The Rundown - Bitcoin Crosses $60K, Apple Quits Electric Vehicle Project

Episode Date: February 28, 2024

Stock market update for February 28, 2024. Bitcoin surges, briefly touching $64,000 for the first time since November 2021 (CNBC) Apple to Wind Down Electric Car Effort After Decadelong Odyssey (Bloomberg) Beyond Meat Stock Soars as Revenue Tops Expectations. Thank Overseas Growth. (Barron's) The hottest housing markets for the super rich in 2024 (CNBC) The content of the podcast is for general and informational purposes only. All views presented in this show reflect the opinions of the guest and the host. You should not take a mention of any asset, be it cryptocurrency or a publicly traded security as a recommendation to buy, sell or hold that cryptocurrency or security. Guests and hosts are not affiliated with or endorsed by Public Holdings or its subsidiaries. You should make your own financial and investment decisions or consult respective professionals. Full disclosures are in the channel description. Learn more at Public.com/disclosures. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. There is a possibility of loss with any investment. Historical or hypothetical performance results, if mentioned, are presented for illustrative purposes only. Do not infer or assume that any securities, sectors or markets described in the videos were or will be profitable. Any statements of future expectations and other forward-looking statements are strictly based on the current views, opinion, or assumptions of the person presenting them, and should not be taken as an indicator of performance nor should be relied upon as an investment advice.The content of the podcast is for general and informational purposes only. All views presented in this show reflect the opinions of the guest and the host. You should not take a mention of any asset, be it cryptocurrency or a publicly traded security as a recommendation to buy, sell or hold that cryptocurrency or security. Guests and hosts are not affiliated with or endorsed by Public Holdings or its subsidiaries. You should make your own financial and investment decisions or consult respective professionals. Full disclosures are in the channel description. Learn more at Public.com/disclosures. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. There is a possibility of loss with any investment. Historical or hypothetical performance results, if mentioned, are presented for illustrative purposes only. Do not infer or assume that any securities, sectors or markets described in the videos were or will be profitable. Any statements of future expectations and other forward-looking statements are strictly based on the current views, opinion, or assumptions of the person presenting them, and should not be taken as an indicator of performance nor should be relied upon as an investment advice.

Welcome to the rundown, your daily market update in under five minutes. My name is Zadad Mani, and today is Wednesday, February 28th. In today's episode, we're going to talk crypto. Bitcoin crossed $60,000 this morning, and it's still rising. And now it's within spitting distance of its all-time highs. I mean, at this rate, we might hit all-time highs by the end of this episode. We're also going to discuss Apple's decision to cancel the Apple car. Apple was secretly developing their own EV for the last 10 years,

while they decided to cancel the entire project. We're going to talk why and what will happen to the 2,000 employees that work in that division. Then we're going to wrap up the show by highlighting some stocks making moves today. And a fun fact about luxury real estate. Like how little space $1 million buys in Monaco. This number is going to shock you. All right, let's get started. Let's start with a quick recap of stocks on Tuesday.

Kind of a mix back for stocks on Tuesday. The Dow was down, but the NASDAQ and S&P both squeezed out a game. The NASDAQ on Tuesday closed within 0.1% of its all-time highs, which was set back in 2021. The S&P and Dow have both made record highs as recently as Friday of last week, but the NASDAC hasn't in three years. Well, it might finally happen this week. By the way, there are a ton of companies reporting earnings today.

I'm talking Salesforce, HP, Paramount, and AMC are all scheduled to report earnings today after the bell. I'll recap some of the best earnings in tomorrow's show, so make sure you guys tune in. As for stocks today, kind of off to another bumpy start. All three major indices are in the red at the time of this recording, around noon eastern. I think investors are all just getting ready for that inflation data to come out tomorrow. If that inflation report comes in a little too hot, I think we're going to see a lot more red on our screen on Thursday. All right, let's talk crypto.

This morning, Bitcoin crossed $60,000 for the first time since November of 2021. The speed of which the price of Bitcoin is going up this week is crazy. Like Monday morning, the price was hovering around $50, $51,000. Right now, it's over $61,000. The price has gone up 20% just this week and almost 40% for the year. I woke up at 5 a.m. this morning. No big deal. Well, actually, I was forced awake by a crying baby.

But anyways. So I checked my phone while feeding the baby. I'm like, oh, Bitcoin's at 58,000. That's crazy. And then like an hour later, it crossed 60,000. And as I'm recording this episode around noon Eastern, Bitcoin has crossed 61,000 and it's getting closer to 62,000 as we speak. I mean, at this rate, Bitcoin might hit its all-time highs of 69,000.

