Hello.
To be honest, market news is better than daytime TV these days. Or Netflix.
The US President just rolled into Beijing with 15 mega-CEOs in tow… including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, after a heart-pounding, Ross-and-Rachel "will-they-won't-they?" back and forth over his attendance.
Elon and Altman are slugging it out in court day after day, going for the throat again and again to save or destroy OpenAI's chances of surviving.
Inflation just came in at +6% year-over-year, the highest since 2022.
And Michael Burry says the market is "minutes" away from a crash.
…Happy Wednesday!
But in all seriousness, beyond the insane headlines, we're bringing it back down to earth today with fast-hitting, actionable, little-used investing tips that we think you will truly benefit from. So grab some popcorn and a notepad, and get ready to learn!
But first, you'll probably never guess this critical mineral that could make or break the US's supply chain… or the company that could be unearthing a large mine of it (while sitting at penny-stock levels).
This is not financial advice. Always do your own research. Past performance doesn’t guarantee future results.
Today’s sponsor:
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This Supply-Chain Weak Spot May Be Turning Into Opportunity When supply gets tight and demand keeps rising, smart companies do not panic. They look for the gap. Because the biggest opportunities often appear where the biggest problems are. And right now, America has a real problem: it still does not produce domestically one mineral tied to batteries, energy storage, and national defense. One domestic supplier appears to have seen that gap early - and moved to capitalize on it. That is what makes this story interesting. Everyone loves that feeling of spotting something before the crowd. Of being able to say, "I saw it first." Smart companies look for gaps. |
6 Quick Wins That Could Add a Percent or Two to Your Returns
You know what? We think that a lot of investors focus too much on the super technical stuff when they could be missing out on entire percentages of growth from very simple tactics.
We're not talking about "simple" things like options trading or fibonacci sequences. We mean things like… checking your brokerage app's settings. Optimizing your HSA usage. Knowing when to use a money market fund. Optimizing your taxes with qualified dividend yields.
Are these simple tips? Yes. Could they potentially net you a percent or two a year, which can compound HUGELY over time? Also yes!
So here are our quick and easy tips that could potentially have high impact on your portfolio:
Turn on DRIP (dividend reinvestment). Most brokerages offer automatic dividend reinvestment at no cost. Fidelity and Schwab will even buy fractional shares with your dividends. You turn it on once and forget about it. Compounding does the rest. If you own $50,000 in a stock yielding 3% and the stock grows 8% a year, reinvesting those dividends versus pocketing them is a $100,000+ difference over 20 years. It takes 60 seconds to turn on in your brokerage settings. Easiest potential returns ever!
Move your uninvested cash. Fidelity's SPAXX and Schwab's SWVXX money market funds are paying around 3.5% to 3.8% right now. If you have uninvested cash sitting in your brokerage, it might be parked in a default sweep account earning 0.1%. That's a 35x difference in yield on cash you're not even using! Takes two minutes to move it.
Consider direct indexing to save on taxes. Instead of buying an S&P 500 ETF, you get your brokerage app to buy fractional shares of all 500 individual stocks. Same exposure, but now you can tax-loss harvest individual names while keeping the index return. If 50 stocks in the S&P 500 are down in a given year while the index is up, you can sell those losers, book the tax losses, and even immediately buy similar stocks to maintain your exposure. An ETF can't do that for you. Schwab requires a $100,000 minimum and Fidelity has similar thresholds, but if you qualify, it's one of the most underused tax strategies available.
Stop using your HSA wrong. The HSA has a triple tax advantage: contributions are tax-deductible, growth is tax-free, withdrawals for medical expenses are tax-free. No other account in the US tax code gives you all three. Most people use it like a checking account for copays. If you can afford to pay medical bills out of pocket now and let the HSA compound, it becomes the most tax-efficient retirement account that exists. The 2026 contribution limit is $4,400 for individuals and $8,750 for families.
Asset location (not allocation). Hold bonds and REITs (taxed at your ordinary income rate, up to 37%) in your tax-advantaged accounts (IRA, 401k). Hold index funds and growth stocks (qualified dividends and long-term capital gains taxed at 0% to 20%) in your taxable brokerage account. Over 10, 20, or 30 years, small optimizations in your taxes can make a massive difference. Most people never optimize for them.
Know your qualified dividend rate. If you hold a stock long enough (60+ days around the ex-dividend date), you're taxed at 15% instead of your ordinary income rate. The difference between 15% and 24% (or 32%) on dividend income adds up fast, especially over decades! If you're earning $10,000 a year in dividends, that's $900 to $1,700 in annual tax savings just by holding long enough.
If you’re already doing all of the above, that’s huge. We hope that we at least gave you a couple things to consider though! Now, on to the news.
📰 Market Headlines
US stocks were mixed on Tuesday as a hotter-than-expected inflation print rattled investors and tech names gave back gains from Monday's record highs.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1%, while the S&P 500 slipped more than 0.1% and the Nasdaq tumbled roughly 0.7%.
