palantir (PLTR, $187.75, +2.46%).

IPOs and equity capital markets

The new‑issue market stayed open, if selective, with the week’s calendar featuring deals such as Andersen Group’s listing on the NYSE and Medline’s planned Nasdaq IPO, alongside smaller offerings that will test investors’ willingness to underwrite growth stories into year‑end. Additional niche deals, including Libera Gaming Operations later in the week, suggest that while risk appetite is more discerning, investors are still willing to entertain new paper in sectors with clear narratives and credible cash‑flow paths. Overall, 2025’s IPO haul places the year firmly in the “reopened” camp after the post‑pandemic drought, even if the market remains a step or two short of outright froth.

Mergers, acquisitions, and deal mood

Dealmakers continued to scribble furiously as 2025’s M&A tally moves toward one of the largest on record, with volumes around the 4.5 trillion dollar mark and landmark transactions in media, tech, and healthcare setting the tone. Analysts and bankers alike have framed this as the early innings of a multi‑year consolidation wave, particularly in AI‑adjacent industries where scale, data, and capital intensity increasingly act as moats. While Tuesday did not deliver a single blockbuster announcement to dominate the tape, the steady drumbeat of mid‑ and large‑cap combinations kept corporate‑finance desks busy and reminded investors that CEOs are still willing to write big checks when the strategic logic is compelling.

Commodities: gold, silver, oil, bitcoin

The commodity complex opted for understatement rather than spectacle, with gold edging fractionally lower—down 0.07% around the low‑4,332.20 per ounce—after a powerful multi‑month run that has left the metal trading near record highs. Silver fared worse on the day, slipping .64% closing at $62.54/oz. and surrendering some of its recent outperformance, but it remains dramatically higher than a year ago, still reflecting the twin pulls of industrial demand and precious‑metal enthusiasm. In energy, crude oil softened again to $55.17/bbl, a four-year low and extending a month‑long slide (about 8%) that has quietly tightened the screws on producers’ capital‑return promises, even as consumers enjoy a late‑season break on fuel costs.

Bitcoin (BTC), that perennial sentiment weathervane masquerading as “digital gold,” hovered upward in the $87,000s after a recent pullback from record peaks, trading more like a high‑beta macro option than a staid store of value. Volatility there has mirrored the push‑and‑pull between lower‑rate optimism and growth worries, with crypto bulls arguing that any sustained Fed easing cycle ultimately fattens risk premia across the digital‑asset complex. For now, though, bitcoin’s role seems less inflation hedge and more emotional barometer for a market still trying to decide whether the next big move belongs to earnings, the economy, or the central bank.

Vista Partners Watchlist Updates

Modular Medical, Inc. (Nasdaq: MODD., $.3428), a leader in innovative insulin delivery technology targeting the $3 billion adult “almost-pumpers” diabetes market with user-friendly, affordable patch pumps, announced (Dec. 10) that it had priced an underwritten public offering (the “offering”) of 12,173,000 shares of its common stock and accompanying warrants to purchase 6,086,500 shares of its common stock. Each two shares of common stock are being offered and sold together with one accompanying warrant at a combined offering at a price of $0.77, yielding an effective price of $0.38 per share and $0.01 per warrant. The warrants will have an exercise price of $0.45 per share, are exercisable immediately upon issuance and will expire five years following the date of issuance. In connection with the offering, Modular Medical has granted the underwriter a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 15% of common shares and/or warrants at the public offering price, less underwriting discounts and commissions. The over-allotment option may be elected with respect to, at the underwriter’s sole discretion, shares and warrants together, solely shares, solely warrants, or any combination thereof. Newbridge Securities Corporation is acting as the sole bookrunner for the offering. Assuming no exercise of the over-allotment option, the gross proceeds to the Company from the offering are expected to be approximately $4.68 million, before deducting underwriting discounts, commissions, and estimated offering expenses payable by the Company. The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to fund operations and for working capital and general corporate purposes, including capital expenditures.

On Nov. 17, Modular announced Institutional Review Board (“IRB”) approval to conduct an in-house study of its next-generation Pivot™ insulin delivery system using insulin on people with diabetes (the “Study”). Pursuant to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) regulations, an IRB is a group that has been formally designated to review and monitor biomedical research involving human subjects. The Study will simulate real-world conditions by delivering insulin to adult participants to gather critical data on device function and usability and obtain user feedback. Modular Medical’s Pivot tubeless patch pump aims to enhance accessibility for underserved patients with diabetes and drive market penetration and expansion.

On Nov. 14, Modular Medical announced the 510(k) premarket submission of its next generation Pivot™ tubeless patch pump to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (the “FDA”). The Company expects to commence the commercial launch of its Pivot pump in Q1 2026. On Nov. 3, Modular Medical the successful validation of its Pivot controller line, a critical milestone in preparing for the commercial launch of its Pivot patch pump targeted for Q1 2026. The Pivot controller line validation further demonstrates manufacturing readiness for high-volume production, positioning Modular Medical to meet the growing demand in the diabetes treatment market for advanced technology.

Eupraxia Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: EPRX, $6.25, +1.46%), a clinical-stage biotechnology company leveraging its proprietary Diffusphere™ technology to optimize local, controlled drug delivery for diseases with significant unmet need, announced (Nov. 13) the second set of 52-week follow up data from its ongoing Phase 1b/2a RESOLVE trial evaluating a single administration EP-104GI for the treatment of eosinophilic esophagitis (“EoE”). James A. Helliwell, Chief Executive Officer of Eupraxia stated,“These data further highlight the strong durability and tolerability profile of EP-104GI, reinforcing its potential to become a convenient, once-a-year treatment that fits seamlessly into routine disease management by aligning with annual patient endoscopies. The Cohorts 5 & 6 patients – the only groups to have reached 52 weeks in the trial – are demonstrating levels of symptom relief that is durable and clinically meaningful – we are very encouraged by this outcome. We’re also pleased that our previously announced 52-week data were presented as a late-breaking presentation at the American College of Gastroenterology Annual Scientific Meeting (ACG). These new results build on that momentum. Given that current EoE therapies often struggle with long-term adherence, we believe a durable, once-yearly treatment could meaningfully improve patient outcomes and establish EP-104GI as a preferred option for both physicians and their patients.”

