Crypto Goes Loco

Tale of the Tape

Good evening, y’all! It was a wild Wednesday!!

Every major index closed lower, but stocks bounced back from an ugly opening gap. It’s fine, though— everyone’s groggy early. 💁‍♀️

Tech and communications turned up to close positive. The technology ETF $XLK cruised from its 131.82 opening print to close at 134.37. Talk about a turnaround.

Energy struggled. $XLE stumbled 2.5%, followed by basic materials bopping -1.5%.

Crypto got crushed. 🥊 Bitcoin ticked 30K on the dot while Ethereum tumbled to 1900. The crazy cryptos have since bounced back… do you have diamond hands?? 💎 🤲 See the charts below.

The US dollar dashed 0.42% and reclaimed yesterday’s down day. Who knows where Uncle Sam will go. 🇺🇸 🤷‍♂️

Semiconductors soared. The VanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF $SMH snapped back from -2.25% to close +1.8%. Ta-ta-ta-turnaround!! Here’s the daily chart:

CVS carried on strong. The convenience store surged 0.68% to settle at its highest price since September 2016.

Here are the closing prints:

S&P 500	4,115	-0.29%
Nasdaq	13,299	-0.03%
Russell 2000	2,193	-0.78%
Dow Jones	33,896	-0.48%

Crypto Catastrophe

What a day in the crypto markets… anyone else feel like they aged 10 years?! 👴 😴

Starting 7 pm EST, $BTC.X tumbled 32% over the span of 12 hours and broke below $30k for the first time since late- January.

Within the same time period, $ETH.X split wide open and plummeted below $2k— 45% lower. Absolute carnage. 💀 Many alt-coins didn’t fare any better. Some fluctuated 2-3x more than Bitcoin.

The sell-off was spurred by Chinese regulations banning crypto trading services as China attempts to grow its government-controlled crypto. Crypto’s tumble also follows Tesla’s announcement that Bitcoin is no longer an accepted form of payment.

Right now, many cryptos have recovered about half of last night’s bloodshed. Bitcoin traded back above $41k today, and Ethereum reached $2,900.

It’s anyone’s guess what’ll happen next. 🤷

Here’s the daily Bitcoin chart:

And Ethereum’s:

What’s Polkadot??

Polkadot, a popular sharded protocol, just dropped Polkadot Decoded.

What’s that, you ask? 🧐

Polkadot Decoded is a second-edition virtual conference lasting today until Friday. Want to learn more about decentralization, the present, and the future of blockchain technology? This event is for you.

The conference features discussions and workshops for both technical and non-technical audiences. Polkadot’s website says 40+ innovators from the Polkadot ecosystem will discuss hot blockchain topics. 🔥

The conference’s highlight is a chat with Gavin Wood, the Co-Founder of Ethereum, Polkadot, and Kusama.

Don’t miss an opportunity to learn more about parachains, DeFi, NFTs, privacy, energy, and more from global industry leaders. 🌎

Too Much SPACtion

Another SPAC attack!! But this time, a company goes public via SPAC, then uses its SPAC to buy back another SPAC.

Yeah. What…?

Roivant Sciences Ltd. will merge with a SPAC to go public. Then, Roivant wants to use its SPAC to take over a different SPAC— the special-purpose acquisition company that acquired Immunovant from Roivant two years ago.

SPAC-on-SPAC deals are rare (if not impossible) to find. Niel Danics, a SPAC expert and the founder of SPAC Analytics, commented:

In the years I’ve been analyzing SPACs, I’ve never seen a transaction like this.

Wharton finance professor Nikolai Roussanov said:

If you can raise a bunch of money with a SPAC and then use that relatively cheap cash to buy a company at a valuation they find attractive— that seems like a rational approach.

Read more about the Roivant SPACtion here. 😉

Earnings Round-Up

Target topped earnings expectations with ease, growing sales 23% YoY. 🎯

Here are the stats:

EPS: $3.68 vs $2.25 est.
Revenue: $24.2B, +23% YoY

Target CEO Brian Cornell said:

Our performance in the first quarter was outstanding on every measure, and showcased the power of putting our stores at the center of our strategy. Store comp sales grew 18.0 percent in the quarter, even as they also fulfilled more than three quarters of Target’s digital sales – including more than 90-percent growth of our same-day services.

$TGT took off 6% to all-time highs. 🚀

Lowe’s reported Q1 earnings this morning. The company posted stellar earnings and sales numbers as the home improvement surge continues. 🏡

Here are the numbers:

EPS: $3.21 vs $2.62 est.
Revenue: $24.4B, +24% YoY

Marvin Ellison, Lowe’s’ CEO, commented:

Our outstanding performance continued this quarter, as we delivered strong sales growth and operating margin expansion. We delivered over 30% growth in Pro, over 18% growth in all 15 U.S. regions, and growth in Canada that outpaced the U.S.

$LOW lost 1% today.

We’ll Keep On Loving You, Bitcoin

Our hearts skipped a beat waking up this Wednesday. 💔

Nevertheless, there are still some firm Bitcoin believers who think the sky’s the limit. Cathie Wood, CEO of Ark Investment Management, said she believes Bitcoin will touch $500k. Wood remains hopeful despite the crypto’s recent plunge. 😇

Cathie Wood thinks Bitcoin is ‘‘on sale’’ at the moment, but she’s sure this phase will end soon to welcome a new bullish wave.

During her interview, Wood also shared environmental concerns regarding mining— she’s optimistic that solar power adoption in mining will make cryptocurrency unstoppable. 😤