10 things before the opening bell

Welcome to 10 Things Before the Opening Bell.

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1. Are stocks headed back to record highs? Fundstrat's Tom Lee thinks so. He predicts US stocks are due for a "violent" rally this month that could lead to new record highs in the middle of the year.

According to Lee, a lot of the bad news is already priced into the stock market following a turbulent January on the back of interest rate fears as well as disappointing earnings from some big companies, namely Meta.

"When markets are this fragile and nervous, the probability for positive surprise is higher," Lee said. His bullish projection comes from historic price action following a "waterfall decline," according to note.

Buoying markets will be a continuation of strong earnings figures for most companies. 80% of S&P 500 firms have beaten estimates by a median 6%, while history shows the resilience of the stock market in periods of quick, steep declines.

"The S&P 500 posted a waterfall decline of 11% peak to trough over 14 days," Lee wrote. "A fall of this velocity is actually rare." Lee added similar periods show we are nearing the end of the sell-off.

The Fundstrat research chief's projections put the S&P 500 at 4,850 before the end of the first half of 2021.

2. US stocks are ticking lower as some calm returns after Friday's whipsaw session. Fed watchers are starting to brace for inflation data this week. See the latest moves on the market here.

3. This fund manager's bets on energy stocks have put him in the top 4% of fund managers. Fred Fromm shared why oil is destined to slip to $65 per barrel, and gave six stock picks to watch in 2022.

4. On the docket: Leggett & Platt, Fang Holdings, and TAL Education Group, all reporting.

5. The Boston Fed and MIT published long-awaited research on central bank digital currencies. The 35-page white paper was borne out of a joint initiative announced in 2020 that aimed to explore the feasibility of a digital currency — here's what they found.

6. A metaverse casino raked in $7.5 million over the last three months. The ICE Poker virtual casino accounts for 30% of Decentraland's daily traffic. Its founder said 1,000 players are gambling at any given time.

7. Crypto markets had another down week. Some coins lost traction while others made modest gains. These were the five best performing cryptocurrencies over the last week.

8. Amazon's earnings and announcement of Prime price hike sent waves across Wall Street. Goldman Sachs still sees the e-commerce giant as a core long-term hold for internet investors. Two other Wall Street analysts gave their reaction to Amazon's 4th quarter report.

9. The head of digital asset strategy at Fundstrat explained how bitcoin and ethereum could hit $200k and $12k by the end of 2022. Sean Ferrell laid out his valuation models for the two popular tokens. He shared why crypto's global market cap could surge to $9.6 trillion.

10. This Gen Zer who was scared to leave a $65k-per-year job now earns over $350,000 a year as a real estate investor and agent. Karina Mejia looked around her office one day and didn't see anyone she wanted to be like. These are the steps she took to quit her corporate job and bet on herself.

Compiled by Phil Rosen. Feedback? Email prosen@insider.com or tweet @philrosenn.

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