“Bitcoin & Ethereum achieve all-time high valuations, Nvidia stocks up 13% in strong Q4 earnings, Apple Music faces investigation by EU.”
TradFi & Global Market News
Global Market: S&P 500 & NASDAQ
The S&P500 breached its all-time high mark of 5000 last week on 9th February. However, it has since seen a recent pullback due to persistent inflation concerns for future profits. The NASDAQ experienced a similar trend when it broke the 16000 valuation mark, but now it hovers around 15775. Investors are monitoring the space closely as a “meme stock” rally is expected to drive Nvidia’s prices. As of 2024, Nvidia’s market cap finally surpassed Amazon’s market cap to become the third-largest company in the world. Nvidia has been the benchmark guiding analysts to study the growing market demand for AI following its raised sales forecast in November. This meme stock rally is heavily bolstered by corporate spending; however, that has been a decline in recent months. Ironically, competition in the AI chips space may be healthy as Nvidia is currently the only credible player holding the AI ecosystem together. Investors should look to Wednesday’s 4th quarter earning results to build investment in this space moving forward.
UPDATE: Nvidia strong Q4 earnings drive stock price 13% in the pre-market (22 February 2024)
Global Market: FTSE100
Last Thursday, the UK reported a second consecutive decline in quarterly performance as their GDP declined by 0.3% in the last quarter of 2023, slipping the economy into a technical recession. All main sectors fell, including manufacturing, construction and wholesale. Nevertheless, the recession paints an overtly pessimistic view of the economy, which has mainly been flat rather than in decline since population and wage growth have been rising. In fact, the FTSE100 just reached its 6-month high on Monday at the peak of 7732.89. Inflation has come down significantly to 4% from the previous 11% mark; however, it is still significantly above the 2% Bank of England target. This is reflected as housing prices are starting to rebound nationwide but precisely so in its capital, London, as monthly prices have witnessed a 2.8% increase.
Asia News: Japan
Across the Pacific, Japan lost its status as the world’s third-largest economy to Germany as the country also fell into a recession. The decline in growth potential correlates heavily with its declining population, which has shrunk by an additional 800000 since 2022. This led to less public expenditure overall and thus lowered domestic consumption. Private consumption remains weak as Japan continues battling high food and fuel prices globally, which is exceptionally bad for a country that battles 94% of its base energy consumption. This was partially offset by the 6.6% fall in the Yen against the USD, making Japan’s exports more attractive and thus causing an 11% increase in export demand. Much like their UK counterparts, Japan’s financial markets remain resilient as the Nikkei 225 advances 1.2% and closed above the 38000 since 1990. Asian investors should remain optimistic as the December 2023 signals look positive. Unemployment has fallen to 2.4%, and there is an expected rise in the demand for IT investments.
DeFi & Digital Assets News
Cryptocurrency Market: Bitcoin & Ethereum
Bitcoin prices spiked over the past few days, breaking the 50000 valuation mark while holding a steady position. Ethereum experienced a similar bullish rise as its valuation achieved its all-time high, slightly under 2900. Key market opinion leaders in the space have been causing the market’s drive. PayPal’s active tech investor Peter Thiel recently unveiled his $200million bet on cryptocurrencies through his venture capital firm, Founders Fund, causing a buzz amongst casual investors to follow this established investor. Ethereum’s rally was further boosted by founder Vitalik Buterin’s comments about linking AI to blockchain for efficiency, as well as the newest Dencun upgrade to the chain with Verkle trees, which would improve the solo user staking experience with instantaneous syncs during the staking process. In the face of markets with low exits in 2023, these signals are vital for a more positive 2024 as venture capital funding resumes and the value of cryptocurrencies continues to rise despite the low volume.
Innovation News: Chainlink
One such investment that has been encouraging its early-stage investors is Chainlink. Unlike some meme coins, Chainlink provides a unique real-world utility that is increasingly on investors’ minds, that is the bridge between the decentralised and the fiat world. Chainlink serves as a data oracle, storing and feeding data to smart contracts, the foundational piece across all blockchain transactions. With the recent boom in asset tokenisation, the digital transformation of stocks into blockchain-tradable assets will require a heavy volume of financial data across real markets and the blockchain market, a niche which Chainlink can provide.
Currently, Chainlink has an all-time high valuation of only $53, but project-based investors could see this as a good entry point if they want to add a very long-term asset to their portfolio. As a financial vehicle, Chainlink itself does not hold much value. Still, as its utility continues to be unlocked, we can expect its valuation to rise along with its number of users.
MedTech News: HNMBlock
The medical industry may be one of the last sectors on our minds when we think of the transformative potential of Web3.0, but HNMBlock may have a solution to fill a gap in this unique sectoral intersection. Researchers from Emporia State University have developed a blockchain system that serves as the backbone of an IoT-based healthcare server that looks to connect medical devices to patient data. Such servers could play a crucial role in predictive prevention of disease outbreaks or more careful real-time monitoring of patients from afar. The main benefit this system resolves is that of privacy concerns. Healthcare data is personal and extremely sensitive, making it a common target for hackers, as per the 2017 “WannaCry” attacks that affected patient files in the UK NHS. This is a significant leap for decentralised healthcare systems as past projects like Akiri have focused more on medical data management only but HNMBlock adds significant applications as an evolution from these types of projects.
In Other News…
Short Updates:
Varda Space Industries – Varda specialises in the precision manufacturing of therapeutic products within microgravity conditions near the edges of space. Varda’s Winnebago capsule has faced regulatory restrictions on its re-entry into Earth, but it is expected to attempt a landing on February 21. Microgravity conditions will be useful for product development by controlling convection conditions or removing sediments.
Apple Music –The EU imposes a €500million fine on Apple for antitrust breaches, accusing the company of favouring its services ahead of competitor products by blocking advertisements about cheaper alternatives to Apple Music outside of the App Store. Apple cites Spotify in defence as an example of helping competitors like Spotify gain traction by being on its App Store.
Opportunity Spotlight
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