Tale of the Tape

Good evening, everyone, and happy freakin’ Friday! 🥂

The market of stocks finished mixed. The Russell 2000 and Nasdaq rallied while the S&P 500 and Dow both stumbled. 

Communications was the strongest sector. Financials and real estate both flopped more than 1%.

The 10-year treasury closed flat on Friday, but $TNX settled at its highest level since January 2020. See the weekly charts below. 

Bitcoin and Ethereum both bopped around. $BTC.X was up ~2.4% while $ETH.X continues to press the 1,850 figure. Will crypto have a wild weekend? Time will tell… ⏳

The Qs barely closed positive. Facebook flew 4%— Amazon and Netflix both advanced 1.5%. Apple failed to finish higher. 

Draftkings dashed 6.5% to close at a new all-time high. How many sports betting commercials will we see during March Madness? Place your bets… 😉 🏀 

Here are the closing prints: 

S&P 500	3,913	-0.06%
Nasdaq	13,215	+0.76%
Russell 2000	2,287	+0.88%
Dow Jones	32,627	-0.71%

Weekly Candles 🕯

The market had a muted week. Here are a few weekly charts for your viewing pleasure:

The Russell 2000 was the worst major index this week. $RUT pulled back 2.77% following last week’s 7% stunner: 

The 10-year treasury was the talk of the street this week. $TNX flew 5.9% and finished at its highest weekly level since January 2020:

The cryptos chilled inside their previous week’s range. Here’s Bitcoin’s bodatious weekly chart:

And Ethereum:

Facebook flew 8%, making this week its best since mid-January. Will the stock break out to blue skies?? ☀️ ☁️

Upstart surged 9% on Friday following Thursday’s record-setting +90% gain. $UPST finished the week up 116%. What a weekly chart from Upstart. 🚀 👏

NFTs in the OpenSeas

As NFTs continue to surge in popularity (seriously… some dude just sold his fart for $85), NFT marketplaces are slowly raking in the dough. 💰

Yesterday, OpenSea (an NFT platform created in 2017) announced a $23M round led by a16z and the likes of Naval Ravikant, Mark Cuban, Dylan Field, and Linda Xie.

OpenSea plans to use the newfound funds to expand its platform: 

As we like to say: build an ocean, not an aquarium. Any NFT project or creator can plug into our marketplace without being wedded to a particular platform. The 20 million+ NFTs you can trade on OpenSea are not owned by OpenSea, they are owned by users. This is a huge paradigm shift, and the first glimpse into a world where users, not corporations, control their own data.

If you’re into NFTs, would you go surfing on the OpenSea? 🏄‍♀️

Wind for the Win?

Renewable energy is on a tear. ♻️ Less than 20 years ago, renewables only accounted for 0.6% of American energy. But its current rate is 11.5%— that’s a 1816% increase.

It’s not going to stop there, either.

A recent joint report from the Environment America Research & Policy Center and Frontier Group shows wind power alone could meet 90% of electricity demand by 2050, providing a safe and stable path for future power sources.

Wind farms would be positioned offshore in the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, Pacific, and Great Lakes region, a current tough task as many states have legislation prohibiting these farms for now. Hannah Read, an associate at EAR&PC, described how we can change that:

For offshore wind to succeed, we need to set strong, enforceable targets around it. The sheer abundance of this incredible renewable resource should convince our state leaders to make bold commitments to start powering our homes with offshore wind.

Will wind win? 🤔 Only time will tell…

Uh Oh, Visa…

Uh oh, Visa… the US Justice Department is investigating Visa’s potential anticompetitive practices in the debit-card market. 

Specifically, Visa may limit merchants’ ability to route debit card transactions over less expensive networks. These practices mainly occur online, but could also happen in stores. 

The Justice Dept. will look into network fees– they’re heavy for merchants and invisible to customers, but high network fees ultimately get charged to customers in the form of unfair higher prices. 

The Justice Department will determine whether Visa gained a competitive market share illegally. The company declined to comment. 🤷 

Here’s the WSJ with more. 

Don’t Worry, Be Happy 🇫🇮

Finland just won ‘World’s Happiest Country’ for the 4th year in a row. 🇫🇮 😁

Even during the pandemic, Finnish people reported greater trust in each other and their government— these were key factors contributing to the win. 

The global happiness report considers two rankings: one based on an average of Gallup surveys from 2018-2020, and the other solely examined well-being during 2020. Here’s this year’s happiness scoreboard: 

According to surveys, countries with greater trust in public institutions and more income inequality were best equipped to fight off Covid-19… and they stayed happy while doing it. 🤝 🤗

Here’s Bloomberg with a full report. 

Gucci *Virtual* Gang

Get Gucci shoes, but don’t break the bank… well, kind of. 😉 

The fashion house from Florence, Italy released its first virtual sneaker for those who love the digital life.

Surprisingly, the Gucci Virtual 25 is NOT an NFT— you cannot resell the sneaker if you feel buyer’s remorse. 🙃

You can get the virtual kicks for ~$10 via Gucci or Wanna’s mobile app. 

Here’s Dezeen with more info.

Links That Don’t Suck

💰 BTC, ETH, BCH, LTC all in one place. Find symbol: GDLC  in your brokerage account to access four of the largest digital currencies by market cap.*

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🏟️ Will There Be Fans at the Hayward Field Olympic Trials?

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🤷 One Stat Explains Why College Basketball Is Better Than Football

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