GeoVax Labs, Inc. (Nasdaq: GOVX, $.2865), a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing multi-antigen vaccines and immunotherapies for infectious diseases and cancer, announced today (Dec. 16) that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued a Notice of Allowance for U.S. Patent Application No. 17/888,131, titled “Recombinant Modified Vaccinia Ankara (rMVA) Expressing Spike, Membrane, and Envelope Proteins of SARS-CoV-2.”

GoeVax announced (Dec. 15) the publication of interim Phase 2 clinical data on its next-generation COVID-19 vaccine in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). The Research Letter in the British Journal of Haematology reports that GEO-CM04S1 met the study’s primary immunologic endpoint, generating significantly stronger and more durable SARS-CoV-2–specific T-cell responses than BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) – a population known for poor vaccine responsiveness.

Volato Group, Inc. (NYSE American: SOAR, $1.05) and M2i Global, Inc. (MTWO, $.075), a company specializing in the development and execution of a complete global value supply chain for critical minerals, today announced key developments in its pending all-stock merger with M2i Global, Inc.. Volato has filed the Registration Statement on Form S-4 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), following the SEC’s completion of its review of the initial confidential submission. With the reopening of federal agencies following the recent government shutdown, both companies now anticipate closing the merger in the first quarter of 2026, pending completion of SEC review and shareholder approval.

Volato Group, Inc. (NYSE American: SOAR) and M2i Global, Inc. (MTWO) announced on Nov. 19 that Nimy Resources (“Nimy”) and M2i will collaborate with the aim of forming commercially binding contract terms for the respective sale and purchase of gallium production. They also announced (Oct. 16) the next phase of development of the digital and commercial infrastructure underpinning the U.S. Strategic Mineral Reserve (SMR). M2i initiated the SMR framework and technical specifications earlier this year. Volato is now applying its proven enterprise-software expertise to build and operationalize the secure technology backbone that will support critical mineral traceability, contracting, and compliance across the United States and allied nations. This infrastructure is being developed to serve as the market-facing layer of the U.S. Strategic Mineral Reserve initiative, providing miners, refiners, recyclers, manufacturers, and government entities with a trusted environment for physical critical mineral transactions—with verified provenance, end-to-end custody visibility, and regulatory compliance at its core.

Serina Therapeutics (NYSE American: SER, $2.92), Alabama-based biotech is betting its proprietary POZ platform and reimagined approach to apomorphine delivery may redefine the treatment paradigm for patients who have exhausted standard oral therapies. On Dec. 10,Serina announced that it has submitted a complete response to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (“FDA”) clinical hold letter for SER-252, the Company’s lead program for advanced Parkinson’s disease. As previously disclosed, the FDA placed the Company’s Investigational New Drug (“IND”) application for SER-252 on clinical hold pending additional information related to a commonly used formulation excipient. On November 25, 2025, the FDA issued a formal full clinical hold letter specifying the information required to permit initiation of the planned Phase 1b registrational study, SER-252-1b. The issues identified by the FDA do not relate to the apomorphine active drug substance, its mechanism of action, the use of the enFuse device (Enable Injections) or the broader 505(b)(2) NDA development pathway previously discussed with the Agency.

The InterGroup Corporation (NASDAQ: INTG, $31.80, +7.14%) reported (Nov. 17) results for the three months ended September 30, 2025. John V. Winfield, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said: “We continue to observe signs of stabilization and recovery across the San Francisco hospitality market, including improving convention calendars, tourism indicators, and business travel activity. On the investment side, our marketable securities activity remained modest with a small net gain, consistent with our emphasis on liquidity and risk discipline.”

DoubleVerify Holdings Inc. (DV) closed at $10.83. DoubleVerify, which built its franchise on media verification and ad performance analytics, is now the first badged TikTok Marketing Partner focused specifically on attention measurement, tapping impression-level signals from the platform. Brands gain a granular view of how exposure and user interaction come together across TikTok formats, ad sets, creatives, and objectives, effectively treating every swipe as a tiny A/B test.

Vision Marine Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: VMAR, $.976, +156.77%) today announced that its Nautical Ventures division has entered into a commercial lease and purchase option agreement for the marina property that it currently leases at 4470 Ravenswood Road in Dania Beach, Florida, known as the Anglers Avenue Marine Center. This location secures a strategic waterfront asset in Fort Lauderdale, a central point of consumer activity in the region.

Sources

by Vista Partners LLC December 16, 2025

How Opendoor’s New President & CFO Aim to Turn iBuying Into a Real Business – ( $COIN $OPEN $SHOP )

Opendoor (OPEN) is ringing in its “next chapter” the way Wall Street likes it best: with a leadership reshuffle that promises discipline on the numbers and ambition on the product roadmap, all while winking at the market that it still intends to be more fintech than fixer‑upper. The company has tapped a Coinbase (COIN) veteran as its new president and elevated a long‑time finance insider to the CFO’s chair, signaling that the house‑flipper of Silicon Valley is determined to look a little more like a capital‑markets native and a little less like a pandemic‑era curiosity.

New president from the fintech frontier

Opendoor’s new president, Lucas Matheson, arrives with a résumé that might make a traditional broker reach for the antacids: former CEO of Coinbase Canada and a five‑year stint at Shopify (SHOP) in corporate finance, M&A, and strategic operations. Matheson is slated to take the role on December 22, 2025, stepping into a brief but consequential lineage of presidents tasked with turning a once‑hypergrowth iBuyer into a disciplined, tech‑enabled real‑estate platform.

