Opening Bell: 4.5.22

‘Bear market rally’ is setting stage for a correction, Morgan Stanley’s Mike Wilson warns [CNBC]
“The Nasdaq has run into resistance again here.... throwing back into the 200-day moving average,” Wilson added. “It’s a good time to remain defensive because, look, we’re late cycle….”
“We don’t think there’s a recession this year. But maybe next year there could be one,” Wilson said. “So, the markets are going to trade defensively.”

Russian Sanctions Created a New World—And It Can’t Be Undone [WSJ]
The current situation probably doesn’t spell the end of the U.S. dollar’s hegemony, because there is no alternative system to replace it. But it does motivate militarization, the stockpiling of commodities and gearing of supply chains toward geopolitical allies. As Prof. Mulder points out, the end of the gold standard in the 1930s “didn’t kill the reserve standard of sterling and the dollar, but it did fragment trade.”
No matter how the war in Ukraine ends, investors can’t expect the global economy to remain as tightly integrated as it once was.

SEC Weighs Path Forward for Crypto Trading Platforms [WSJ]
Mr. Gensler said he has asked SEC staff to work on ways to register crypto-trading platforms as exchanges and ensure they protect their customers’ assets. He said this may require that they separate their custody and market-making services from other parts of their business…. “If there are, in fact, forms or disclosure with which crypto assets truly cannot comply, our staff is here to discuss and evaluate those concerns,” Mr. Gensler said. But he added: “Any token that is a security must play by the same market-integrity rulebook as other securities.”

Anti-Tech Tiger Cub Impala Is Killing It [II]
The anti-tech Tiger Cub’s flagship long-short hedge fund, Impala Fund, was up about 11 percent in the first quarter, according to an investor, which the Impala Resource Fund, a long-only fund, surged 27.5 percent for the quarter.

The Richest in 2022 [Forbes]
War, pandemic and sluggish markets hit the world’s billionaires this year. There are 2,668 of them on Forbes’ 36th-annual ranking of the planet’s richest people—87 fewer than a year ago. They’re worth a collective $12.7 trillion—$400 billion less than in 2021…. America still leads the world, with 735 billionaires worth a collective $4.7 trillion, including Elon Musk, who tops the World’s Billionaires list for the first time.

Tom Brady joins firm launched by disgraced spin doctor Declan Kelly [N.Y. Post]
Brady — who briefly left the NFL in February to focus on family and various ventures including an NFT startup — is joining the disgraced public-relations guru’s new startup as a partner, The Consello Group, according to the firm’s website.
That’s despite the fact that Kelly resigned from Teneo after he was reportedly caught drunkenly cavorting with as many as six employees at a VIP fundraiser led by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle last May, with inappropriate behavior that included “nonconsensual touching of a number of women….”
In addition to Brady, Pau Gasol, a former LA Lakers player and NBA championship winner, is also on Consello’s advisory board.