Bitcoin is set for more price gains later this year, even after a recent retreat in prices, according to Standard Chartered’s top crypto analyst. Geoffrey Kendrick, head of foreign exchange research, West, and digital assets research at Standard Chartered, said in a research note this week that he sees bitcoin rising to $150,000 per coin, and ether hitting $8,000 by the end of 2024 — doubling down on a bullish prediction from the bank earlier this year. “We think the bad news is already priced in for BTC and ETH, and that positive structural drivers will take over again as negative drivers fade,” Kendrick said in the April 22 note. “In addition, market positioning is now much cleaner than it was; USD 261mn of leveraged long positions were removed from BTC futures alone on 13 April – the largest daily liquidation since at least October 2023 – in response to Iran’s attack on Israel that day.” Kendrick was referring to the liquidation of speculative bitcoin trades that were augmented by investors using borrowed cash to make bigger bets on the future swings in the price of the cryptocurrency. Bitcoin temporarily sank below $60,000 last week as traders reacted to news of an escalating military conflict between Iran and Israel. While the cryptocurrency’s proponents believe bitcoin to be a hedge against periods of economic and geopolitical instability, bitcoin has behaved more like traditional risk assets, like equities, in recent years, as more institutional investors have piled money into the asset. In fact, bitcoin’s trading has shown it can often react to bad news more quickly than equity traders as the crypto market runs 24/7, while stocks and other conventional markets trade only during weekdays. Still, despite bitcoin’s losses in the wake of Iran’s recent attack on Israel, Kendrick believes the cryptocurrency has potential to move higher in the coming months and hit a fresh record high well above the $73,797.68 price it hit on March 14. Kendrick said that the supply shock from bitcoin’s halving — which limits the supply of new bitcoin issuance to 3.125 bitcoins, or about $208,360.31 as of Wednesday, down from 6.25 bitcoins — as well as the arrival of new bitcoin exchange-traded funds, which are sucking up billions’ of dollars worth of the cryptocurrency from exchanges, would support prices toward the end of 2024. That’s even as the token contends with a litany of other bad news, including a stalling of new bitcoin ETF inflows in the United States; dampening expectations for approval of an ether spot ETF in the U.S.; a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit against decentralized exchange Uniswap; higher U.S. Treasury yields; and escalating tensions in the Middle East. “Yes BTC ETF inflows in the US have stalled, but now we are passed the halving only half as much inflow is needed to cover net new supply, and the global ETF backdrop (UK, HK) is improving. Also, large long liquidations over the past couple of weeks mean that market positioning is a lot cleaner,” Kendrick said. “As a result, with Middle East tensions easing I think it is time to re-engage in medium-term longs.”
Elon Musk at the tenth Breakthrough Prize ceremony held at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on April 13, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.
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On Saturday, Elon Musk shared who he is endorsing for Treasury secretary on X, a cabinet position President-elect Donald Trump has yet to announce his preference to fill.
Musk wrote that Howard Lutnick, Trump-Vance transition co-chair and CEO and chairman of Cantor Fitzgerald, BGC Group and Newmark Group chairman, will “actually enact change.”
Lutnick and Key Square Group founder and CEO Scott Bessent are reportedly top picks to run the Treasury Department.
Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, also included his thoughts on Bessent in his post on X.
“My view fwiw is that Bessent is a business-as-usual choice,” he wrote.
“Business-as-usual is driving America bankrupt so we need change one way or another,” he added.
Musk also stated it would be “interesting to hear more people weigh in on this for @realDonaldTrump to consider feedback.”
Howard Lutnick, chairman and chief executive officer of Cantor Fitzgerald LP, left, and Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., during a campaign event with former US President Donald Trump, not pictured, at Madison Square Garden in New York, US, on Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024.
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In a statement to Politico, Trump transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt made it clear that the president-elect has not made any decisions regarding the position of Treasury secretary.
“President-elect Trump is making decisions on who will serve in his second administration,” Leavitt said in a statement. “Those decisions will be announced when they are made.”
Both Lutnick and Bessent have close ties to Trump. Lutnick and Trump have known each other for decades, and the CEO has even hosted a fundraiser for the president-elect.
