Wall Street’s Hunger Games: JPM Wins, Citi Begs for Mercy

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Hundreds of investing and finance newsletters hit my (and maybe your) inbox every week. This is the best of the best of finance from last week. Friday, we’ll cover tech, and next Monday, we’ll tackle policy.

This week, we’ve got…

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JPMorgan is on offense, hiring about 100 managing directors in the past year to cement its dominance. The bank is poaching talent from Goldman and Citi, focusing on healthcare, tech, and infrastructure across Europe and Asia. It’s a reminder that the biggest balance sheets are still willing to pay up to defend their turf.

Meanwhile, Citi looks like the kid losing at musical chairs. In Tokyo, it begged two equities bankers to reconsider their resignations, a rare public sign of desperation in one of the tightest labor markets for finance talent. Add in Citi’s wealth boss facing bullying allegations despite record revenue, and you get a picture of a firm struggling to keep its people while trying to project strength.

Interestingly, there are four bank stocks that AltIndex’s AI model has given “buy” ratings to—and JP Morgan is the only big dog on the list. AltIndex uses alternative data like Reddit buzz along with technical analysis and fundamentals to determine an easy-to-read AI score that lets you know if a stock is worth your attention. See more top stock picks here.

Corporate America is quietly redrawing its customer map. With lower-income spending flatlining, companies are chasing affluent consumers who keep swiping through economic turbulence. Walmart is stocking Apple and Bose, airlines are rolling out caviar in business class, and McDonald’s admits its low-income customers are down nearly 10% while high earners keep ordering. Bank of America data shows higher-income spending growth outpacing lower-income by nearly two percentage points.

PepsiCo is leaning into this shift with a $585 million deal to boost its Celsius stake, giving it control of a 20% slice of the $25 billion U.S. energy drink market. The category is growing 7.2% annually, fueled by younger, health-conscious buyers. Gen Z is also reshaping markets from the investor side: JPMorgan research shows 25-year-old investing participation jumped from 6% in 2015 to 37% in 2024, driven by social media fads and pandemic-era optimism.

Here are AltIndex’s ratings for the stocks mentioned above:

If you want to see the highest-rated stocks on AltIndex’s platform (all 70/100 or higher), click here.

A lot can happen in a week!

Let’s take a quick look at who struck gold and who struck out since our last issue:

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.A): +3.26%
Walmart Inc. (WMT): +1.21%
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM): +0.81%
Apple Inc. (AAPL): +0.33%
Broadcom Inc. (AVGO): +0.01%

NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA): -3.00%
Alphabet Inc. (GOOG): -2.86%
Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN): -2.48%
Apple Inc. (AAPL): -1.92%
Microsoft Corporation (MSFT): -1.17%

Analysis provided by ​altindex.com​.

Remember to always DYOR.

Serve Robotics Inc. designs, develops, and operates low-emission robots that serve people in public spaces with food delivery in the United States. It builds self-driving delivery robots.

Current price: $10.07
Target price: $11.89

Innodata Inc. is a provider of business process, information technology, and professional services along with advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence-based solutions. The company caters to a wide range of industries, including publishing, financial services, legal services, and IT.

The signals:

Current price: $37.10
Target price: $42.61

That’s all for today. Write us and let us know your thoughts on the market, the newsletter, or the weather—we’d just love to hear from you.

Till next time,
— Brandon and Blake of Invested Inc.