In his new post, Matheson will oversee corporate development, FP&A, and emerging strategic initiatives, including exploratory work on how blockchain rails and tokenization might eventually thread their way into the deeply analog business of buying and selling homes. For a company that built its brand on instant offers and algorithmic pricing, hiring a leader steeped in crypto infrastructure is a not‑so‑subtle reminder that Opendoor still intends to trade on its tech multiple, not just its inventory turnover.

A CFO the board already knew

If Matheson embodies the fintech future, Christy Schwartz represents the comfort of a known quantity: a finance chief who has already lived through Opendoor’s latest bout of volatility. Schwartz, who has served as interim CFO through a stretch that included a 300‑plus‑percent stock surge, wider offer spreads, and a CEO transition, will become permanent CFO on January 1, 2026 after what the board describes as an extensive external search.

Promoting Schwartz from within sends the kind of signal Wall Street appreciates almost as much as free cash flow: that the best candidate to watch the balance sheet was already reading it. Her remit will include steering a business that generated roughly 5.2 billion dollars in revenue on more than 13,000 home sales in 2024, even as volumes fell and management leaned harder on pricing discipline, capital efficiency, and contribution margins.

A business in mid‑renovation

The leadership shuffle lands as Opendoor navigates what might be called the “post‑mania, pre‑maturity” phase of its life cycle. The company’s model—using proprietary algorithms and a data‑heavy platform to make instant cash offers, close quickly, and resell homes while layering on title, escrow, and brokerage services—remains intact, but the days of unchecked market-share land grabs are over.

In 2025, Opendoor has faced a more cautious housing backdrop, investor scrutiny over spreads and inventory risk, and a still‑unresolved CEO search after Carrie Wheeler stepped down and technology chief Shrisha Radhakrishna stepped in as interim leader. Against that backdrop, adding a president with fintech and crypto credentials and a CFO steeped in the company’s own scar tissue looks less like cosmetic renovation and more like shoring up the foundation before building the next floor.

Reading the signals between the studs

For equity holders, the message is layered. A president with Coinbase and Shopify in his background suggests Opendoor (OPEN) still sees itself as a software‑first, platform‑centric operator that just happens to carry a lot of physical inventory. A CFO promoted after a broad external search suggests the board wants the steadiness of an insider who already knows where the risk models creak when mortgage rates move a quarter‑point.

There is also a subtler note: in a year when the company’s share price has shown it can still surprise to the upside, Opendoor is choosing leaders whose job is to make “surprise” less of a feature and more of a footnote. If the strategy works, the next time Opendoor makes headlines it may not be for a leadership shake‑up at all—but for the more prosaic, quietly bullish reason that its home‑flipping algorithm has finally grown up into a durable, cash‑generating business.

The Sources

by Vista Partners LLC December 16, 2025

Nokia Stock: How the AI Supercycle and NVIDIA’s Investment Could Rewire Its Future -( $NOK $NVDA $SPY )

Telecom is suddenly the belle of the AI ball, and Nokia (NOK) has found itself back in Wall Street’s good graces by selling the one thing every model, agent and chatbot secretly craves: bandwidth and low latency, not brand awareness. As the so‑called AI supercycle gathers steam, the company is recasting itself as the Western backbone of intelligence-era networks, and NVIDIA’s (NVDA) new billion‑dollar stake suggests Silicon Valley intends to ride on its shoulders rather than build all the pipes itself.

The AI supercycle needs bigger pipes

A new cross‑industry study tied to Nokia highlights a rare consensus: US and European networks are not yet ready for the tidal wave of AI traffic heading their way. Data centers are scaling like it is the late‑1990s all over again, but this time the traffic is less cat videos and more token streams and agentic workflows that punish every millisecond of latency. In this framing, “AI supercycle” is less a buzzword than a capital expenditure forecast: trillions of parameters demand trillions of euros and dollars in optical, IP and mobile infrastructure to keep them moving.

Nokia’s reinvention around AI

To capture that demand, Nokia is simplifying itself into two big engines: Network Infrastructure, covering optical, IP and fixed networks, and Mobile Infrastructure, spanning radio, core software and standards. Management has sketched an ambition to lift comparable operating profit into the EUR 2.7–3.2 billion range by 2028, effectively betting that being the “AI plumbing champion” can be just as lucrative as being the chip supplier. The new strategy puts five phrases on repeat—AI, cloud, 6G, co‑innovation and capital discipline—signaling to investors that the company is trading its old handset nostalgia for a harder‑edged infrastructure story.

NVIDIA buys into the network

Enter NVIDIA, which has spent years selling GPUs to the data‑center end of the AI boom and now wants the radio side of the story as well. The chipmaker is investing roughly 1 billion dollars into newly issued Nokia shares at about 6.01 euros per share, tying the financing directly to a strategic push on AI‑native 5G‑Advanced and 6G networks. Under the partnership, Nokia will tune its RAN software for NVIDIA’s CUDA platform and a new 6G‑ready “Arc Aerial” telecom compute system, with the goal of turning tomorrow’s base stations into something that looks suspiciously like small AI data centers at the edge.

From internet boom to AI era

Justin Hotard, Nokia’s CEO, has taken to describing the AI build‑out as the spiritual sequel to the internet boom of the 1990s, only this time the traffic patterns are more demanding and the tolerance for downtime is close to zero. The company is rolling out new 7220 IXR data‑center switches and AI‑driven operations tools aimed at cutting outages and supporting gigantic AI “factories” that can scale to hundreds of thousands of accelerators. For investors who once viewed Nokia as a trivia answer (“Who made your first phone?”), the emerging pitch is cleaner: in the AI supercycle, NVIDIA may light up the brains, but Nokia plans to own the circulatory system—and in this market, selling shovels in a gold rush has rarely gone out of style.

