First the bad news: following Friday's "tech wreck" European equity markets have opened lower, with the Stoxx 600 sliding 0.9% and back under the 50DMA for the first time since December, dragged by selloff in tech shares, mirroring Asian markets as Friday’s "FAAMG" volatility in U.S. markets spreads globally, battering shares from South Korea to the Netherlands.
The start of another week is upon us, which means it is time for choice excerpts from the latest letter to clients by One River Asset Management CIO Eric Peters, who today writes about Brexit, the "new generals" in the market (more in a later post), rising populism in a world of tech "monopolies", modern day robber barons, and much more.
We will have more from today's letter shortly, but for now here is Peters on a topic on everyone's minds, volatility, and what Friday's Nasdaq "air pocket" means:
Beep Beep
The winning bidder in legendary investor Warren Buffett’s annual charity auction has pledged $2.68 million for the privilege of eating lunch with the billionaire investor, according to Bloomberg.
While the sum is far greater than the $25,000 paid in 2000 - the first year Buffett held the fundraiser - it’s about $800,000 shy of the record sum of $3,456,789 paid in 2012 and 2016.
It’s not just Bitcoin anymore. Digital currencies have another big winner now, Ethereum (ether), and as Lombardi Letter's Benjamin Smith explains below, it’s more than just good news for early investors.
Ethereum topped $300 for the first time this morning...
Source: WorldCoinIndex.com
Increasing its relative share of the cryptocurrency market notably (as Bitcoin's market share drops below 50%)...
Source: CoinMarketCap.com
Yesterday's dramatic "rotational" divergence between tech stocks and the rest of the market, which as Sentiment Trader pointed out the only time in history when the Dow Jones closed at a new all time high while the Nasdaq dropped 2% was on April 14, 1999, stunned many and prompted Bloomberg to write that "a crack has finally formed in the foundation of the U.S. bull market. Now investors must decide if any structural damage has been done."