Wholesale inflation just hit 6%. April PPI came in at +6.0% year over year, the hottest reading since 2022. Consensus was 4.9%. The monthly jump (+1.4%) is the biggest in years. Combined with yesterday's CPI at 3.7%, both inflation gauges are now sitting at three-year highs. Rate cut hopes were already fragile. Now hike odds are climbing. The 1970s playbook keeps running.
Jensen Huang is joining Trump's China trip after all. After being conspicuously left off the executive list on Monday, Nvidia's CEO got a last-minute call from Trump himself. Huang joined him on the plane to Beijing. The reversal signals that AI chip export policy may at least be on the table for discussion with Xi. Monday it looked like the door was closed, and now it's cracked open. We’ll definitely be watching what comes out of this summit.
Bank of America just bumped its Nvidia target to $320 and its Micron target to $950. The Nvidia upgrade (from $300) is incremental. The Micron call (from $500 to $950) is not. BofA seems to be calling for a "memory supercycle" driven by AI infrastructure demand, and they think Micron is a huge beneficiary. A near-double from current levels is a bold call. If they're right, MU becomes one of the best risk-reward setups in semis.
Elon Musk and Sam Altman are in court fighting over OpenAI's future. The trial entered its third week in Oakland. Altman testified that Musk wanted 90% control of OpenAI before the nonprofit-to-profit conversion. Musk's team is seeking up to $180 billion in damages and wants Altman replaced as CEO. This trial will determine whether OpenAI's for-profit pivot holds or unravels. Either way, it's the most consequential AI legal battle in history.
Sam Altman testified in Oakland that Elon Musk tried to seize control of OpenAI and even suggested the company could pass to his children when he dies. Altman said Musk floated making OpenAI a subsidiary of Tesla and demanded more board seats and the CEO title. "One of the reasons we started OpenAI was because we didn't think any one person should be in control of AGI," Altman told jurors.
Alibaba stock soared even after core profit plunged 84%. The Chinese tech giant posted EBITA of 5.1 billion yuan, down 84% from a year ago, as it poured money into AI infrastructure. The silver lining that everyone loved: cloud revenue jumped 38%, driven by AI-related services.
Coffee prices keep squeezing chains like Dutch Bros and Starbucks, with April coffee prices up 18.5% from last year. Dutch Bros CEO Christine Barone said the company is "absorbing that inflation ourselves" rather than passing it to customers, betting that elevated prices are temporary. Prices have hovered in the $2.80 to $3 per pound range for months, well above the $1 level seen before the pandemic.
Brought to you by AltIndex
🏆 AltIndex Stock of the Day: Pattern Group (PTRN)
Today's spotlight: Pattern Group (PTRN), a $2.5 billion revenue e-commerce infrastructure company that uses AI and proprietary tech to help brands sell across 60+ global marketplaces.
A few things that caught our eye: 10 out of 10 analysts rate it a Strong Buy. Gross margins are sitting at 43.6%. And the alternative data signals (hiring activity, web traffic, social sentiment) are flashing green.
If you want to see the AI score, the signal history, and what the alternative data is actually flagging, check out PTRN's full profile on AltIndex.
🚚 Market Movers
ZoomInfo slashed full-year guidance to $1.19-1.21 billion and cut 600 jobs. Shares plunged 35%.
Under Armour's North America revenue dropped 8% as its restructuring plan now expects to cost over $300 million.
Costco's net sales rose 13% to $23.92 billion in April, with digital sales surging 18.8%.
Batch Ice Cream filed Chapter 11 with $500K-$1 million in liabilities.
Meta employees are organizing a protest against the company's mouse tracking tech.
🎙 Make Your Voice Heard
🎤️ What you said last time
🦉 Alternative Investment of the Day: Vintage Furbies
Vintage Furbies, those creepy late-1990s digital pets, are now one of the hottest sectors of the toy market. Original 1990s models fetch £250, or £500 boxed, while limited editions like Angel, Jester, and Wizard go for £200 to £700. Even the weird Shelby, a Furby with a moving shell, hits £300.
While millions were sold, very few survived in working condition with original boxes and tags. "They're one of the hottest items in the collectible market right now," says collectibles expert Dan Hatfield. Value depends on working condition and rare colors, with Millennials driving demand as they reclaim childhood collections.
Worth checking your closet before those batteries die completely.
🧠 The Missing (Market) Links
Instructure cut a deal with ShinyHunters hackers to recover 3.5 terabytes of stolen Canvas student data.
AI startup Lovable is giving every employee a 10% raise on their work anniversary; "people get more valuable the longer they stay."
Baby Boomers cut their wine consumption share from 34% to 26% in two years, and Millennials aren't matching their volume.
Independent grocers account for $353 billion in US sales, up 39% since 2020, each dollar generating 58 cents in supply chain activity.
The US wine market hit $115 billion, but volume dropped 4% as Americans drink less and pay more per bottle.
The US corporate wellness market will hit $35 billion by 2034, growing 5% annually on mental health and stress management spending.
📜 Quote of the Day
“Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it… He who doesn’t… pays it.”
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Cheers,
Brandon & Blake of Invested Inc
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