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Welcome to Vested Shorts,
Every week, lakhs of investors begin their weekend with Vested Shorts. In a world where markets are deeply connected, what happens in New York, London, or Tokyo often shapes what happens in Mumbai.
Vested Shorts helps you make sense of these links and understand how global trends, companies, and markets influence your portfolio. Each edition features global market and commodity updates, key company stories, digital asset developments, and visual insights that make global investing easy to follow.
Global investing is now mainstream. It is how every smart investor stays ahead. You can also tune in to our weekly podcast for these insights on the go.
The World in a Week: How Major Markets Moved
United States | U.S. stocks were mixed. Small caps lagged, while the Nasdaq edged higher. Early weakness came from AI valuation concerns and mixed jobs data. Sentiment improved after cooler inflation and strong Micron earnings. Unemployment rose to 4.6%, adding caution.
Europe | European markets advanced. The ECB kept rates unchanged and raised medium-term growth forecasts. In the UK, the Bank of England cut rates to 3.75% as inflation and labor conditions softened.
Japan | Japanese equities fell as tech stocks tracked U.S. peers. The Bank of Japan raised rates to 0.75%, bond yields rose, and the yen weakened amid limited guidance on future hikes.
China | Chinese markets were mixed. Retail sales slowed to 1.3%, fixed asset investment declined, and policymakers signaled support without fresh stimulus.
India | Indian markets were choppy. IT stocks gained, PSU banks lagged, and midcaps saw sharp stock-specific moves after the RBI’s rate cut.
Commodities | Gold held near $4,300, while Brent crude hovered around $60 amid comfortable supply.
Stock market closing data for the week of Dec 15 to Dec 19, 2025
Index information: STOXX 600 (tracks 600 large, mid- & small-cap EU firms), DAX (top 40 German blue chips), CAC 40 (leading French stocks), Nikkei 225 (225 top Japanese stocks), CSI 300 & SSEC (mainland China A-shares), and Hang Seng (large-cap Hong Kong-listed firms). For these indices, we track 1-week returns to capture how global sentiment is shifting.
News Summaries
YouTube’s Podcast Boom Is Really About Where People Spend Their Evenings
At first, this looks like a podcast story. People watched over 700 million hours of podcasts on YouTube TVs in October, almost double from last year, as per Bloomberg.
But the more interesting question is why this is happening on televisions, not phones.
People are running out of things they want to actively watch. Big shows demand attention. Short videos feel noisy. Podcasts, especially video podcasts, sit in the middle. You can watch, half-watch, or just listen while doing something else.
That is exactly what late-night TV used to do.
YouTube happens to be the place where this transition feels natural. It already understands search, recommendations, and long viewing sessions on TV. When someone opens YouTube at night, they are not choosing a format. They are choosing familiarity.
The reaction from Spotify, Netflix, and Meta tells you this matters. They are not protecting podcasts. They are protecting screen time.
This is a habit shift. And habits move more slowly, but they last longer.
Source: Nielsen’s report of The Gauge
OpenAI Is Making ChatGPT the Default Before Careers Even Begin
This is not a university procurement story. It is a behavior lock-in story.
OpenAI has already sold over 700,000 ChatGPT licenses to about 35 public US universities. Globally, that number is well over one million. On just 20 campuses, ChatGPT was used more than 14 million times in a single month. That is an average of 176 uses per user.
At that frequency, this stops being a tool and starts becoming a reflex.
Price made this possible. Universities are paying roughly $2 to $3 per student per month for ChatGPT. Microsoft’s Copilot has often been quoted closer to $30 per user. When budgets are tight, the cheaper tool that students already know wins.
But the real edge is timing. Students are learning how to write, research, and think with ChatGPT before they ever enter a workplace.
Once a tool becomes part of how people think, replacing it later is far harder than competing on features. OpenAI is not selling software to colleges. It is shaping how the next workforce works.
Nvidia Is Being Priced Like a Problem, Not Like the Center of AI
Nvidia is not trading cheap because growth has vanished. It is trading cheap because investors are tired.
Relative to the semiconductor index, Nvidia is at a 13 percent discount. That puts it in the first percentile of relative valuation over the last ten years. There have been only thirteen days in a decade when Nvidia was cheaper versus its peers, as per the report by Bernstein.
On an absolute basis, the stock trades near 25 times forward earnings. For Nvidia, that sits in the 11th percentile of its own valuation history. When the stock traded below this level in the past ten years, average one year returns exceeded 150 percent, with no negative drawdowns over that period.
At the same time, Nvidia has lagged. It is up roughly 25 percent over six months, while the chip index is up 35 percent.
The market is questioning AI spending discipline. Nvidia’s valuation already assumes that concern is valid.
This is what early cycle fatigue looks like. The stock is being priced for doubt, not collapse.
Theme of the Week: How India Invests Globally
We have released our latest report based on actual investor behaviour across 145+ Indian cities.
Inside, you will find:
– The most invested global stocks
– How much users are starting with
– City-wise trends and participation beyond metros
– How portfolios are built: allocation across stocks, ETFs, and funds
– $2B+ will be invested globally this year
Whether you are already investing or just curious about what others are doing, this report is worth a look.
Key Headlines of the Week
Adani Plans $11B Airport Expansion by 2030 | Adani Group plans to invest over $11 billion (₹1 trillion) in airports by 2030, including new terminals, upgrades, and aircraft maintenance. Navi Mumbai Airport anchors the push, with ₹200 billion already invested and capacity for 20 million passengers in phase one. An airport unit IPO is targeted by FY2028.
ByteDance Profits Near $50B in Record Year | ByteDance is on track for about $50 billion in profits in 2025 after earning $40 billion in the first three quarters. Revenue may reach $186 billion, driven by TikTok, e-commerce, and AI, with recent deals valuing the company up to $480 billion.
Stablecoin Neobanks Grow as Dollar Demand Rises | The stablecoin market has expanded 50% this year to $309 billion, with 99% dollar-pegged. New neobanks enable global dollar accounts and near-zero fee transfers across 100+ countries, benefiting from faster payments and rising cross-border demand.
