Good morning, investors. Just a few days ago investors were panicked about Fed rate hikes, but on Monday the S&P 500 added an eye-watering $1 trillion in market value in a single session.
Tech led the way, but bitcoin and its crypto associates more than held their own.
No need for CLARITY
Bitcoin just hit its highest level since January.
Days after US lawmakers failed to advance the Clarity Act, bitcoin surged 7% to trade above $87,000 and erase any of the negative sentiment it took in Washington.
The stock market picked up on that momentum, and crypto-linked companies have shown similar strength to start the week.
Coinbase, which has lagged all year, has gained 10% over the last five days and Robinhood is up 11% in the same stretch. Meanwhile, Michael Saylor’s company Strategy has rallied 28% and Silvia Inc., formerly ProCap Financial, the AI company that holds more than 5,200 bitcoin and where I serve as chief market strategist, has gained 28%.
Disclosure: I serve as chief market strategist for ProCap Financial (Nasdaq: BRR). The views expressed here are my own.
Over the last week, balance sheet names are outrunning the exchanges that capitalize on trading fees by more than three to one.
That gap suggests the rally in crypto-linked stocks is more about bitcoin’s price appreciation rather than how many people are buying it.
Wall Street had entered the year betting that crypto regulation would move fast and make progress under the Trump administration.
That hasn’t panned out, and there’s little hope for updated crypto bills to pass in the months ahead.
Bitcoin spent most of this year trading as if it were waiting for friendlier oversight, but the market suddenly seems to have forgotten that assumption.
The legislative catalyst has stalled and that’s done nothing to stop the asset from rising anyway.
If bitcoin can continue rising without new policy tailwinds, the bull case shifts back toward the macro forces bitcoiners have monitored for years — global liquidity and currency debasement, two secular forces that are difficult to see reversing.
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Elsewhere
🚀 AMD hit a $1 trillion market cap. Shares closed up almost 10% as the five-day chip rally lifted the stock past the milestone alongside Nvidia, Microsoft and Apple in the trillion-dollar club. (CNBC)
🤖 Intel surged 12% on news of an SK Hynix partnership. Reports of joint memory-chip manufacturing at Intel's Ohio complex plus a Tigress Financial price-target hike to $145 helped push shares to a 12-month rally of about 278%. (Investing.com)
📈 Meta saw its best day in more than a year. Wells Fargo raised its price target 24% to $796 and analysts across the Street are celebrating the success of the new Muse AI agent. (CNBC)
Rapid-fire
Flight disruptions hit Newark, Philadelphia and NYC airports to start the week (CNBC)
Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery rallied on a $111 billion merger settlement with California antitrust officials (Yahoo Finance)
A speculative signal not seen since 1999 flashed beneath Monday's record close (CNBC)
Oura filed publicly for a $2.2 billion IPO at $40 to $44 per share (Yahoo Finance)
OpenAI published new alignment research on recursive self-improvement risk (CNBC)
St. Louis Fed President Musalem said more rate hikes are likely needed to tame inflation (Yahoo Finance)
3 sectors to buy for the AI trade’s next decade, according to Nomura’s investment chief (Full Signal)
On this day
🗓 September 22, 1985: Finance ministers from the US, UK, France, West Germany, and Japan signed the Plaza Accord at New York's Plaza Hotel. The dollar fell more than 40% against the yen and deutsche mark over the next two years.
Last thing
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