The Bond Market Just Resurrected Bitcoin

public.com presents the rundown your daily market update in 10 minutes. My name is Zayd Admani and today is Tuesday, August 25th. In today's episode, we'll break down why crypto and Bitcoin are ripping higher again. We'll also tell you why Apple's new Mac mini is getting more expensive. Then stick around to the end of the show to find out why I think the LaBooBoo craze is officially over. We got a great show for you today. Let's go. Stocks had a downstart to the week. The S&P 500 fell by 0.3% on Monday, while the NASDAQ was down by 0.8%. Dragged down by tech stocks. The tech sector has been on a losing streak. It fell by 1.6% yesterday and has now been down for seven straight trading days. It's longest losing streak since 2022. And by the way, Nvidia stock itself has dropped for seven straight days. And remember, Nvidia reports earnings tomorrow after the bell. So the stock is carrying some negative momentum heading into that report. Outside of the tech sector, there were some pretty aggressive geopolitical headlines yesterday. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson announced what he called economic D-Day against Iran. The U.S. is sanctioning more than 60 entities and threatening countries that continue doing business with Iran with sanctions as well. But despite the dramatic rhetoric from Scott Besson, markets mostly shrugged it off. Oil actually fell by more than 2% yesterday, with Brent crude now trading below $90 a barrel. I think the market seems to think the odds of a military escalations are low and that maybe sanctions could get Iran back at the negotiation table to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. But I got to say, Treasury Secretary Scott Besson is at a pretty busy few days. You know, last week he was trying to step into the bond market, trying to keep long term yields from moving higher. We've been talking about that nonstop for the last few days, and now he's overseeing sanctions on Iran. But, you know, all of these headlines are starting to make some investors nervous because gold prices are rallying. Gold prices are up 15% in August and hitting three month highs at $4,700 an ounce. Investors tend to buy gold as a safe haven asset during times of uncertainty. So gold might be something to watch in the second half of the year. Now, looking ahead to the rest of the week, we are about to get hit with a lot of market moving news tomorrow morning. We get the PCE inflation report. And then tomorrow afternoon, NVIDIA reports earnings. And then on Friday morning, Fed Chair Kevin Walsh will be giving his big speech from Jackson Hole. So between inflation and NVIDIA earnings and the Fed, we'll have plenty to talk about over the next few days. Make sure you guys are subscribed to the podcast and tuning in every day to stay in the loop. Let's run through some headlines, starting with Bitcoin. Crypto is back, baby. Crypto prices have been rallying for the last week or so. Bitcoin briefly crossed $80,000 for the first time since May. And Ether is trading around $2,500. You know, we haven't talked about crypto much this summer on the show. There was just no juice in the crypto markets. Bitcoin and the overall crypto market were trading sideways for months now. But all of a sudden there seems to be a spark. Bitcoin and Ether have jumped more than 20% in the last week. And there are a few reasons for this. Funny enough, one reason for the rally could be tied back to the bond market chaos we've been talking about for the last few days. Long term government yields have been rising because bond investors are worried about the $40 trillion in U.S. government debt. And the announcement by Treasury Secretary Scott Besant that the Treasury would increase its buyback of long term government bonds in an effort to push down yields only added to the fears by investors that the government is totally ignoring the massive deficit problem. So because of those concerns by the market, investors are reaching for safe haven assets. And that's why you see both gold and Bitcoin rallying right now. And the thing with Bitcoin is once it starts moving a little bit, the rally starts feeding on itself. In fact, Bitcoin ETFs attracted about $1.9 billion worth of inflows last week, which was the biggest weekly inflow in 10 months. And then on Monday of this week, there was another $337 million of inflows. So Bitcoin is like the ultimate hype trade. People only want to get in once they see some momentum. And we finally got some action. And there's some regulatory momentum here, too. President Trump met with crypto industry leaders last week at the White House, and he's pushing Congress to move forward with the Clarity Act, which would finally establish clear rules for the crypto industry. So we'll see how long this rally lasts and how far it goes. I mean, Bitcoin is still down big from the $126,000 peak set back in October of last year. But if you've been holding since then, I mean, you got to be feeling pretty good right now. What I find interesting is that Bitcoin is starting to act like digital gold again. You know, for the most part, Bitcoin would usually trade like a tech stock. But right now it's acting like a safe haven asset. Let's shift gears and talk about Apple. Apple just announced a new generation of Mac minis and Mac studios. And no surprise here, prices are going up. This new Mac mini will get a new M6 chip, which is the first Apple chip built on a two nanometer process. Apple says the M6 chip will deliver roughly 