Good morning.
The markets are dead calm. Bond-yield curves are collapsing and U.S. Futures are barely budging ahead of another big day of earnings, headlined by Apple, Amazon and MasterCard. European stocks, too, are stuck in neutral ahead of a must-watch ECB meeting.
For the real trading action, you have to go to crypto land. No, not necessarily to Bitcoin. To Shiba Inu. The cryptocurrency that started as some kind of inside joke is on an epic rally. It’s up nearly 800% in the past month. Judging by the Twitter chatter, the $SHIB bulls are out in full force this morning, too.
Let’s see what else is going up (and down).
Markets update
Asia
- The major Asia indexes are mostly lower with Japan’s Nikkei down nearly 0.9% in late-afternoon trading.
- Japan is an inflationary curiosity. The Bank of Japan, the ones who practically invented the “lower for longer” policy, said on Thursday they see inflation siting “well below 2%” for at least another two years. The central bank also cut its growth forecast as supply-chain woes worsen.
- Shares in Samsung were up 1.1% in Seoul in late trading after the world’s biggest maker of smartphones and memory chips reported record profits on Thursday.
Europe
- The European bourses were trading sideways, with the Stoxx Europe 600 up nearly 0.1% two hours into the session. Tech and retail stocks were leading the way higher.
- Investors await today’s ECB meeting to get a read on where interest rates are heading. Recent tightening measures (or signals to begin tightening) by central bankers in Britain and Canada have sent reverberations through the bond markets in recent days. On cue: financial stocks are underperforming this morning.
- Despite sky-high oil prices, Royal Dutch Shell reported a big fall in profits this morning, and vowed to cut emissions further as the oil giant comes under pressure from activist investing powerhouse Dan Loeb’s Third Point Capital. Shares were off 1.3% out of the gates.
U.S.
- The U.S. Futures are up a touch, off their lows. The blue-chip Dow and S&P 500 fell on mixed earnings news, snapping modest winning streaks.
- Shares in Ford are up nearly 9% in pre-market after the automaker on Wednesday gave a rosy full-year profit forecast and said dividends, a COVID casualty, are coming back.
- Amid the barrage of earnings, we also get new GDP figures today. Economists are forecasting a disappointing number—growth of 2.8%—as supply chain woes tamp down expansion.
Elsewhere
- Gold jumped overnight to trade above $1,800/ounce.
- The dollar is down.
- Crude is dropping, with Brent below $84/barre l.
- Bitcoin had been under pressure much of the morning, and then it spiked higher. It’s trading above $60,000. All the action, however, is in Shiba Inu, up more than 25% in the past 24 hours to bring its market cap around $40 billion. Here’s what’s driving this crypto asset higher.
***
Buzzworthy
Woof, woof!
Last week, when Bitcoin was rallying to new all-time highs, crypto PRs pounded my inbox with expert takes penned by their crypto-expert clients. This week, BTC is stumbling, and this upstart joke-coin, Shiba Inu, is soaring. My inbox this week? A far quieter place.
🐕☂️₿🦗
$HOOD-winked
Robinhood shares are up 0.7% in pre-market trading. Yesterday, the popular trading app bombed lower by more than 10% to close well below its IPO price.
😬😬😬
Everybody, Hertz!
Tesla shares are up more than 21% in the past week as investors cheer Elon Musk’s unconventional supply deal with Hertz. Yes, the car rental firm that recently emerged from bankruptcy.
⚡🚀⚡
Soak the rich! (But don’t tweet at them)
Too bad Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal left Musk’s Twitter handle off this tweet. That would have really triggered some fireworks.
🎆✨🎆
***
Postscript
Good news! The autumn menu was just published at Casa Warner, and is now tacked on the wall in our kitchen.
The girls lobbied to get sushi and pizza added. I didn’t get a say, which explains why there’s no “taco Tuesday” on the weekly menu. (Instead, on Tuesdays, we get a kind of veggie quiche, the torta rustica con verdure. I can live with that.)
My only objection: where’s the gnocchi? Everyone knows Thursday is gnocchi day.
***
No matter what’s on your menu today, have a lovely day. I’ll see you here tomorrow… Until then, there’s more news below.
Bernhard Warner
@BernhardWarner
[email protected]
As always, you can write to [email protected] or reply to this email with suggestions and feedback.
Today's reads
Despite raging inflation, majority of workers haven’t seen a pay raise in 12 months—Coins2Day
Al Gore teams with Goldman Sachs, Microsoft and Harvard on a climate asset fund—Coins2Day
London to Amsterdam is Europe’s busiest plane route, and climate hawks want to ban it—Coins2Day
New list of richest people in China shows rise of the ‘green’ billionaire—Coins2Day
U.S. Takes Bitcoin Mining Crown After China Crackdown—Wall Street Journal
How to hedge — with care — against a market correction—Financial Times
Market candy
$41 billion
That was the market cap of the newest dog-faced wonder coin, the Shiba Inu, as of 4 a.m. ET this morning. My colleague, Chris Morris, calculates that following this week's monster rally, the crypto newcomer is now more valuable than the following companies: Yum! Brands, General Mills, HP, Etsy and, yes, Robinhood. Oh, it's more valuable than Dogecoin, too.
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