This Week on Trends with Friends (June 2nd, 2024)
Welcome Friends,
Here’s an assortment of posts shared this week on Trends with Friends.
Howard Lindzon commented on Social Leverage’s latest investment in CommonWealth, a platform that allows fans to get in the game by backing their favorite athletes, sports and teams.
The company started in horse racing finding success as their horse, Mage, won the 2023 Kentucky Derby.
Lindzon writes,
“Watching sports is fun. But owning a sports team, or a racehorse, or having a financial upside in athletes being successful is even more fun!
We need more local legends.”
This week, the Fed’s Beige Book was released for the period of April 8th to May 20th. The summary statement was,
“Economic activity continued to expand.”
Craig Shapiro shares his thoughts on the Fed’s statements writing,
As things stand right now, the economy continues to expand and is not showing similar concerns on the growth front like it was last fall, even after we have seen some move higher in interest rates again in recent weeks…
I think that creates a potential air pocket for risk in the coming weeks as markets realize the timeline to getting more Fed accommodation is elongating again while the economic data has begun to stall out.
Charlie Bilello curated his weekly chart review covering inflation, interest rates, why you shouldn’t mix politics and your portfolio, 1st half surprises in the market and what to watch for in the 2nd half of 2024.
It’s an excellent overview. Check out the chart of the week,
“Semiconductor gains from the AI boom haven’t been evenly distributed. Exhibit A: Nvidia’s stock has advanced 613% over the past 3 years versus a 42% decline for Intel ($INTC).”
Software stocks have struggled as of late. JC Parets makes this point by visualizing the divergence of the Software Index vs. Nasdaq 100.
He writes,
“Software is supposed to be one of the leaders of the Nasdaq.
But this time around, it’s one of the groups trying to drag it down.
Look at the new highs this year in the Nasdaq, but Software continues to put in a series of lower highs, and possibly its first lower low this week.”
Can software snapback or will it continue to stall? Time will tell…
Check out this epic look at the returns since Exxon Mobil was replaced by Salesforce in the Dow Jones Industrials Index.
Tadas Viskanta provided a well-curated linkfest on social phenomenons in the market.
Ted Merz talks about large-scale social platforms turning into narrow social communities to better serve individuals needs. It’s an excellent read.
He opens the post,
“I just learned there’s a WhatsApp group chat for Romanian startup founders living in New York.
‘How big can that group be?’ I thought.
It turns out that almost three dozen people qualify.
It’s a great illustration of how New York’s emerging tech scene and abundant capital are drawing startups from everywhere.
It’s also a reminder that more and more people who network on large social platforms are turning to narrow online communities to share insights.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman belongs to a chat group of tech CEOs. Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen has said he relies on similar groups as a key source of information.”
Michael Parekh continues to share his AI insights. This week, Parekh reviews the most notable AI news.
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The rumored OpenAI and Apple collab.
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xAI’s $6B capital raise.
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Updates to Meta and TikTok’s “For You” feed.
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Can AI save the enterprise cloud?
And much more.
It’s an incredible overview to stay up to date with the latest in AI.
Thursday, Trends with No Friends featured Credo Technology, Birkenstock, Dorian LPG, UiPath, PagerDuty and Asana. Have a look.
And in case you missed it… Howard Lindzon, Phil Pearlman and JC Parets are joined by Om Malik talking about why tech needs a lesson in empathy, Apple investment strategies and AI optimism on the latest episode of Trends with Friends. Tune in today.
If you share insights on the market and would like to contribute to Trends with Friends, send us an email.
