Hello. I’m James Willhite, with Monday’s update as global stock indexes start the week with an early case of the winter blues.

Futures are down. Investors are worried that elevated Covid-19 infection levels could weigh on economic growth through the colder months. But the challenge of the pandemic along with disappointing jobs data has made some hopeful that Congress will enact a stimulus package. And Airbnb’s move to boost its price range suggests the red-hot IPO market is ending the year on a high note. U.S. consumer credit figures are due this afternoon. Read our full market wrap here.

Meanwhile, our Julie Steinberg and Ben Dummett find a few of the smallest hedge funds are enjoying some of the biggest returns as volatility hurts many investing strategies.

Hedge funds are trailing the U.S. stock market this year. Some of the smallest funds are emerging as some of the best performers, driving greater demand for these types of managers.

Funds with less than $1 billion in assets are benefiting from their more manageable portfolios. They can dart in and out of holdings to protect gains or minimize losses amid the market volatility that has characterized this year. They also get more bang for their buck—making investments that require less firepower to affect their overall performance.

Among little funds putting up big numbers: London-based Alanda Capital Management, which manages less than $500 million and gained about 53% through November. Founder Christian Vogel-Claussen said his fund’s competitive edge comes from having a concentrated portfolio built by data science and fundamental research. The portfolio, which includes technology and consumer holdings, typically comprises 15 bets that stocks will rise and the same number of wagers on stocks falling.

“We want to be the nimble speedboat,” Mr. Vogel-Claussen said.

That agility is in demand today. Some investors were too nervous between March and June to take chances on small funds they hadn’t done due diligence on. But as they acclimated to Zoom and as lockdowns lifted, they became more confident, according to Murano, a firm that connects institutional investors with fund managers. Requests for boutique managers rose 22% in the third quarter from a year earlier.

Other outperformers include Accendo Capital, an activist investor with €140 million, equivalent to $170 million, in assets that targets Northern European companies. The firm, which returned 41% as of November, added more than €10 million in new assets this year, including from five new investors. Founder Henri Österlund said he wants the firm to stay at around $500 million to keep the focus on performance and not on asset chasing.

For a longer version of this article online, follow this link.

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Stocks have won big this year, but columnist James Mackintosh writes that a repeat in the next decade is almost inconceivable, which means future returns are likely to be pedestrian.

Investors are piling into wagers on industrial metals like copper and nickel, betting that coronavirus vaccines and stimulus programs will drive a boom in manufacturing activity as part of a global economic resurgence.

Bitcoin is surging to records near $20,000, a rally driven in part by the emergence of new investors from individuals to return-starved hedge funds.

Assets in pre-baked investment kits hit a record high this fall, reflecting growing interest in preset investment options developed by Wall Street firms.

Partnering with Jack Ma’s fintech giant Ant Group has higher risks for smaller lenders, which are already on shaky ground.

• Shares of some companies the U.S. government says support China’s military fell Monday, after index compiler FTSE Russell said it would drop the stocks from major indexes. Hong Kong-listed shares of China Communications Construction Co. and China Railway Construction Corp. both fell about 2.2%, exceeding a 1.2% decline for the city’s Hang Seng Index.
• European bank shares have rallied since the mid-November vaccine news but are still down more than 15% on the year. The ban on dividend payouts helped build sizable capital buffers—about 40% of market capitalization, calculates Barclays.
• On this day in 1880, Ferdinand de Lesseps’ Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interoceanique, organized to finance construction of the Panama Canal, went public in Paris at 500 francs ($100) a share. De Lesseps bribed the French press with more than $300,000 in slush money, so the newspapers were enthusiastic—and the public went wild, as more than 100,000 people bought into the IPO. Within eight years the company collapsed and the shares became worthless.

U.S. consumer credit for October is out at 3 p.m. ET.

Japan household spending is out at 6:30 p.m.

I started trading hot stocks on Robinhood. I couldn’t stop. Spinning prices, scratch-off rewards and flying confetti? Even the most skeptical investor can be drawn in.

Stock buybacks: What every investor needs to know. They have been attacked by many academics and progressive politicians. Now, with a new administration, the battle could soon get even more heated.

Inside the retreat of Jamie Dinan’s York, a one-time star hedge fund. Soured energy bets, a deal with Credit Suisse that left less equity to go around as performance shrank and a rocky succession all contributed to the firm’s pullback.

Time is running out for remote workers to fix their state taxes. Act now if you’ve worked remotely from another state in 2020—or else.

The death of Zappos’s Tony Hsieh: a spiral of alcohol, drugs and extreme behavior. The inspirational executive seemed to lose his way after moving to a mansion in Utah and giving up his corporate role, including a starvation diet and fascination with fire.

Exxon is under pressure from a new activist fund. Engine No. 1, a newcomer activist investor with a sustainability bent, wants the beleaguered energy giant to act faster to remake itself.

Abu Dhabi’s $230 billion man bet the world would overcome Covid-19. Khaldoon al-Mubarak made an assessment in March that this challenging year would bring new opportunities to lessen his homeland’s dependence on oil. He spent billions backing up that belief.

Eastman Kodak: A government watchdog agency found no wrongdoing in the process that created a now-halted U.S. loan to Kodak to produce drug ingredients for the Covid-19 response, according to a copy of the assessment reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Tyson Foods, Pilgrim’s Pride, Sanderson Farms: Chick-fil-A sued major poultry producers, accusing them of price-fixing that the Atlanta-based company says led to inflated prices for billions
of dollars worth of its chicken purchases.

Stitch Fix is among the companies reporting earnings Monday.

We want to be the first place you go to get ready for the opening bell every day. This newsletter is written and edited by James Willhite (@jimwillhite; james.willhite@wsj.com) in London.