Tale of the Tape
Welcome back, everyone! We hope y’all enjoyed the 3-day break!! 🍻 🏝️
The market of stocks was mixed as the Dow Jones Industrial Average was the only major index to close in positive territory.
Energy surged after a cold front swept the Southwest. 🥶 See more below. Financials flew to an all-time high. $BRK.A and $JPM both closed at a new all-time high. Real estate and utilities both lost more than 1%.
Bitcoin briefly broke above 50K for the first time ever while Ethereum still encroaches on 2,000.
Chinese tech carried on strong. Baidu, which is the largest holding in the China Technology ETF $CQQQ, is scheduled to report earnings tomorrow after market close. $BIDU is up 135% since December 1, 2020.
Social stocks stayed hot. 🔥 The social media ETF $SOCL gained another 1.03% today. The ETF’s winning streak now stretches to 11 straight days.
Twitter finally ticked a new all-time high…only took 7 years. 😂 $TWTR topped out at 74.84 before closing at 73.96.
$FUTU flew 29% while $CCIV surged 31%.
Caterpillar cruised to an all-time high. $CAT managed to close over $200 for the first time ever. What’s next? Place your bets…
Here are the closing prints:
| S&P 500 | 3,932 | -0.06% |
| Nasdaq | 14,047 | -0.34% |
| Russell 2000 | 2,272 | -0.72% |
| Dow Jones | 31,522 | +0.20% |
US Cold Front, Energy Crisis ❄️ ⚡
Just when you thought things couldn’t get more chaotic… a massive energy crisis has millions without power in the US during unprecedented cold weather.
From Texas to North Dakota, several US states are experiencing power grid outages amidst a freezing cold front, and millions of homes and businesses have no heat. Texas declared a state of emergency.
Here’s a photo Tesla shared of its facility in Austin:
Neil Chatterjee of the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said:
I’ve been following energy markets and grid issues for a while, and I cannot recall an extreme weather event that impacted such a large swath of the nation in this manner— the situation is critical.
As the oil and gas industry struggles to keep up with increased heating demands, frozen wind power generators fail to provide back-up heat. Energy stocks were a source of strength.
$XLE closed at its highest price since last June:
The Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF $XOP accelerated 3.4% and closed at its highest price since February 6, 2020:
50k Reasons to Love Bitcoin ❤️
In case you weren’t on Twitter or Stocktwits today, maybe you missed Bitcoin brushing over its new barrier: $50,000. For you bulls out there, it may be time to tell your friends “I told you so!”
With impeccable timing, the Osprey Bitcoin Trust announced the beginning of its trading via the OTC markets. The trust has nearly $80M in assets, and boasts a shockingly low 0.49% management fee compared to GBTC’s 2% annual fee.
But the Bitcoin news doesn’t stop there! MicroStrategy, the business intelligence firm, proposed over $600M in convertible senior notes due in 2027. The firm plans to use its proceeds to buy Bitcoin— after all, it already has $3.5B in BTC.X. 💁
BTC.X briefly broke above 50,000. Here’s the 1-hour chart:
Lucid Dreams About a Deal
Rumor has it that luxury EV maker Lucid Motors is nearing a merger with Churchill Capital IV ($CCIV).
Although nothing is set in stone, the valuation of the deal is reportedly $12B, and could be finalized as early as next month. If the merger happens, it would be the largest EV SPAC ever, crushing both Nikola and Fisker. 🔋💪
What’s the buzz all about? You can reserve one of Lucid’s new models, the Lucid Air, for just $69,900. Nice!
Flying Cars
It’s a bird, it’s a plane…no…it’s a car. ✈️ 🚗
The FAA special light-sport aircraft (LSA, for short) was just granted its airworthiness certificate. The flying car will be the world’s first cleared for takeoff.
The car is Terrafugia’s Transition Roadable Aircraft. Terrafugia VP and General Manager Kevin Colburn said:
We are excited to have reached our goal of an airworthiness certificate for the initial version. During an extremely challenging pandemic year, our team remained focused, improved our quality system, completed the critical aspects of the design, built the vehicle, completed 80 days of flight testing, delivered 150 technical documents, and successfully passed the FAA audit. This is a major accomplishment that builds momentum in executing our mission to deliver the world’s first practical flying car.
The Terrafugia Transition has a 100-hp rotax 912iS sport fuel-injected engine, runs on premium gas, and its folding wings allow for single-car garage storage. Welcome to the future. 🤭
Take a look:
Earnings Round-Up
Palantir got pummeled 13% after reporting Q4 losses before the bell. The software company still expects revenue growth of more than 30% in 2021.
Here are the stats:
EPS: ($0.08)
Revenue: $322M, +40% YoY
Palantir CEO Alex Karp said this in a pre-recorded video:
We hope those of you on this call who are current investors stay with us and those of you who prefer a more short-term focus, that you choose companies that are more appropriate for you.
Earnings This Week
Be sure to know when your stocks report earnings. Here’s the earnings calendar.
Links That Don’t Suck
🌿 What’s next for pot stocks? Here’s how new laws could radically change the industry*
🌌 Stocktwits After Hours: Texas Runs Out of Power, Energy Stocks Soar?
💡 Howard Lindzon: Investing is Easy!
📈 The Twitter Tax Code
🎙️ Podcasts Had a Bumper 2020 – On my Om
🔋 How McLaren Aims to Rebuild Supercars to Roar into Electric Era
🚗 Alpha Motor Corporation Unveils its Adventure-Seeking Electric ‘Jax’ CUV
🇺🇸 The Texan at Italy’s Most Storied Soccer Club