The Wall Street Journal also reported that Lutnick has already been helping Trump review candidates for cabinet positions in his administration.
On the other hand, Bessent was a key economic advisor to the president-elect during his 2024 campaign. Bessent also received an endorsement from Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, according to Semafor.
“He’s from South Carolina, I know him well, he’s highly qualified,” Graham said.
Money manager John Davi is positioning for challenges tied to President-elect Donald Trump’s tariff agenda.
Davi said he worries the new administration’s policies could be “very inflationary,” so he thinks it is important to choose investments carefully.
“Small-cap industrials make more sense than large-cap industrials,” the Astoria Portfolio Advisors CEO told CNBC’s “ETF Edge” this week.
Davi, who is also the firm’s chief investment officer, expects the red sweep will help push a pro-growth, pro-domestic policy agenda forward that will benefit small caps.
It appears Wall Street agrees so far. Since the presidential election, the Russell 2000 index, which tracks small-cap stocks, is up around 4% as of Friday’s close.
Davi, whose firm has $1.9 billion in assets under management, also likes staying domestic despite the tariff risks.
“We’re overweight the U.S. I think that’s the right playbook in the next few years until the midterms,” added Davi. “We have two years of where he [Trump] can control a lot of the narrative.”
But Davi plans to stay away from fixed income due to challenges tied to the growing budget deficit.
“Be careful if you own bonds for sure,” said Davi.
Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading. Global pharma stocks — Shares of several vaccine makers declined after President-elect Donald Trump selected prominent vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary on Thursday. Shares of Moderna and Pfizer slipped nearly 9% and 5%, respectively. BioNTech , which helped develop a Covid vaccine with Pfizer, shed 5%, while GSK declined about 2%. Even names such as Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk were lower, with both stocks slipping about 4%, amid concerns that the drug approval process could be slowed. Super Micro Computer — Shares of the embattled server company fell 2% ahead of a Monday deadline that could result in the company being delisted from the Nasdaq. Super Micro is late on filing a year-end report with the Securities and Exchange Commission, putting it on the wrong side of the Nasdaq’s rules. This would be the 11th losing day in the last 13 trading sessions for Super Micro. Alibaba — S hares slipped more than 2% after the Chinese e-commerce giant’s fiscal second-quarter sales fell short of estimates amid a weakening consumer backdrop in China. Alibaba’s revenue of 236.5 billion yuan came out 5% higher year on year but below analysts’ expectations of 238.9 billion yuan, per LSEG. Palantir — Shares jumped 7% after the analytics software provider said it is moving its listing to the Nasdaq Global Select Market from the New York Stock Exchange. Palantir expects to be eligible to join the Nasdaq-100 Index once it makes the switch. Domino’s Pizza , Pool Corp. , Ulta Beauty — Shares of the pizza chain edged up 0.3% after Warren Buffett ‘s Berkshire Hathaway announced a new stake in Domino’s, while Pool Corp. gained almost 2% as the conglomerate purchased a small stake in the swimming pool supplier. Ulta slipped nearly 3% after Berkshire Hathaway revealed in a regulatory filing that it had sold around 97% of its shares, nearly dissolving its position in the beauty retailer. Berkshire had just bought the stock in the second quarter, making Ulta a relatively new bet. AST SpaceMobile – Shares plunged more than 11% on the heels of the company’s weaker-than-expected third-quarter results. AST SpaceMobile reported a loss of $1.10 per share on revenue of $1.1 million. That’s well below the loss of 20 cents per share and $1.8 million in revenue that analysts were expecting, according to FactSet. Applied Materials — The semiconductor equipment manufacturer dropped 8% after providing a softer-than-forecast revenue outlook for the current quarter. Applied Materials told investors to expect $7.15 billion in the first fiscal quarter, less than the estimate of $7.22 billion from analysts polled by LSEG. However, the company beat expectations on both lines in the fourth fiscal quarter and issued positive guidance for adjusted earnings per share. — CNBC’s Sean Conlon, Alex Harring, Jesse Pound, Hakyung Kim and Lisa Han contributed reporting.