Private equity is shifting its playbook amid higher financing costs, tighter credit, and a slowdown in IPOs, which have lengthened holding periods and increased the "zombie" overhang of ageing assets. To address these pressures, continuation vehicles (CVs) are rising to the core of the private equity strategy.

As of 2025, the GP-led secondary market totaled about $105 billion, with CVs accounting for roughly 84%. CVs allow GPs to realize liquidity on a fund while maintaining exposure to high-conviction assets, and they give LPs choice to take liquidity or roll exposure forward based on updated fundamentals. For portfolio companies, they preserve strategic momentum and management continuity.

CVs are being used across a bifurcated market: trophy assets to extend ownership and pursue further value, and underperforming assets to provide time and potential capital for growth. This structure is especially valuable when broader fundraising is difficult, helping sponsors preserve fee bases and operating infrastructure while LPs maintain flexibility.

Source: RJ PCA market intelligence as of January 2026.

The latest Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances provides a comprehensive view of median household net worth by age, where net worth equals total assets minus total liabilities. Median net worth rises with age due to compounding returns, higher earnings, and falling household debt burdens, peaking at retirement.

Key findings: Median net worth for 35-44-year-olds reached $206,000 in 2025, up from $164,000 in 2019, while 65+ households had a median net worth of $432,000 in 2025, compared to $231,000 in 2019. These figures reflect the long-term impact of retirement savings, home equity, and reduced debt.

To calculate net worth: Sum all assets, subtract all liabilities, and exclude future income, unvested stock options, term life insurance, and low-resale-value possessions. Regular tracking reveals how financial decisions—paying down debt, contributing to retirement accounts, and making strategic long-term investments—affect wealth growth.

Morrisons (LSE: MOR.S) has initiated the sale of dozens of in-store pharmacies as part of its cost-cutting strategy, with transactions expected to be handled store-by-store. Those sold are likely to remain open under the buyer’s brand. The supermarket announced £381 million in annual losses last year, with borrowings falling from £3.5 billion to £3.1 billion. This follows a restructuring last year that closed 4 pharmacies, 52 cafés, 17 convenience stores, 35 meat counters, and 13 florists, putting over 300 roles at risk. CEO Rami Baitieh said the moves are central to the turnaround as Morrisons’ grocery share slipped to 8.4% from 8.5% in the prior year and is under pressure to maintain its fifth-largest position. Around 1,400 pharmacies have closed in England since 2017 amid higher operational costs and NHS payment shortfalls, with pressure also coming from higher taxes and NI rates.

This week’s trading will focus on key macroeconomic and corporate reports amid a Presidents Day holiday on Monday, Feb. 16. Markets reopen Tuesday, Feb. 17.

Key reports include the December PCE inflation (closely watched by the Federal Reserve), new home sales and housing starts for November and December, and pending home sales for January. The U.S. trade deficit and durable-goods orders for December will also be released, with the latter providing insight into manufacturing.

Retail giant Walmart (WMT) will report its first quarterly earnings under CEO John Furner on Thursday, Feb. 19, following a $1 trillion market cap milestone and a 4.2% rise in comparable sales in its last report. Other reports include John Deere (DE), Analog Devices (ADI), Palo Alto Networks (PANW), Carvana (CVNA), and DoorDash (DRDP). Quarterly 13F filings from Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A, BRK.B) are also expected to highlight portfolio changes.

Separate from the calendar: Q3 GDP was revised to 4.4% annualized in the fourth quarter of 2024. December’s CPI for inflation remained unchanged.

Americans' life insurance coverage is often inadequate. About 55% of working adults rely on group coverage through employers, typically providing only 1-2 years of salaries, which ends upon job departure. Fewer than 30% consider themselves knowledgeable about life insurance, and over half of policies may expire with employment.

Financial advisers recommend supplementing group coverage with individual term policies, especially for younger, healthier workers. A $1 million, 30-year term policy for a 30-year-old can cost less than $600 annually. Hybrid policies with long-term care riders can fund care without reducing the death benefit.

However, life insurance is less critical for retirees, those without dependents, and older individuals where premiums may outweigh benefits. Long-term care needs, costing an average of $5,900/month in 2024, highlight a growing unmet insurance need.

