What Will The New Year Bring For Student Loan Borrowers?

• Student loan borrowers are once again in limbo as they wait to see how Donald Trump's administration will change policies.

• The outlook has worsened for President Joe Biden's signature student loan reform, the SAVE repayment plan.

• Student loan forgiveness is less likely under the Trump administration, as Republicans have generally opposed it.

• Trump did not lay out the details of who would oversee student loans if the department of education were gone, and whether existing student aid programs would continue in some way.

Natural Gas Surges As Much As 20% On Expectations For Colder-Than-Usual January On The East Coast

Natural gas futures prices surged Monday, hitting a new 52-week high following reports of a colder-than-usual temperature outlook for January. Natural gas February futures rose around 15% during the session after an updated outlook by The Weather Co. and Atmospheric G2 released Sunday showed that the temperature forecast for next month is expected to be colder than average in the East, specifically from Florida to Maine as well as certain parts of the Great Lakes.

The West, however, is expected to see temperatures come in milder than average, according to the report. Notably, the “Four Corners” region – the area of the United States that consists of the southwestern corner of Colorado, southeastern corner of Utah, northeastern corner of Arizona and northwestern corner of New Mexico – is expected to be the most above average.

In a separate report, AccuWeather meteorologists said that the colder air could set up a “stormy pattern,” with areas seeing “substantial snow and ice” for a significant portion of the month’s first half. They added that the drop will begin in the middle and latter part of next week.

S&P 500 suffers back to back 1% losses for first time since August

The S&P 500 fell 1.1%, the Nasdaq 100 was down 1.3%, and the Russell 2000 gave back 0.8% on Monday.

The Magnificent 7 cohort registered its third straight decline for the first time since the start of October, with only Nvidia NVDA $136.50 (0.28%) gaining and Tesla TSLA $412.05 (-3.33%) leading the way down.

Boeing BA $176.11 (-2.26%) came under selling pressure after this weekend’s fatal airplane crash in South Korea.

Every S&P 500 sector ETF fell, with consumer discretionary, materials, and health care at the bottom of the leaderboard.

Natural gas stocks were one of the few bright spots in the market, with Comstock Resources CRK $19.07 (10.71%) up double digits as the price of the underlying commodity spiked ahead of a looming cold snap.

• Americans are increasingly falling behind on their credit card bills.

• LG’s 2025 gaming monitor lineup includes a bendable 5K2K OLED.

• Jeju Air plane crash raises questions about concrete wall at the end of the runway.

• Belgium is set to ban disposable vapes in 2025.

OpenAI is worth $157 billion: more than Zoom, Zillow, Snap, Duolingo, Domino’s, The New York Times, Roku, and Ralph Lauren combined.