The Sources

by Vista Partners LLC December 16, 2025

Jobs Up, Jobless Rate Higher: Inside America’s Strange 4.6% Unemployment Moment – ($SPY $QQQ $DIA )

The latest US jobs report reads like a paradox in pinstripes: hiring is still happening, but the unemployment rate has quietly climbed to its highest level in four years.

A labor market with a limp

In November, the economy added roughly 64,000 jobs, modestly beating many economists’ expectations but landing well below the kind of monthly gains that used to inspire victory laps at the Federal Reserve. At the same time, the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.6%, the loftiest since 2021 and a full percentage point above the lows reached during the post-pandemic hiring boom.

This is the statistical equivalent of smiling for the photo while standing on a roller skate. Job creation is positive, but not nearly strong enough to absorb everyone reentering or remaining in the labor force, particularly after an October in which the economy actually shed around 105,000 positions.

Shutdowns, buyouts, and bureaucratic shrinkage

Washington, never one to miss an opportunity to complicate a narrative, managed to layer a 43‑day government shutdown on top of an already cooling labor market. The shutdown delayed the jobs report and scrambled the underlying data, leaving policymakers to fly somewhat by instruments and hope the gauges weren’t miscalibrated.

Federal employment, meanwhile, has been slimming down faster than a New Year’s resolution—over 150,000 federal workers accepted buyouts as part of the administration’s effort to downsize government, with many of those departures registering in the October and November figures. The result is a labor market that looks weaker on paper not only because the private sector is cautious, but because the public sector is actively retreating.

Strong sectors, soft underbelly

Beneath the headline numbers, the story is one of clear winners, quiet losers, and a growing crowd of workers stuck in the in‑between. Health care continues to play the role of labor market MVP, adding roughly 46,000 jobs in November, while construction also posted a solid gain of about 28,000. These are the sectors still hiring even as executives elsewhere practice the corporate variant of “no sudden movements.”

On the softer side, transportation and warehousing cut about 18,000 jobs, and manufacturing trimmed around 5,000, reflecting a world in which goods demand is less exuberant and global trade comes with more tariffs and less certainty. A broader underemployment measure that includes discouraged workers and those forced into part‑time roles for economic reasons has climbed to the high‑8% range, suggesting a job market that feels weaker than the topline unemployment rate alone would imply.

Households nervous, Fed uneasy

Households, for their part, are sounding less like the confident shoppers of 2021 and more like skeptics wandering the clearance aisle. Surveys show rising gloom about job prospects, with more people reporting that jobs are harder to find and wage gains losing their earlier momentum. There are roughly 710,000 more people unemployed than a year ago, and the pool of workers stuck in long‑term unemployment—27 weeks or more—remains elevated compared with last year even after a recent improvement.

The Federal Reserve now faces the central banker’s version of an uncomfortable dinner conversation: a labor market that is clearly cooling while inflation has not quite surrendered. Fed officials have flagged “downside risks” to employment, and a preliminary benchmark revision suggests that earlier job growth was overstated by hundreds of thousands of positions, making the past year look less like a boom and more like a slow‑motion plateau.

A hiring recession, not a crash

Economists have begun to describe the current phase as a “hiring recession” rather than a classic downturn, a period in which companies avoid mass layoffs but quietly stop adding staff. Initial jobless claims remain relatively low, supporting the idea that firms are more inclined to freeze than fire, especially as tariffs, higher borrowing costs, and political uncertainty cloud the outlook. In practical terms, that means it is still easier to keep your job than to find a new one.

If the labor market has a silver lining, it is that a 4.6% unemployment rate remains historically moderate, and forward-looking estimates project only modest further drift rather than a spike. But for workers polishing résumés and for policymakers trying to choreograph a soft landing, this is an economy walking a narrow ledge—adding just enough jobs to avoid a fall, while the ground beneath looks a little farther away each month.

The Sources

by Vista Partners LLC December 16, 2025

San Francisco-Based Databricks’ $134B Data Gambit: How NVIDIA’s AI Chips Power the New Wall Street Darling – ( $NVDA $DABT.PVT )

Databricks’ (DAVT.PVT) latest funding round has given Wall Street something it hasn’t seen in a while: a unicorn so large it makes many public-cloud darlings look like hobby projects. The data-and-AI specialist’s new six‑figure valuation—measured in billions, not millions—also happens to showcase how deeply NVIDIA (NVDA) has become the house pick-and-shovel trade behind the boom.

Databricks’ $134 Billion Moment

Databricks has secured more than $4 billion in fresh capital at a valuation of about $134 billion, vaulting the San Francisco firm into the upper tier of global software franchises before it has even tested public markets. The number implies investors are willing to pay roughly 30‑plus times this year’s projected sales for the privilege of owning a slice of its “lakehouse” vision, which blends data warehousing and data lakes into one platform.

That sort of multiple used to be reserved for companies that had already conquered their markets; Databricks is being priced as if the conquest is merely a formality. The firm recently said its revenue run rate has surged past $4 billion with growth north of 50%, while AI and data‑warehousing products each exceed a $1 billion run rate, figures that make its private‑market valuation look less like fantasy and more like a very expensive growth stock in waiting.

NVIDIA in the Engine Room

NVIDIA shows up in the Databricks story not as a cameo but as recurring cast. The chipmaker joined a prior $500 million Series I round that valued Databricks at around $43 billion, sliding in alongside T. Rowe Price and other blue‑chip investors. That early bet looks considerably smarter now that the company’s valuation has more than doubled, even by the usually forgiving standards of private tech.