Meta (META-US) has acquired approximately 1,400 acres in Richland Parish, adjacent to its Hyperion AI data center complex, to support expansion. The consolidated site is expected to exceed 2,250 acres—more than twice the size of New Orleans’ Louis Armstrong International Airport—according to sources familiar with the project.

The acquisition, finalized in March–April 2026, is part of the Hyperion Phase 2 expansion, with early signs of site preparation including utility markings, heavy equipment, and construction permits. The company has not commented on the acquisition, though it had previously said the project would be a long-term, multi-phase venture.

Meta Compute, a newly formed strategic unit under Meta, is leading the infrastructure initiative, with a Blue Owl Capital–backed joint venture financing, constructing, and operating the complex. The Hyperion project’s overall development is estimated at $27 billion, with Meta planning to achieve tens of gigawatts of compute capacity in the decade ahead.

Microsoft (MSFT-US) AI General Counsel Mustafa Suleyman warns in a Feb 15, 2026, FT interview that AI-driven automation could replace much of professional work within 12 to 18 months. He estimates most, if not all,白领 tasks—from lawyers to project managers—may be automated in this timeframe as AI approaches human-level performance in professional tasks. In software engineering, AI now handles the majority of coding, he said, with the shift becoming apparent within the past six months.

The rapid AI advance has already reshaped work, creating “AI Fatigue” as productivity rises alongside workload. Economist Stuart Russell warned of an 80% unemployment scenario, and Dario Amodei of Anthropic said AI could eliminate half of入门-level白领 roles. Sen. Bernie Sanders called the prospect an “economic earthquake,” urging a moratorium on new AI data center construction to ensure broader benefits. Microsoft has expanded AI workplace tools like Copilot and invested in OpenAI and Anthropic, but the company has not yet commented on the interview.

By 2026, AI is accelerating the automation of creative, professional, and even blue-collar roles, with early impacts already felt in the UK. Graphic designer Leonie Tucker, copywriter Lucy, and lead designer Joanna report sudden pay cuts and job displacement as AI-generated content and predictive tools replace human labor. Economists warn of a "permanent underclass" if no policy intervention occurs, citing potential unemployment gains of several percentage points by late 2026. The IPPR projects up to 8 million UK jobs could be at risk within a few years, with Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley noting significant net job losses. Proposed responses include universal basic capital, wage insurance, and a potential UK universal basic income, alongside debates over net migration and easing hiring regulations. While high-skill, judgment-based roles may remain safe, middle-skill positions are increasingly commoditized by AI, leaving many workers scrambling to retrain or face severe financial stress.

Economist Peter Atwater warns the U.S. K-type economy—where high earners benefit while lower-income households stagnate or decline—may deepen into a de facto caste system, though he expects the trend to reverse within months.

The K-type model is marked by divergent outcomes in housing, wealth, and education. Median household income in the U.S. was $83,730 in 2024, yet a typical home required an average of $116,986 in annual income to purchase. As of Q3 2025, the top 10% of families held about $280 billion in stock and mutual fund wealth—nearly half of total such assets—while the bottom 50% held just 1%.

January consumer confidence fell sharply: 55.4 for those earning under $15,000 (near a five-year low) versus 94.9 for those earning over $125,000. Atwater sees this gap as a key early warning indicator.

He notes the trend could reverse if middle-class confidence rebounds, progressive policies gain momentum, social unrest emerges, or a sharp equity sell-off erodes confidence in the wealthy. "Given current extremes, this configuration is unlikely to last," he said.

Bridgewater Associates' latest 13F filing (Feb 13, 2026) shows a significant buildup in U.S. equities and precious metals in Q4 2025. Total Q4 equity holdings reached $27.4B, up from $25.5B in Q3, with top holdings including SPY, IVV, NVIDIA, LRCX, CRM, GOOGL, MSFT, ADBE, and GEV. The firm added most heavily to SPDR S&P 500, Micron, Oracle, NVIDIA, and Newmont, while reducing positions in UBER, FISV, META, and Microsoft.

Ray Dalio highlights 2025 gains will stem from currency and asset reallocation: the dollar declined versus peers and gold, while gold outperformed broad equities. U.S. equities lagged non-U.S. and gold, and the S&P 500's 18% return was driven mostly by sales growth and pricing improvements. With valuations stretched and policy uncertainty over interest rates, Dalio stresses a macro-cycle lens on debt, monetary policy, geopolitical risks, climate, and AI-driven disruption to guide 2025 asset allocation.

