📉 Tesla reports catastrophic Q1 sales

📈 While oil and gold continue to rally

It was a big week over at our private investor community, Altea.

🏡 Tap into home equity without borrowing

This week we're exploring a new alternative asset class that has quietly but swiftly materialized: home equity investing.

Home equity investments (HEIs) provide homeowners a lump sum upfront payment, without loading them up with debt.

Hometap opens up access to this asset class. Fund managers, insurance companies, family offices and accredited individuals can now get a very unique type of exposure to the US residential real estate market.

Home equity investing is a fascinating concept that hasn’t really existed before — at least not in a broad consumer sense.

Now's the time for the industry to shine, and as you'll see in this issue, Hometap is carving an intelligent path forward.

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📰 Market Headlines

  • Stocks flopped as investors weighed the chances of delayed Fed rate cuts.

    • The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1%, while the S&P 500 lost 0.72% and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.95%.

    • Healthcare stocks got smacked after the US government kept Medicare Advantage reimbursement rates unchanged.

    • Humana shares tumbled 14%, CVS Health dropped 8.5%, and UnitedHealth fell 6.8%.

  • Tesla slid 4.9% after reporting its first year-over-year decline in deliveries since the pandemic. Q1 was an ‘unmitigated disaster.’

  • Oil prices climbed to a 5-month high due to escalating Middle East tensions and a Ukrainian drone strike on a major Russian refinery.

  • A 7.4 magnitude earthquake hit Taiwan, toppling buildings and evacuating TSMC.

🕶️ Market Vibes

🎰 Market Forecasts and Futures

Forecasts via Kalshi, the prediction market.

😱 Fear and Greed Index

🧠 What do you think?

🎤 What you said last time

Mildly optimistic.

💬 Have your say

More than 12 million people watched last night’s women’s Elite 8 matchup between Iowa and LSU. The viewership smashed the previous record of 9.9 million set during last year’s championship game. Analysts expect Iowa’s Final Four matchup against UConn to set another record.

🏀 Will you be watching Iowa-UConn Saturday night?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

📈 Trends you need to know

Search volume in Italy

This is an unprecedented search volume for a female athlete. Serena Williams topped out at around 900k in her prime.

📊 Stocks

Get $20 free shares at public.com using code ALTSCO.

Winners and losers

Earnings, upgrades, and acquisitions

  • Dave & Buster's missed estimates, but adjusted EBITDA increased 9.7%; the company also repurchased 8.5 million shares. Off 4%.

  • Cal-Maine Foods reported better-than-expected Q3 results, with EPS beating estimates by 21.95%. Shares jumped 6% after hours.

  • Paychex shares plunged nearly 8% after Q3 revenue missed expectations by $20 million.

  • SLB announced plans to acquire ChampionX in an all-stock deal valued at $7.75 billion.

Market movers

  • Intel disclosed a $7 billion operating loss for its chip-making unit in 2023.

  • General Electric completed its breakup into three companies, ending its 132-year-old conglomerate. GE Aerospace shares rose 2% while GE Vernova jumped 5%.

  • LA's luxury house sales plummeted 70% in the first year since its 'mansion tax' was put into effect.

  • India and the Eurasian Economic Union bloc have begun to negotiate a free trade agreement.

  • More layoffs:

    • Ubisoft is cutting another 45 jobs after slashing over 100 positions in November.

    • McKinsey is offering employees 9 months' pay to quit in an attempt to slim down "in a caring and supportive way".

Ideas, trends, and analysis

  • BYD handed back the title of world's biggest EV seller to Tesla after Q1 sales fell 43% from the prior quarter.

  • Target is streaming TV ads to drive sales as store merchandise sales have fallen for three straight quarters.

  • White-collar gig jobs in India saw an 184% uptick in hiring compared to last year, with the share of IT software jobs nearly doubling.

  • US job openings edged up slightly in February, showing 8.76 million openings and 5.8 million hires.

🌍 Global Perspectives

  • 🇨🇾🇮🇱 Seaborne aid for Gaza is returning to Cyprus after an Israeli attack killed 7 World Central Kitchen workers.

  • 🇮🇳🇨🇳 India rejected China's renaming of 30 places in its northeastern Himalayan state of Arunachal Pradesh.

  • 🇩🇪 The German Football Association said it would redesign the number "4" on national jerseys, addressing claims it resembles a Nazi symbol.

  • 🇻🇪 Record wildfires hit Venezuela as the Amazon experiences a drought.

📊 Crypto

🧠 Errata

  • Scientists accidentally created a mouse with six legs. Their learnings could help fight cancer.

  • A Florida man may sue Japan's space agency after space junk from the ISS crashed through his roof and nearly hit his son.

  • Scientists used airborne laser mapping to spy on tiny invasive ants in Kenya with over 80% accuracy.

  • Tennessee lawmakers voted to ban geoengineering, with "chemtrails" as a primary concern…

📺 What to Watch Today

“Clark put on a show in a 94-87 win over LSU on Monday, scoring 41 points, tying an NCAA Tournament record with nine 3-pointers, dishing out 12 assists and grabbing seven rebounds in the national championship rematch.”

That’s all for today. Did I miss anything? Smash the reply button to let me know.

Cheers,

Wyatt

*Disclosures: Paid for by Public Investing. Options are not suitable for all investors and carry significant risk. Option investors can rapidly lose the value of their investment in a short period of time and incur permanent loss by expiration date. Certain complex options strategies carry additional risk. Prior to buying or selling an option, investors must read and understand the “Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options”, also known as the options disclosure document. If you are enrolled in Public's Options Order Flow Rebate Program, Public Investing will share 50% of our estimated order flow revenue for each completed options trade as a rebate to help reduce your trading costs. Must activate Options Account by March 31 for revenue share. To learn more, see Fee Schedule. US members only.

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