The relationship is not merely financial. Databricks and NVIDIA have deepened their collaboration to optimize data and AI workloads on the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform using NVIDIA’s accelerated computing stack, with native GPU support now a selling point for enterprises training models and deploying AI agents. In an era when every board presentation includes at least three slides on “AI transformation,” having NVIDIA’s hardware under the hood is the enterprise equivalent of showing up to a track day with a factory pit crew.

AI Gold Rush, With Spreadsheets

Investors’ willingness to fund Databricks yet again—on top of a recent $1 billion K‑round and earlier mega‑rounds—reflects a conviction that enterprise AI will be built not in garages but on neatly governed data lakehouses. The company now serves tens of thousands of customers, including blue‑chip names from energy, telecom, autos and media, all keen to turn their operational data into something more glamorous than quarterly compliance reports.

In that sense, Databricks is less a speculative moonshot than a very large, very well‑capitalized bet that the future of AI will be dominated by infrastructure firms that help corporations wring insight out of their own data. NVIDIA, which already powers many of those AI workloads across the industry, stands to benefit whether Databricks ultimately lists at an even loftier valuation or merely settles into being one of the more handsomely priced tenants in the AI skyscraper it is helping to build.

The Sources

by Vista Partners LLC December 15, 2025

Risk‑Off Monday: Small Caps Slide, AI Megacaps Wobble and Bond Yields Keep Traders Honest – December 15, 2025 -( $EVCM $IMNM $LLY $MODD $NVDA $RADX $TSLA Rise!)

Wall Street spent Monday looking like a market that wanted a holiday party but got a planning meeting instead, with all four major benchmarks drifting lower as investors waited on a dense week of data and central-bank choreography. The S&P 500 slipped about 0.2% to roughly 6,816, the Dow Jones Industrial Average eased 0.1% to about 48,417, the tech‑heavy Nasdaq fell 0.6% to just over 23,057, and the small‑cap Russell 2000 lost 0.8% to around 2,531, a modest risk‑off shuffle that still leaves year‑to‑date gains for all four indices comfortably in double digits. Macroeconomically, the day sat in the shadow of a busy calendar, with December’s Empire State manufacturing gauge and the NAHB housing index kicking off a week that will bring fresh reads on activity, inflation, and the labor market—reports whose timing was complicated by the lingering data backlog from the autumn shutdown but which now form the final hurdle between Wall Street and its hopes for a clean year‑end “soft landing” narrative.

Policy and rates

On the policy front, the bond market quietly reminded everyone that interest rates still write the subtitles for every equity move, with the 10‑year Treasury yield edging lower to 4.182% and the curve retaining a modest steepening bias as investors price a slower but still supportive path of Fed cuts into 2026. The 2-year closed lower at 3.514%. The Federal Reserve’s latest rate cut earlier this month and its projections for at least one more reduction next year continue to underpin the view that policy has pivoted from headwind to cautious tailwind, even as officials fan out on the speaking circuit this week to argue over just how many cuts the economy deserves. In Washington, the seven‑week government shutdown that ended in mid‑November remains a scar rather than an open wound, depressing earlier sentiment and delaying data releases but no longer posing an immediate cliffhanger for risk assets, while tariff policy remains a slow‑burn source of uncertainty as higher and less predictable trade costs continue to weigh on manufacturing surveys and business investment plans.

Mega‑caps and AI names

In single‑stock land, the usual pantheon of market‑moving names again provided most of the intraday drama, with the AI and megacap complex still digesting a bruising recent pullback. Tesla (TSLA, $475.31, +3.56%) jumped today on the latest robotaxi milestone. NVIDIA (NVDA) closed in green territory at $176.29, +.73%, Broadcom (AVGO, $339.81, -5.59%) and Oracle (ORCL, $184.92, -2.66%) fell. Eli Lilly (LLY, $1,062.19, +3.38%), meanwhile, remained very much the market’s chosen avatar for obesity economics, with investors watching for any fresh updates on its weight‑loss and diabetes franchises/More cyclical or idiosyncratic names such as McDonald’s (MCD, $318.73, +.63%) & Rio Tinto (RIO, $75.82, +.21%), traded more as barometers of consumer resilience, commodity demand, infrastructure build‑out and housing‑linked risk appetite than as standalone macro catalysts.

Positive Results

Immunome, Inc. (Nasdaq: IMNM, $22.64, +15.69%), a biotechnology company committed to developing first-in-class and best-in-class targeted cancer therapies, today announced positive topline results from the global pivotal Phase 3 RINGSIDE trial of varegacestat, an investigational, oral, once-daily gamma secretase inhibitor (GSI), in patients with progressing desmoid tumors. The trial met its primary endpoint of improving progression-free survival, demonstrating a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement vs. placebo, with an 84% reduction in the risk of disease progression or death (hazard ratio (HR) = 0.16, 95% CI: 0.071, 0.375; p<0.0001). The confirmed objective response rate (ORR) based on RECIST v1.1 was 56% with varegacestat vs. 9% with placebo (p<0.0001), as assessed by blinded independent central review. In an exploratory analysis, varegacestat demonstrated a median best change in tumor volume of -83% vs. +11% with placebo, as assessed by blinded independent central review. In addition, the trial met all key secondary endpoints, with varegacestat achieving statistically significant improvements vs. placebo in landmark tumor volume reduction and worst pain intensity.

Commodities and crypto

Across the cross‑asset scoreboard, Monday’s price action looked more like a quiet re‑marking of expectations than a full‑blown regime change. Gold hovered above the 4,300 mark per ounce closing art $4,303.90, silver traced the low‑60s closing at $62.86, +2.44%, and crude oil closed at $56.68/bbl, -1.32%, collectively signaling a market that is mildly concerned about growth, inflation, and geopolitics but not convinced enough to pay up aggressively for hedges. Bitcoin ($86,265, -4.6%) for its part, continued to behave like the loudest attendee at a macro seminar, trading well below recent highs yet still elevated enough to keep crypto in the conversation, its volatility increasingly tied to shifting assumptions about real yields and liquidity rather than to token‑specific narratives.