Spotify (SPOT-US) reported in its fourth-quarter earnings call that its top engineers have not written a line of code since December 2025 as the company accelerates software delivery with AI. The firm uses an internal "Honk" system integrating generative AI, including Claude Code, to enable real-time code generation and deployment via Slack, with updated app versions flowing to production during commutes.

Spotify’s data advantage comes from a proprietary dataset tailored to music, where answers are subjective and location-specific, leading to continuous model improvements with each retraining. The company will allow artists and labels to label AI-generated tracks in metadata while maintaining content moderation to prevent spam.

Asia’s wealth management industry is seeing a generational shift as next-gen clients with overseas education and active financial literacy take the lead in managing family wealth, amid a potential $5.8 trillion intergenerational transfer by 2030. Traditional gatekeepers are stepping back, emphasizing dialogue over control, as younger clients often serve as chief investment officers in family offices.

Maybank, a top Islamic bank with $240B in assets and $15.1B in 2024 revenue, is expanding its wealth management reach into Cambodia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Greater China, leveraging its ASEAN footprint and Shariah-compliant solutions that attract non-Muslims through ethical, asset-backed principles. The bank’s focus on values-based wealth management aligns with a younger, growth-oriented demographic in the region.

Top economist Torsten Slok of Apollo wrote on February 14, 2026, that macroeconomic data—productivity, employment, inflation—have not reflected the growing presence of AI, mirroring Robert Solow’s observation about the computer revolution. While investors are pricing in AI’s future, recent selloffs hit firms in wealth management, insurance, tax, professional data, legal research, trucking, and logistics.

Macroeconomic models project only modest gains: Penn Wharton Budget Model estimates 0.1–0.2 percentage point annual improvements in total factor productivity, translating to about 1.5% by 2035; the Congressional Budget Office projects 0.1 percentage point annual gains and an eventual 1 percentage point output boost by 2036.

The Labor Department revised 2025 job gains to 181,000, down from 584,000 initially and from 1.46 million in 2024, suggesting productivity growth may outpace AI-driven gains in the near term. Slok concludes AI is more likely to labor-enhance than replace in broad sectors.

Anthropic, developer of the Claude chatbot, is scaling more conservatively than hyperscalers amid significant uncertainty in AI revenue timing. Co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei warned that even a one-year miscalculation in revenue growth could lead to bankruptcy if the company commits trillions to data centers prematurely.

“We’re buying compute at a level comparable to the largest players, but not at their YOLO pace,” Amodei said in an interview. “If the country of geniuses arrives in 2028 instead of 2027, and our revenue is still only $800B, the capital burden could be ruinous.”

In November 2025, Anthropic announced $50B in AI infrastructure spending, starting with data centers in Texas and New York. The company projects 10x annual revenue growth, with 2026 revenue around $10B and potential $1T by 2027, which would justify massive compute spending.

Amodei contrasts this with Amazon’s $200B, Alphabet’s $185B, and Meta’s $135B in 2026, emphasizing Anthropic’s focus on enterprise customers and realistic production constraints. The company is proceeding cautiously while still investing heavily in compute capacity.

Ford and General Motors (GM) are entering the energy storage sector, following Tesla, as EV sales growth slows and the U.S. aims to expand domestic manufacturing and diversify portfolios.

Ford announced in December 2024 plans to convert its Kentucky battery plant into a utility-scale storage facility and use space in Marshall, Michigan to produce cells for residential storage. The company, which wrote down $19.5 billion in EV-related charges, is expected to invest an additional $2 billion in energy storage and expects higher returns by pivoting to hybrids, trucks, and commercial vehicles alongside storage.

GM, through its GM Energy arm, will partner with Redwood Materials in 2025 to repurpose EV batteries for storage and markets its PowerBank for home energy storage. The automaker reported a fivefold sales increase between January and October 2024 and cited a VP who said the tools give customers greater control over energy use, mitigate outages, and support renewable integration.

The global BESS market is forecast to reach $14.5B by 2027 at 25.2% CAGR, with Tesla’s storage deployments rising 84% YoY to 43.5 GWh in the October 2024–December 2024 period. Ford and GM’s foray into storage leverages EV battery technology, targeting utilities, data centers, and grid infrastructure amid growing regulatory and commercial demand.

