Weekly Recap: the week of Nov 2–6, 2026.

Welcome to The Informed Position, a markets podcast from two college students learning finance in public. This week we break down:

• The midterms: a divided government, the 19-for-19 post-midterm stat, and why gridlock calms markets

• The Nov 5 AI selloff: the data-center moratorium bill, Georgia's utility commission flipping, and whether restrictions actually help the existing hyperscalers

• Who can carry the AI debt: widening credit spreads, Oracle and CoreWeave vs. Apple

• Macro: ISM manufacturing at 55.5, gold up while copper fell, oil down 13% with backwardation (the shortage) still there, and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve at about 40%

• The December rate-hike odds on Kalshi and the Fed's survey showing tighter bank lending

• Plus two finance jokes, one of them very long

Coming up: our first Deep Dive on Wednesday, and a guest episode.

New episodes: Weekly Recap on Saturdays, Deep Dive on Wednesdays, and occasional guest episodes.

Got a topic, a correction or a question? Email theinformedposition@gmail.com, and we may read it on the show.

Intro and outro music: original, made for the show. Cold-open clips: public-domain U.S. government recordings (presidential addresses, the Treasury, and Federal Reserve press conferences).

We're not registered investment advisers or brokers. Everything here is opinion and education, not advice for your situation, and investing, especially in options, can lose money. Do your own research.

Chapters

00:00 Cold open

00:35 Intro: the new format

02:16 Midterms, gridlock and the 19-for-19 stat

05:13 The Nov 5 AI selloff and the data-center moratorium

08:48 Georgia's utility commission flips: voters as AI's regulators

12:07 Do restrictions help existing hyperscalers?

17:40 Hyperscaler debt and widening credit spreads

21:33 Oracle, CoreWeave and Apple: who can carry the debt

27:51 ISM manufacturing at 55.5 and rates

29:29 Gold up, copper down

31:31 Oil falls 13% and the sector rotation

33:53 Backwardation and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve

40:19 December hike odds and tighter lending standards

48:22 Finance jokes

53:03 Next week and sign-off