Vista Partners Watchlist Updates

Modular Medical, Inc. (Nasdaq: MODD., $.3698, +6.97 after popping to $.4198 dur)ing intraday trading, a leader in innovative insulin delivery technology targeting the $3 billion adult “almost-pumpers” diabetes market with user-friendly, affordable patch pumps, announced (Dec. 10) that it had priced an underwritten public offering (the “offering”) of 12,173,000 shares of its common stock and accompanying warrants to purchase 6,086,500 shares of its common stock. Each two shares of common stock are being offered and sold together with one accompanying warrant at a combined offering at a price of $0.77, yielding an effective price of $0.38 per share and $0.01 per warrant. The warrants will have an exercise price of $0.45 per share, are exercisable immediately upon issuance and will expire five years following the date of issuance. In connection with the offering, Modular Medical has granted the underwriter a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 15% of common shares and/or warrants at the public offering price, less underwriting discounts and commissions. The over-allotment option may be elected with respect to, at the underwriter’s sole discretion, shares and warrants together, solely shares, solely warrants, or any combination thereof. Newbridge Securities Corporation is acting as the sole bookrunner for the offering. Assuming no exercise of the over-allotment option, the gross proceeds to the Company from the offering are expected to be approximately $4.68 million, before deducting underwriting discounts, commissions, and estimated offering expenses payable by the Company. The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to fund operations and for working capital and general corporate purposes, including capital expenditures.

On Nov. 17, Modular announced Institutional Review Board (“IRB”) approval to conduct an in-house study of its next-generation Pivot™ insulin delivery system using insulin on people with diabetes (the “Study”). Pursuant to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) regulations, an IRB is a group that has been formally designated to review and monitor biomedical research involving human subjects. The Study will simulate real-world conditions by delivering insulin to adult participants to gather critical data on device function and usability and obtain user feedback. Modular Medical’s Pivot tubeless patch pump aims to enhance accessibility for underserved patients with diabetes and drive market penetration and expansion.

On Nov. 14, Modular Medical announced the 510(k) premarket submission of its next generation Pivot™ tubeless patch pump to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (the “FDA”). The Company expects to commence the commercial launch of its Pivot pump in Q1 2026. On Nov. 3, Modular Medical the successful validation of its Pivot controller line, a critical milestone in preparing for the commercial launch of its Pivot patch pump targeted for Q1 2026. The Pivot controller line validation further demonstrates manufacturing readiness for high-volume production, positioning Modular Medical to meet the growing demand in the diabetes treatment market for advanced technology.

Eupraxia Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: EPRX, $6.16), a clinical-stage biotechnology company leveraging its proprietary Diffusphere™ technology to optimize local, controlled drug delivery for diseases with significant unmet need, announced (Nov. 13) the second set of 52-week follow up data from its ongoing Phase 1b/2a RESOLVE trial evaluating a single administration EP-104GI for the treatment of eosinophilic esophagitis (“EoE”). James A. Helliwell, Chief Executive Officer of Eupraxia stated,“These data further highlight the strong durability and tolerability profile of EP-104GI, reinforcing its potential to become a convenient, once-a-year treatment that fits seamlessly into routine disease management by aligning with annual patient endoscopies. The Cohorts 5 & 6 patients – the only groups to have reached 52 weeks in the trial – are demonstrating levels of symptom relief that is durable and clinically meaningful – we are very encouraged by this outcome. We’re also pleased that our previously announced 52-week data were presented as a late-breaking presentation at the American College of Gastroenterology Annual Scientific Meeting (ACG). These new results build on that momentum. Given that current EoE therapies often struggle with long-term adherence, we believe a durable, once-yearly treatment could meaningfully improve patient outcomes and establish EP-104GI as a preferred option for both physicians and their patients.”

GeoVax Labs, Inc. (Nasdaq: GOVX, $.3331), a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing multi-antigen vaccines and immunotherapies for infectious diseases and cancer, announced (Dec. 15) the publication of interim Phase 2 clinical data on its next-generation COVID-19 vaccine in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). The Research Letter in the British Journal of Haematology reports that GEO-CM04S1 met the study’s primary immunologic endpoint, generating significantly stronger and more durable SARS-CoV-2–specific T-cell responses than BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) – a population known for poor vaccine responsiveness.

On Dec. 10, GOVX announced that to help close the gap between ambition and execution, they have expanded its Scientific Advisory Board with a cluster of internationally recognized specialists whose day jobs read like the acknowledgments section of a pandemic playbook. The newly highlighted lineup features Professor Teresa Lambe, Calleva Head of Vaccine Immunology at the Oxford Vaccine Group and a principal architect of the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine; Dr. Alessandro Sette of the La Jolla Institute for Immunology, a leading T‑cell and immune-correlates researcher; Professor Lance Turtle of the University of Liverpool, a clinician-scientist in viral pathogenesis and long-term immunity; Professor Thushan I. de Silva of the University of Sheffield, an authority on viral evolution and population-level vaccine responses; and Dr. Joshua A. Hill of the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, a specialist in infectious diseases and vaccine performance in immunocompromised and transplant patients. For a company that still trades like a niche microcap, the SAB now looks suspiciously like a global advisory panel on “how to keep the world from falling apart, immunologically speaking.”

Volato Group, Inc. (NYSE American: SOAR, $1.10) and M2i Global, Inc. (MTWO, $.08), a company specializing in the development and execution of a complete global value supply chain for critical minerals, today announced key developments in its pending all-stock merger with M2i Global, Inc.. Volato has filed the Registration Statement on Form S-4 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), following the SEC’s completion of its review of the initial confidential submission. With the reopening of federal agencies following the recent government shutdown, both companies now anticipate closing the merger in the first quarter of 2026, pending completion of SEC review and shareholder approval.

