Making sense of market moves
Stay up to date on the latest market news with daily analysis of the investing landscape, served up Brew-style.
OK, we’ll admit it: Politics is putting up some pretty stiff competition for the winner of the wildest news cycle. But business has definitely been fostering some excitement and drama of its own.
Let’s unpack everything that’s happened in the markets this week:
- The SEC greenlit spot ethereum ETFs: Investors can finally get their hands on ETFs that track spot ethereum, rather than just ethereum futures. The new funds collectively generated about $951 million in trading volume during their second day on the market—not too shabby for an investment vehicle typically known for housing sleepy, broad indexes.
- More inflation data came in cooler: No need to fear, rate cuts are (almost) here. Friday’s June PCE data showed that prices only increased 0.1% month over month and 2.5% year over year. So, yes, inflation is decelerating, which means that the FedWatch Tool is nearly certain we will get a rate cut in September.
- Tech dropped off, then came back (sort of): Disappointing earnings misses from Tesla and Alphabet triggered a broad market selloff on Wednesday, dragging the indexes down with them and wiping out over a trillion in market value. The good news? Other sectors are actually faring pretty well, it’s just hard to notice because tech is such a huge part of market-weighted indexes right now. And tech has already begun to make up some of its losses today.
- The Bitcoin Conference speaker list is…something: What do Russell Brand, Cathie Wood, Edward Snowden, and Donald Trump all have in common? They’re the big stars at this week’s Bitcoin Conference. Crypto’s biggest bulls have not been shy about embracing the GOP this election cycle, and the GOP has embraced crypto right back. Trump will be speaking on Saturday, so investors will be watching to see how he incorporates crypto into his platform beyond rhetoric, and whether he actually knows how digital assets even work.
- Bill Ackman gets realistic: Famed activist investor Bill Ackman may have dreamed a little too big with his latest business endeavor. This week, he cut his closed-end fund’s target by about 90%. But who among us hasn’t fallen victim to setting too big of a goal for ourselves (yes, I am still running that half-marathon in October, I swear).
We hope you all stay cool this sunny summer weekend—and don’t miss us here at Brew Markets too much before we come back on Monday! 😎—LB