Select a category

It’s been a good week for Davido’s side Israel DMW, as he recently took to Instagram to celebrate another visa approval for the second time.

This time around, Israel DMW was celebrating the approval of his Canadian visa, and he still found an avenue to thank his ‘oga’ Davido.

Prior to this post, Israel DMW had celebrated getting a ten-year visa for the U.K, and he had thanked Davido for facilitating it.

He also didn’t forget to include Davido in this post too, as he seemingly had a hand in the success of the visa approval.

Continue reading on Instablog

The Magnificent Seven tumbled on Wednesday after earnings reports from Tesla (TSLA) and Alphabet (GOOGL) raised concerns about slowing earnings growth at America's tech titans. 

Shares of the Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF (MAGS) fell 6.1% Wednesday, their largest daily decline since the ETF launched in April 2023. Wednesday's rout plunged the index into correction territory.

The tech giants, which were cumulatively worth about $16 trillion as of Tuesday’s close, weighed heavily on the major indexes. The S&P 500 slumped 128 points, its biggest drop since September 2022; the Mag Seven accounted for approximately 85 of those points.

Earnings season got off to a rough start for the group Tuesday afternoon when Tesla missed quarterly earnings estimates. The electric vehicle maker reported a 45% decline in profit as artificial intelligence (AI) development costs increased and average vehicle sales prices declined. Tesla shares tumbled more than 12% Wednesday as Wall Street parsed the earnings and digested a delayed rollout of its robotaxi. 

Spending on AI also sank Google-parent Alphabet’s stock on Wednesday despite it beating earnings estimates for the quarter. The company reported spending $13.2 billion on property and equipment in the quarter, nearly double the same period a year ago. CFO Ruth Porat warned on a call with analysts that capital expenditures would remain near that level for the remainder of the year. Alphabet shares fell 5%. 

Microsoft (MSFT) is the next of the seven to report earnings, with its report slated for Tuesday afternoon. Meta (META), Apple (AAPL), and Amazon (AMZN) are also scheduled to report next week.

The Magnificent Seven is, as a group, expected to report earnings grew 30% in the second quarter, according to Bank of America analysts. That’s well ahead of the 10% rate forecast for the entire S&P 500, but it would make the group’s second consecutive quarter of slowing growth.

Even before Wednesday's slide, mega-cap tech names, which had powered broader market gains all year, had started to fall out of favor as investors rotated into shares of smaller companies that stand to benefit most from widely anticipated rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.

Despite the steep declines recently, all but one of the Magnificent Seven stocks are in positive territory for the year, with Tesla being the outlier.

Read more on Investopedia

Afrobeats singer, David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido, has revealed that his late mom, Veronica Hailey Imade Adeleke, was a “baddie.”

The ‘OBO’ crooner disclosed this while remembering his late mother in a recent post on Instagram.

Sharing a picture of his late mom in her academic regalia, Davido wrote: “My mom was a baddie.”

Continue reading on Instablog

Bitcoin-focused financial services provider Fold intends to go public via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), FTAC Emerald Acquisition Corp. (EMLD).

Fold offers a cashback debit card and enables the ability to buy and sell bitcoin directly from Fold accounts, among other services. It could be considered a small competitor to Block's (SQ) Cash App product, which also facilitates the buying and selling of bitcoin and previously has enabled cashback rewards denominated in the cryptocurrency.

The merger, expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2024 after regulatory approvals, pegs Fold's valuation at $365 million and will lead to its shares being trading on the Nasdaq.

Fold also has another advantage—it will own bitcoin (BTC).

"It is anticipated that post-transaction Fold will have more than 1,000 BTC on its consolidated balance sheet. Fold expects to use the proceeds to accelerate the growth of Fold’s operations and treasury," the company said in a statement Wednesday. At Wednesday's bitcoin prices of nearly $66,000, that holding would be valued at roughly $66 million.

Once listed, Fold will join a list of storied public companies with bitcoin on their books. MicroStrategy (MSTR) is the most noteworthy, with a stash of 214,400 bitcoins as of April 26, that at current prices (assuming no change in the size of the holding) would be valued at roughly $14 billion. Block also held 8,038 bitcoin as of March 31 (currently valued at more than $530 million) on its balance sheet.

Optimism surrounding spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and bitcoin halving earlier this year, and, more recently, the U.S. presidential elections, has driven bitcoin prices higher this year, and that has translated into stock gains for some of the companies that own it. For example, bitcoin has gained about 49% year-to-date, and shares of MicroStrategy are up almost 165% over the same period.

Read more on Investopedia

When Tesla unveiled its (TSLA) planned roadster in 2017, it rolled onstage in deep red with rock-and-roll blaring, CEO Elon Musk setting a target of 2020 for its availability. That didn't happen, but on Tuesday Musk said it could arrive next year.

"We've completed most of the engineering, and I think there are still some upgrades we want to make to it, but we expect to be in production with the Roadster next year," Musk said during a conference call with investors last night, a transcript of which was provided by AlphaSense.

The roadster has ambitious specs: The company is advertising a race to 60 miles per hour in under two seconds, more than 600 miles of range, a top speed above 250 miles per hour and seats for four. A reservation costs $50,000, with the vehicle expected to cost several times that.

Musk had earlier this year said to expect an "unveiling" this year and a goal of shipping vehicles in 2025.

The roadster news was part of a raft of updates Musk and Tesla offered Tuesday following the announcement of its latest quarterly results.

Tesla stock was recently down more than 10% in Wednesday trading, with the shares extending their move back into the red for 2024 after recently moving back above that line.

Read more on Investopedia

For some economists, July is the new September.

That is, some economists believe the Federal Reserve should begin cutting interest rates at its next meeting at the end of the month. These economists argue recent economic data is enough evidence that inflation is falling toward the central bank's annual goal of 2%. In a recent survey of economists, 24.6% held that view.

“If the case for a cut is clear, why wait another seven weeks before delivering it?” wrote Goldman Sachs Chief Economist Jan Hatzius in a separate commentary this week.

However, only a slim percentage of economists believe a cut is likely to happen this month: 98.5% of economists surveyed by said the Fed will make its first interest rate cut sometime after the July meeting. The majority of economists believe central bankers will cut in September, a view that's also held by financial market participants.

The Federal Reserve has held its key interest rate at a 23-year-high for the past 12 months, putting pressure on consumers and businesses, as part of an effort to cool the economy and tame inflation. Inflation trended downward since hitting its peak in June 2022, but progress has faltered some in the last year.

However, Hatzius argues, recent economic data has pointed to higher unemployment and potentially slower GDP growth, which could become an issue if the Fed lets it go unchecked for too long.

Former New York Fed president Bill Dudley added fuel to the call for July rate cuts this week citing "deteriorating labor markets."

"When jobs are harder to find, households trim spending, the economy weakens and businesses reduce investment, which leads to layoffs and further spending cuts," Dudley wrote in an opinion column for .

Central bankers, for their part, are keeping an eye on these factors. In fact, in recent weeks, members of the policy-making committee, including Chair Jerome Powell, have said they are keeping a close eye on the labor market to avoid unwanted spikes in unemployment that could signal a recession.

Read more on Investopedia