40 percent better CPU performance than the M4 chip and significantly better performance for running AI workloads locally. And AI is a key point here because the Mac minis have become a hit because of AI. Developers are buying these little computers as dedicated machines to run AI agents and models locally instead of paying to run them on the cloud. That's one reason why Mac minis are sold out everywhere. And Apple can't meet all that demand right now because of the shortage of memory. In fact, even with these new Mac minis, they won't ship until September 22nd. And prices are going up. A Mac mini used to cost five hundred and ninety nine dollars less than two years ago. Well, then Apple raised the prices to seven hundred and ninety nine dollars because of higher memory costs. And now these new Mac minis are starting at eight hundred and ninety nine dollars. So that means the Mac mini has seen a 50 percent price increase in under two years. Big picture, though, Apple could end up being a big winner of the AI boom because if their hardware and chips are the best at running AI workloads, that could boost sales as more and more people and businesses start using AI agents. So I continue to be pretty bullish on Apple. By the way, this was likely Tim Cook's last product launch as CEO. He hands the keys to John Ternes on September 1st, right before the iPhone event on September 9th. Let's talk about some stocks making moves today. Shares of United Airlines are climbing this morning after announcing their biggest international expansion in their history. United Airlines is adding nonstop service to ten new international cities in twenty twenty seven, including places like Okinawa, Japan, Sicily and Sardinia, Italy, and also Ibiza in Spain. As someone who lives in Houston, which is a major United hub, I'm pretty hyped about this. The airline says that travelers are trying to avoid having to connect to the busy hubs like Paris and Rome and go straight to their final destination. And, you know, the fact that United is adding all these routes is a sign of healthy demand. And that's why United Airlines stock is up more than three percent this morning in pre-market trading. Now, on the flip side, Dick's Sporting Goods is getting crushed after reporting a disappointing second quarter and slashing their full year outlook. The problem for Dick's was Foot Locker. Remember, Dick's Sporting Goods bought Foot Locker for two point four billion dollars last year, and so far that acquisition is not paying off. Foot Locker's same store sales fell three point six percent in Q2, while same store sales for Dick's stores grew a pretty solid four point nine percent thanks to demand for World Cup merchandise. The company said that the sneaker market has become heavily promotional, which means they have to keep offering discounts to bring in customers. In fact, the company cut its full year earnings forecast from fourteen dollars a share at the midpoint, all the way down to eleven to twelve dollars a share. That's a pretty big haircut. Investors didn't love that. And shares of Dick's Sporting Goods are down more than 15 percent in pre-market trading. And, you know, if you zoom out, the stock was already down more than 10 percent heading into the earnings report. So this is a pretty brutal outcome. Let's wrap the show with the fun fact. It seems like the Labubu craze might actually be over. The Chinese company PopMart, which is the company behind Labubu, reported earnings last week and revenues were up only 24 percent in the first half of the year. Now, that sounds pretty decent, right? But it's way down from the 200 percent growth the company had a year ago. In fact, Popmart's CEO admitted the company probably wouldn't hit their 20 percent revenue growth target for the full year. Now, Popmart's insane growth last year was driven by the Labubu craze, which took over social media. I think we even did a full deep dive on it. These creepy little dolls were being sold for crazy markups and people were waiting hours in line to buy a blind box. I think my wife even paid like 50 bucks to buy a single Labubu from Facebook Marketplace. And now I don't even think we know where that Labubu is. But yeah, that pretty much sums up the Labubu market right now. If you look on Google Trends, interest has fallen off a cliff and some Labubu boxes are now selling below retail prices. Now, Popmart is trying to turn this viral moment into an actual long term franchise. There's a Labubu movie coming from Sony soon. So we'll see if that works and jumpstart sales. But, you know, I think the Labubu craze is a great example of one of the challenges today of converting virality into a long term brand and business. These days, anything can go mega viral. We saw it with the Stanley water bottles a couple of years ago and then with the Peloton bikes during the pandemic. But everyone is also so quick to move on to the next thing as well. Social media algorithms are always pushing new stuff. So it's become harder and harder to establish a long term brand. And that's one reason why existing IP and brands continue to be so valuable. Let me know in the comments on what you guys think. Are you still hanging on to your Labubus? Or can we officially declare Labubus the next Beanie Babies? Well, all right, guys, that's the rundown for today. Hope you guys enjoyed today's episode. Thank you guys so much for listening, watching and commenting. Shout out to Mike and V for all the work behind the scenes. And we'll see you guys back here tomorrow.