Volato Group, Inc. (NYSE American: SOAR) and M2i Global, Inc. (MTWO) announced on Nov. 19 that Nimy Resources (“Nimy”) and M2i will collaborate with the aim of forming commercially binding contract terms for the respective sale and purchase of gallium production. They also announced (Oct. 16) the next phase of development of the digital and commercial infrastructure underpinning the U.S. Strategic Mineral Reserve (SMR). M2i initiated the SMR framework and technical specifications earlier this year. Volato is now applying its proven enterprise-software expertise to build and operationalize the secure technology backbone that will support critical mineral traceability, contracting, and compliance across the United States and allied nations. This infrastructure is being developed to serve as the market-facing layer of the U.S. Strategic Mineral Reserve initiative, providing miners, refiners, recyclers, manufacturers, and government entities with a trusted environment for physical critical mineral transactions—with verified provenance, end-to-end custody visibility, and regulatory compliance at its core.

Serina Therapeutics (NYSE American: SER, $2.99), Alabama-based biotech is betting its proprietary POZ platform and reimagined approach to apomorphine delivery may redefine the treatment paradigm for patients who have exhausted standard oral therapies. On Dec. 10, after the close,Serina announced that it has submitted a complete response to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (“FDA”) clinical hold letter for SER-252, the Company’s lead program for advanced Parkinson’s disease. As previously disclosed, the FDA placed the Company’s Investigational New Drug (“IND”) application for SER-252 on clinical hold pending additional information related to a commonly used formulation excipient. On November 25, 2025, the FDA issued a formal full clinical hold letter specifying the information required to permit initiation of the planned Phase 1b registrational study, SER-252-1b. The issues identified by the FDA do not relate to the apomorphine active drug substance, its mechanism of action, the use of the enFuse device (Enable Injections) or the broader 505(b)(2) NDA development pathway previously discussed with the Agency.

The InterGroup Corporation (NASDAQ: INTG, $29.68) reported (Nov. 17) results for the three months ended September 30, 2025. John V. Winfield, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said: “We continue to observe signs of stabilization and recovery across the San Francisco hospitality market, including improving convention calendars, tourism indicators, and business travel activity. On the investment side, our marketable securities activity remained modest with a small net gain, consistent with our emphasis on liquidity and risk discipline.”

DoubleVerify Holdings Inc. (DV) closed at $10.83. DoubleVerify, which built its franchise on media verification and ad performance analytics, is now the first badged TikTok Marketing Partner focused specifically on attention measurement, tapping impression-level signals from the platform. Brands gain a granular view of how exposure and user interaction come together across TikTok formats, ad sets, creatives, and objectives, effectively treating every swipe as a tiny A/B test.

Radiopharm Theranostics (ASX:RAD, NASDAQ: RADX, $10.63, +149.53%) a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing innovative oncology radiopharmaceuticals for areas of high unmet medical need, today announced interim data from the first twelve patients in its U.S. Phase 2b clinical imaging trial of RAD 101 in brain metastases. RAD 101 is Radiopharm’s novel, small-molecule imaging agent targeting fatty acid synthase (FASN) and radiolabelled with Fluorine-18 for the diagnosis of suspected recurrent brain metastases from solid tumors of different origins, also known as the Pivalate technology.

EverCommerce Inc. (NASDAQ: EVCM), a leading provider of SaaS solutions for service SMBs, rose +10.68% today to close at $13.36.

Sources

by Vista Partners LLC December 15, 2025

Ending Modern Slavery in the Mineral Supply Chain: Mark Wexler Joins M2i Global’s Minerals Metals Initiative -( $MTWO $SOAR )

In the evolving conversation around responsible sourcing, M2i Global (MTWO) has been quietly creating a global footprint — most recently through its combination with Volato Group (NYSE: SOAR), a move that pairs operational reach with purpose-driven ambition. At the nexus of strategy and storytelling stands Major General (Ret.) Alberto C. Rosende, CEO of M2i Global and voice behind the Minerals Metals Initiative (M2i) podcast ( @M2i.Global )— a platform that’s reshaping how the minerals and metals sector talks about sustainability, transparency, and long-term growth.

Spotlight on Episode Four

Now in its fourth episode, the Minerals Metals Initiative takes a bold step into the moral side of material supply with “People, Planet, and Supply Chain: Three Pillars for the Future of Minerals,” featuring Mark Wexler, Co-Founder and CEO of Not For Sale, a global organization devoted to ending modern-day slavery and human exploitation.

Exposing the Hidden Costs of Modern Supply

Wexler pulls no punches in outlining how human trafficking can seep into global supply chains — tracing uncomfortable parallels between humanitarian crises and the polished commodities powering the green economy. Drawing a vivid example from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he illustrates how improving mineral supply chains, even by a small margin, can trigger ripple effects that benefit both people and the planet.

Reforming the Chain, Redefining Value

The conversation lands squarely on the tension point that defines modern industry: how ethics, economics, and environmental imperatives intersect. Wexler’s economic rationalism pairs neatly with the Initiative’s pragmatic optimism. Strengthening one link in the supply chain, he argues, strengthens the whole — not just morally, but materially. It’s a thesis fit for a boardroom and a human rights forum alike.

Sustainability as Strategy

With each episode, M2i Global continues to reinforce that sustainability is more than a disclosure line item — it’s a durable growth strategy. Under the leadership of Major General (Ret.) Alberto C. Rosende, the company’s message resonates with investors and industry partners aligning with the next era of responsible resource development.