By the end of the week. I really hope I didn't just jink. This whole rally kind of feels like it snuck up on us, at least to me. Unlike last time, there's no laser eyes on Twitter. The crypto group chats just aren't as active as they were back in 2021. I'm not getting texts from my mom, dad, or uncle about it just yet, but yet the price keeps going up. Now, the reason for that could be because of the launch of the ETF earlier this year. It seems like it's having the effect that many thought that it was going to have. It's increasing the demand for Bitcoin. Another reason for the rally could be the happening event that's

happening sometime in April this year. That's when the reward that crypto miners get for mining Bitcoin is cut in half and essentially acts as a way to decrease the supply of Bitcoin coming into the market. So all these things combined could be contributing to the rally of Bitcoin this time. It's pretty cool to see and I wonder how high it goes this time. But you know, as soon as my dad or one of my uncles text me about it, I think that's a sign. And I'll let everyone on this podcast know so you guys can hedge accordingly. Let's shift gears and talk about Apple because they are canceling the Apple car. See, Apple has secretly been working on developing their own EV for like 10 years now. They've hired a ton of auto engineers and people from car companies, and yeah, it's not going to

happen anymore. Apple was just canceling the whole project. Now, this could be because Apple realized that developing a car is much harder and a lot more expensive than making a phone. Plus, you can't sell cars at a crazy margin like you can, a cell phone. And it also could be because the demand for EVs has kind of dried up a bit. Never really made sense for me to see Apple in the car business. Now, as far as the 2,000 employees that work in this division, according to a report by Bloomberg, many of these employees are going to be moved to the artificial intelligence team. So maybe this is a sign that Siri might finally get better soon. I mean, the fact that Apple was investing in a car instead of making Siri better for the last 10 years speaks volume.

And as far as Apple's ambitions when it comes to cars, I mean, they have Apple CarPlay, right? And according to Apple, over 80% of new cars have Apple CarPlay. They should just try to triple down on that and just make that better. And maybe CarPlay will just be the operating system for every car in the near future. Also, with the Apple Vision Pro out now, who's going to need a car when we have VR? headsets for everything. All right, let's talk about a stock that's making moves today. We have to talk about Beyond Meat. The stock is up more than 40% today at the time of this recording after reporting their Q4 earnings. And I'm not going to lie, I'm kind of confused by the whole thing.

And their Q4 earnings, Beyond Meat reported that their sales were down 7%, but still higher than what Wall Street was estimating. On a more positive note, Beyond Meat did report an 8% rise in volume for Q4. But I think what got investors the most excited was some comments made by the CEO. The CEO said the company plans to increase profit margin by reducing cost and raising prices. The company is going to cut back significantly on spending and reducing its operating budget. I guess that was enough to get investors hyped. I mean, it's great to see that Beyond Meets trying to reduce costs and increase profits, but their sales are still down. They're not growing anymore. So I was kind of shocked to see the stock jump more than 40% from these earnings. But hey, if you're an investor and Beyond Me, you're probably

pretty happy today. All right, let's wrap up the show with everybody's favorite segment, the fun fact of the day. Today's fun fact is about luxury real estate. The most expensive luxury real estate market in the world is in Monaco. One million U.S. dollars buys just 172 square feet in Monaco. I have seen closets that are bigger than 172 square feet in Texas. And that's what a million dollars gets you in Monaco. But at least you don't have to pay taxes in Monaco, so I guess there's that plus side. The second most expensive city is in the U.S. and no, it's not New York, L.A. or San Francisco. It is Aspen. where $1 million will buy you $215 square feet.

Every time I think Aspen, all I think about is the movie dumb and dumber. Some of you younger listeners probably have never seen that movie, but it's hilarious. So yeah, there's your luxury real estate fun fact. I don't know why I look up these numbers, but every time I do, I just get kind of depressed. All right, guys, that's the show for today. Thank you guys so much for listening. I do want to give an extra special shout out to all the listeners. This podcast is now a top 30 podcast on the Spotify business charts.

So shout out to all the listeners. There's a new episode that comes out. every single weekday. And if you enjoy the show, hit us with a five-star rating on Spotify and Apple podcast. We would really appreciate that. And it would help justify buying all this podcast equipment instead of investing in Bitcoin or saving up for my kids' college fund. I'm just kidding. All right. Thanks again, guys. And we'll see you guys back here tomorrow. This is Public Live, your real-time resource for news events and trends in the markets. All views presented in this show reflect the opinions of the guests. You should not take any

mention of a publicly traded security as recommendation to buy, sell or hold that security. Public live hosts are not financial advisors and are not affiliated with public holdings or its subsidiaries. You should make your own financial and investment decisions or consult. Respective professionals. Learn more at public.com slash disclosures. In paid partnership with Zaid Admani, brokerage services for U.S. listed, registered securities are offered by Open to the Public Investing Incorporated, member FINRA and SIPC.