MacKenzie Scott’s extensive philanthropy is rooted in a pivotal moment in college when her roommate loaned her $1,000 to keep her from dropping out, inspiring a lifelong commitment to giving. Following her 2019 divorce from Jeff Bezos, she inherited roughly 139 million Amazon shares (about 4% stake) valued at $13.9 billion at the time. Since 2020, Scott has sold or donated about 58 million shares, reducing her stake by 42%. As of February 14, 2026, her net worth is roughly $28 billion. Through Yield Giving, founded in 2022, she has committed over $26 billion to DEI, education, and disaster relief. In the 2025 fall, she awarded more than $400 million to education and diversity-focused organizations. Her Giving Circle channels support to thousands of recipients, including Princeton alum Jeannie Ringo Tarkenton’s Funding U, which has provided $80 million in low-interest loans to about 8,000 students since its founding in 2005.

Cherryrock Capital, led by former TaskRabbit CEO Stacy Brown-Philpot, is betting on a niche in venture capital by prioritizing underinvested founders with smaller, Series A/B investments. The firm closed its first fund in February 2025 with a 2,000-company pipeline and targets 12–15 portfolio companies, taking a measured pace compared to industry norms.

Brown-Philpot, who co-founded the SoftBank Opportunity Fund and saw it sold in late 2023, launched Cherryrock to fill a gap left by larger firms. The firm benefits from California’s new diversity reporting law, which requires demographic transparency for VC firms with a California nexus, aligning with its focus on diverse leadership.

Notable investments include Coactive AI, a multimodal AI infrastructure provider to media and entertainment, and Vitable Health, offering on-demand primary care insurance to employers and hourly workers. Brown-Philpot emphasizes product-market fit and acquisition-driven exits, citing TaskRabbit’s sale to IKEA.

As of 2026, Cherryrock remains focused on active capital deployment, seeking Series A/B companies with scalable product-market fit and a commitment to measured, long-term value creation.

Tuesday, February 24, 2026 — Cipher Mining (CIFR) is scheduled to release fiscal fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results before the market opens, with strong AI and data center momentum expected to drive immediate market reaction. The company, once a pure-play Bitcoin miner, has pivoted to industrial-scale HPC and AI infrastructure, executing a 15-year, $5.5B AWS hosting lease and a 10-year, $3B Fluidstack deal backstopped by Alphabet.

Supporting context: CIFR’s stock has surged 174.58% YTD, outperforming the S&P 500’s 11.79% gain. Q3 2025 revenue nearly tripled to $71.7M, with Bitcoin mining revenue up to 689 coins produced. Adjusted EPS reached $0.10, and cash surged to $1.2B. Analysts maintain a “Strong Buy” average with a $26.97 price target and a $38 MSFT rating, implying ~64% upside. Morgan Stanley views the evolving infrastructure model through a REIT lens,看好 multi-year, contracted data centers.

Credit derivatives activity surges as investors hedge against escalating debt by leading AI hyperscalers, including Alphabet (GOOGL) and Meta (META), amid concerns about leverage and solvency. DTCC data show Oracle (ORCL) and Amazon (AMZN) CDS now have multiple dealers, with outstanding notches on Alphabet and Meta reaching $895 million and $687 million, respectively. Expected AI spending exceeds $3 trillion, with hyperscaler borrowing projected at $400 billion this year, up from $165 billion in 2025. Banks and underwriters are increasingly purchasing protection, while hedge fund spreads for Oracle rose from 50bp to 160bp annually in five-year CDS. Default risk remains low but appetite for targeted hedges is intensifying.

U.S. consumer spending remains under scrutiny as flat December retail sales suggest a potential cooldown. A severe winter storm in late January sharply depressed mall traffic, with outlet visits down 13% and apparel traffic off more than 8% year-over-year. However, early February traffic rebounded: indoor malls up +7% and open-air centers +8%.

Positive signs include January household card spending rising 2.6% YoY, with the drag from the storm主要集中 in the South, lower Midwest and Northeast. Concerns grow over a potential "K" shape in income-driven spending, with sticky inflation, higher utility costs and concentrated hiring in elder care and construction weighing on affordability.

This week’s barometer includes Valentine’s Day (Jan 21) and Presidents’ Day sales (Jan 22–23), with tax refunds—potentially 25% higher this year due to 2025 legislation—arriving. Larger refunds may boost savings or current spending, and the coming weeks will reveal household financial resilience and willingness to spend.