Holiday Bell: 6.20.22
Global Stocks Gain Ground; Crypto Steadies [WSJ]
U.S. stock and bond markets were shut for the first time Monday for the Juneteenth public holiday. The S&P 500 last week endured its biggest percentage decline since the Covid-19-driven crash of March 2020 after the Fed’s decision to raise interest rates by a three-quarter-point spooked investors./Cryptocurrencies steadied after volatile weekend trading. Bitcoin changed hands at $20,795, 1.4% higher than its Sunday 5 p.m. level. Digital currencies have slumped in recent weeks and major cryptocurrencies have laid off staff.
First Short Bitcoin ETF to List on NYSE [Coindesk via Yahoo!]
ProShares was the first firm to list a bitcoin futures ETF in October, a factor which saw the world's largest crypto hit an all-time high of around $68,900 in the subsequent weeks. Bitcoin investors will be hoping the listing of a short bitcoin futures ETF does not have a similar effect on the world's largest crypto in reverse.
Bitcoin whale Michael Saylor urges governments to step in and regulate crypto’s ‘parade of horribles’ [Fortune via Yahoo!]
Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor argues the over 19,000 cryptocurrencies and digital tokens in circulation must be viewed as “unregistered securities” that cannot be likened to a hard commodity like Bitcoin—which has no issuer, no management, no employees, no product cycle and only a finite supply…. He added mainstream financial institutions often won’t touch an asset like Bitcoin “because of the slime that gets onto the asset class from all the unregistered securities."
Nouriel Roubini, a respected economist and one of the few to predict the 2008 global financial crisis, branded crypto a ponzi scheme collapsing upon its own weight on Saturday.
Someone paid $19 million for a steak lunch with Warren Buffett [CNN]
This year's huge sum is more than four times the winning bid of $4,567,888 in 2019 — the last auction before a hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic…. Unfortunately for aspiring investors hoping to top this year's record, this is the last year of the "power lunch" with Buffett.
‘The Dirty Secret of Covid’: Scott Galloway on the Postpandemic Economic Turmoil [NYT]
“There’s a constant notion that if the economy does well, the middle class will restore itself. That is not true. What happens over time in all economic history is that the wealthy weaponize government, lower taxes on them, resist competition — the biggest, most powerful companies entrench themselves, and you end up with an erosion of the middle class. You end up with income inequality. It gets worse and worse, and then the same thing happens with income inequality. The good news is income inequality, when it gets to these levels, always self-corrects. The bad news is that the mechanisms for self-correction are war, famine and revolution.”
Manhattan Luxury Sales Just Had Their Slowest Week Since December 2020 [Mansion Global]
Just 12 contracts were signed for luxury Manhattan apartments priced above $4 million in the week from June 13-19, a steep drop from the 25 contracts the previous week, according to the weekly report from Olshan Realty released Monday…. The highest-priced deal was a $26 million unit at 15 Central Park West on the Upper West Side, which had listed for $28 million in April, and which the seller had purchased for $30 million in 2014.
