Pfizer Announces a More Than 90% Effective Vaccine Result, and Markets Rejoice to the Skies
Nov 09, 2020 | News
Pfizer, the pharma giant, and its research partner, BioNTech, changed the outlook for 2021 — and for the whole world — with a huge announcement this morning (Monday, Nov. 9). Pfizer and BioNTech shared Phase 3 trial results of a COVID-19 blocking vaccine that was effective in more than 90% of patients. The data results are early, and not yet…
Bitcoin is a Schelling Point
Nov 06, 2020 | News
On Oct. 30, we noted that Bitcoin is outperforming gold. Less than a week later, as the U.S. election week comes to a close, Bitcoin is up another 14% (above $15,500 as of this writing). The latest run higher seems driven by a sudden burst of extreme U.S. dollar weakness — a bullish thing for risk assets in general, and…
The Markets Process Jaw-Dropping Uncertainty as Election Odds Plummet and Soar
Nov 04, 2020 | News
If you’ve ever wondered what mind-bending, jaw-dropping uncertainty looks like, this it. The snapshot below, taken at 8:00 a.m. Eastern on Nov. 4, shows a vertigo-inducing swing in betting market odds for who will win the 2020 presidential election. As of election night on Nov. 3, President Trump had roared ahead in the betting odds, thanks to a strong showing…
A High-Profile Hedge Fund Manager Warns an “Enormous” Tech- Stocks Bubble Has Popped
Oct 29, 2020 | News
A high-profile hedge fund manager is warning that an “enormous” bubble in technology stocks has popped. He believes the top was registered on Sept. 2, 2020, that investor sentiment has shifted from “greed” to “complacency,” and that bear-market pain for technology stocks is ahead. Is he right? Possibly, yes. The reasons he cites for calling a tech-stocks top will be…
The Largest Initial Public Offering (IPO) of All Time, for a Digital Payments Leviathan, is On Deck
Oct 28, 2020 | News
Ant Group Co. — the owner of digital payments leviathan Ant Financial, a digital payments firm with 730 million active monthly users in China — is set to complete the largest initial public offering (IPO) of all time by Nov. 5, raising an incredible $34 billion via dual share offerings in Shanghai and Hong Kong. The rise of Ant Financial…
The Crypto Adoption Cycle Just Got a PayPal-Powered Nitro Boost
Oct 23, 2020 | News
One of the great wealth-building vehicles of the 20th century was the publicly traded retail franchise. There is a reason why retail franchise stocks, when successful, can deliver multi-thousand-percent returns over a long-term holding period. With a great franchise — like, say, a casual restaurant concept, or a new type of clothing store — the initial locations are shown to…
The Department of Justice Went After Google — and the Market Shrugged
Oct 22, 2020 | News
Did you hear the one about the Department of Justice (DOJ) going after Microsoft? It isn’t a joke, but the stock market seemed to laugh at the news. On Oct. 20, the DOJ announced the largest antitrust lawsuit in decades, officially declaring Google “a monopoly gatekeeper of the internet.” The last antitrust action of this size and scope was launched…
The DOJ’s “Cryptocurrency Enforcement Framework” is More Good News for Bitcoin
Oct 13, 2020 | News
As a rule of thumb, regulation is good for established players. It helps the strong get stronger and the big get bigger, by making it harder to break into a space. Take data privacy rules around e-commerce and social media, for example. On the one hand, the big players in e-commerce and social media don’t like these rules. They are…
An $83 Billion Silicon Valley Heavyweight Buys Bitcoin — and Shows Others How to Do It
Oct 12, 2020 | News
If you haven’t bought Bitcoin for the first time yet, the odds are good that you will. The question is whether you will do it sooner — and be glad that you did — or do it later and wish you had acted much earlier. Bitcoin is not just an investment opportunity, like a stock that investors can own or…
In a Time of Fiscal Dominance, the Market Cares About Spending More Than Who Wins
Oct 09, 2020 | News
On Aug. 10, TradeSmith Daily explained two terms every investor should know: Financial Repression and Fiscal Dominance. To briefly summarize them, financial repression is when a central bank deliberately keeps interest rates low — ideally below the rate of inflation — to inflate away the value of debt. This is a means of coping when a nation’s debt load becomes…
