Friday Fast Five - 1/2/2026
by Hodges Investment Team, on January 2, 2026
Five interesting things that Hodges Capital research analysts discovered this week...
#1 Holiday Party: A raccoon collapsed in the bathroom of an Ashland ABC Liquor Store after ransacking shelves and consuming multiple types of alcohol. The raccoon was discovered the next morning when a police officer responded to reports of a break-in and found the animal passed out face-down just inches from the toilet.
#2 A Sour Note: A Florida middle school using AI-powered video cameras to detect potential weapons was placed on lockdown after the system flagged what appeared to be a gun. According to ZeroEyes, the security company that runs the system, the culprit was a clarinet.
#3 Holiday Viewership: According to Variety, Stranger Things Season 5 opened with 59.6 million views—Netflix’s biggest English-language TV debut ever.
#4 Not So Jolly: During Christmas week, influenza-like illness–related visits accounted for approximately 6.0% (+190 bps w/w) of total outpatient visits, compared with the 2024–2025 Week 51 average of ~4.9% and the 23-year average of ~3.7%. By state, the highest rates were New York (~13.5%) and Louisiana (~11.5%).
#5 Autonomous Hackers: A Chinese state-sponsored group weaponized Anthropic’s Claude tool to launch what appears to be the first large-scale AI-driven espionage campaign, targeting more than 30 organizations across technology, finance, manufacturing, and government. This wasn’t merely bad actors using AI as a tool—it involved AI systems autonomously conducting reconnaissance, exploit development, and data exfiltration.
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