Tune In

Listeners can tune in to “People, Planet, and Supply Chain: Three Pillars for the Future of Minerals” across platforms including YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

Ethical sourcing may not be the next meme stock — but if Wexler and M2i’s team have their way, it could become the next great frontier of global value creation.

Watch The Episode Now

by Vista Partners LLC December 15, 2025

Tesla’s Robotaxi Gamble: Stock Surges as Cars Ditch Safety Drivers -( $TSLA $SPY )

Tesla’s (TSLA) stock pop on the latest robotaxi milestone reads less like a traditional product update and more like the opening scene of a market fable: a trillion‑dollar carmaker, a driverless SUV ghosting around Austin, and a CEO insisting the future has finally shown up on time this year. Investors, who have spent the better part of a decade underwriting Elon Musk’s autonomy promises, greeted the confirmation of testing with no safety driver the way they usually do—with a sharp bid higher and a forgiving memory.

Market reaction

Shares of Tesla climbed roughly 4% on Monday, pushing back toward record territory near the high‑$480s as footage of a driverless Tesla robotaxi in Austin ricocheted across X and cable business TV. For a company already valued at about $1.5 trillion, much of it pinned to software and robotaxis rather than sheet metal and steel, the move signaled that Wall Street still believes the “autonomous chapter” can justify a new wave of growth.

Analysts who have been modeling robotaxi cash flows in increasingly optimistic shades of Excel green treated the sighting as validation, noting that unsupervised testing lines up with guidance management laid out on recent earnings calls. One longtime Tesla bull kept an “Outperform” rating and a price target in the $600 range, suggesting that a few minutes of driverless video were worth tens of billions of dollars in implied future margins.

Austin as test lab

Austin has become Tesla’s favorite sandbox for autonomy, a city where the company can experiment with robotaxis before regulators and pedestrians start asking too many questions. Over the weekend, at least two Model Y robotaxis were reportedly spotted rolling around public streets with no one in the car, prompting Tesla’s head of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, to declare, “And so it begins!”—a line that sounded equal parts product launch and sci‑fi movie trailer.

Musk later confirmed that testing was underway and has spent the month reiterating that fully unsupervised robotaxis in Austin were only “weeks” away, a timeline that hewed surprisingly close to reality this time. The company has hinted that once Austin is properly debugged, the robotaxi footprint will sprawl toward Phoenix, Nevada, and the Bay Area, with Florida waiting in the wings as a regulatory warm‑up act.

Between promise and paperwork

If Austin is the glossy demo reel, regulators elsewhere still have notes on the script. In California, behind‑the‑scenes emails show officials were “surprised and alarmed” by Musk’s earlier robotaxi proclamations, especially given the lack of permit applications that would normally precede an invasion of driverless cars. For now, what Tesla calls a “robotaxi” in its original home state often looks more like a conventional ride‑hailing service with a human behind the wheel and “supervised Full Self‑Driving” doing as much work as regulators will comfortably allow.

Expansion into Arizona and Nevada has run into a more mundane obstacle: paperwork turned in on Silicon Valley time. Reports indicate Tesla has yet to complete the regulatory steps needed to offer true driverless rides in those states, even as Musk publicly frames approvals as just around the corner, if not already in the rearview mirror.

The autonomous narrative

For Tesla’s equity story, robotaxis are less a side project and more the punchline to a decade‑long setup in which cars were merely the hardware chassis for an eventual software annuity. Bulls envision fleets of driverless Model Ys working late shifts in cities, throwing off high‑margin service revenue that makes today’s vehicle sales look like a low‑margin appetizer. Skeptics counter that autonomy has already racked up years of missed deadlines, making each new “weeks away” pledge feel like a sequel in a franchise that refuses to roll credits.

Yet markets tend to trade the story they have, not the one they wish they’d written. On Monday, the story was simple: a viral clip of an empty Tesla gliding through Austin, a CEO confirming that no one was at the wheel, and a stock chart that, for a few hours, looked almost as autonomous as the car itself. The real test will be whether, in the years ahead, Tesla’s robotaxis can navigate something even trickier than downtown traffic: the gap between a great narrative and a durable business model.

MVA platform Addressing Multiple Vaccine Needs

BJH spotlight

New U.S. patent: broad‑spectrum COVID design

Strengthening the IP fortress

Why this matters now

The Sources

Cautious bulls in designer seatbelts

The AI supercycle gets a chaperone

NVIDIA: still the poster child

Nokia’s AI glow-up

Positioning for an “unstable uptrend”

The Sources

Major index performance

Macroeconomic data and Fed outlook

Yield curve and interest rates

FOMC calendar and policy communication

Trade policy and tariffs

Notables

IPOs and equity capital markets

Mergers, acquisitions, and deal mood

Commodities: gold, silver, oil, bitcoin

Vista Partners Watchlist Updates

Sources

New president from the fintech frontier

A CFO the board already knew

A business in mid‑renovation

Reading the signals between the studs

The Sources

The AI supercycle needs bigger pipes

Nokia’s reinvention around AI

NVIDIA buys into the network

From internet boom to AI era

The Sources

A labor market with a limp

Shutdowns, buyouts, and bureaucratic shrinkage

Strong sectors, soft underbelly

Households nervous, Fed uneasy

A hiring recession, not a crash

The Sources

Databricks’ $134 Billion Moment

NVIDIA in the Engine Room

AI Gold Rush, With Spreadsheets

The Sources

Policy and rates

Mega‑caps and AI names

Positive Results

Commodities and crypto

Vista Partners Watchlist Updates

Sources

Spotlight on Episode Four

Exposing the Hidden Costs of Modern Supply

Reforming the Chain, Redefining Value

Sustainability as Strategy

Tune In

Watch The Episode Now

Market reaction

Austin as test lab

Between promise and paperwork

The autonomous narrative

The Sources

Your Guide To Staying Informed In The Markets