Just as silver and gold reached record highs last week, volatility spiked after Kevin Warsh was announced as the nominee to become the next Federal Reserve chairman. Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, discusses what was behind the spike in volatility and why investors should ignore it, but he also looks at winners and losers among four Big Tech stocks that recently announced earnings and why he's looking past the quarterly numbers. Plus, Elon Musk is considering a deal that would merge his SpaceX with xAI, another of his companies, well before he was planning to launch SpaceX in a huge IPO. Marolia says the strange deal isn't so weird after all.

Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, enjoyed the "Game of Thrones" atmosphere he saw from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last week, and says the lesson from the event was to keep watching geopolitics without over-reacting to them by overhauling your portfolio. Further, in "The Week That Is," he discusses how the market is reacting to feelings rather than fundamentals in the current earnings season, and how it's still not too late — even after silver's new highs last week — for investors to reconsider their commodities holdings and strategies, whether that means finally adding them to a portfolio or rebalancing stakes that have gone up.

Earnings season started last week with the financial-services companies reporting big numbers, overcoming interest-rate and other concerns along the way. Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, looks at that big start and talks about what's next, including the two companies that he thinks are must-watch news for week two of earnings releases. He also discusses what he's looking for in companies from all industries to make sure they are staying on top of opportunities in the business world.

The jobs report and unemployment numbers dominated economic news last week, and Vijay Marolia — chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital — says that while numbers have stayed high, investors and observers should not worry as current levels represent full employment, particularly at a time when people can hold jobs in new and different ways. That should give the Federal Reserve room to cut rates, especially if it is willing to settle for inflation running closer to 3 percent -- as it has been for about a year -- rather than pushing to get to its historical target of 2 percent. Marolia says investors have to prepare and invest for higher inflation, especially in an environment where tariffs are fueling economic growth, because no matter what happens with the tariff case in the Supreme Court or the inflation numbers ahead, prices will not be coming down.

The arrest of Venezuelan president Nicholas Maduro over the weekend will have bigger economic and market impacts than most observers expect, according to Vijay Marolia, because it will change the supply of oil, and it will change prospects for the entire energy sector. Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, says the economic struggles in Venezuela are another sign that socialism -- for all of its perceived good -- is hard-pressed to succeed in a capitalist society.

Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, says that while artificial intelligence dominated the media landscape for moving the market in 2025,monetary policy was a bigger story for investors, particularly for those who profited from huge gains in gold, silver and precious metals. "Commodities told the story of 2025," Marolia says, and while he expects A.I. to continue to be a big story for both the news media and the markets, he said investors should be paying more attention to precious metals in 2026. Marolia discusses his expectations for the year ahead; he's expecting increased merger and acquisition activity, improvement for value stocks and small companies, a rebound in cryptocurrency and more.

Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, says that investors got proof about how all technology evolutions don't make for great tech stocks, as he looks at one well-known name that filed for bankruptcy last week while another big name posted record profits. He also dives back into the bidding war over content, not just with the latest in the battle over Warner Brothers Discovery, but with how the deal for TikTok is proving that content — and its market value — keeps changing. Plus, with the holidays on tap, Vijay discusses how he thinks investors can help their finances with a simple move that puts away some of their holiday shopping monies into the companies they are shopping with.

Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, takes another look at "this, that and the other thing" for markets this week, looking first at the fallout from the Warner Brothers Discovery merger saga, and how its resolution has bigger implications for deals that are likely to come up as industries react to current conditions. Then, he's onto the breather that markets took after a post-rate cut rally last week, and whether that suggests that investors will show weariness this week, perhaps discouraging Santa Claus from bringing a rally this year. Finally, Vijay digs into the talk of an initial public offering from Elon Musk's Space X — potentially the biggest IPO in history — and how it's important to separate emotions around the man from feelings about his company, as you decide if the entire business is the launch of an investment rocket or a rich man's folly.