The Rundown - Bitcoin Set for Biggest Weekly Drop Since FTX Collapse, Meta to Launch ChatGPT Rival

Episode Date: February 28, 2025

Stock market update for February 28, 2025. Follow us on IG @TheRundownDaily

Public.com presents the rundown. Your daily market update in five minutes. My name is Zadadmani, and today is Friday, February 28th. In today's episode, we'll tell you why the markets continue to slide and the latest inflation report that has investors breathing a sigh of relief. We also dive into the big slide in the crypto markets and tell you why Bitcoin is on track for its worst month in over two years. All right, let's go.

Well, guys, it's been a pretty bad week for the markets, and it got even worse yesterday. The S&P 500 was down 1.6%, and the NASDA tanked 2.7%. The market was counting on Nvidia to save everyone, but that didn't seem to happen. Now, Invidia did beat earnings yesterday, but despite that, the stock still dropped nearly 9% yesterday, dragging the rest of the market down with it. Invidia's market cap is now under $3 trillion. We dived into Nvidia's earnings on yesterday's show, so go check that out if you missed it.

The numbers were good, but there were some signs of concern. Today is the last day of February, and it hasn't been a great month, not just for stocks, but especially crypto. In fact, Bitcoin's price dropped to under $80,000 at one point this morning, and it's having its worst month since 2022. But you know what? We'll talk more about Bitcoin in a bit. Let's do a quick update on the tariff wars.

I mentioned yesterday that Trump plans to move forward with 25% tariffs against Mexico and Canada, which are expected to start next week, and an additional 10% tariff on China. Well, China has responded to these threats. China's Ministry of Commerce said they plan to retaliate against these tariffs, so it looks like the trade wars might be heating up. We'll see what happens next week. I think the market is holding out hope that another deal would get worked out

and that these tariffs won't move forward, but all this uncertainty has investors feeling nervous. Now, here's something the market should like, the latest inflation data. The PCE inflation report just dropped this morning. We've been hyping it up all week, and numbers aren't so bad. January's PCE inflation was up 2.5% compared to a year ago, which is in line with expectations. So that's a sigh of relief right there.

The PCE inflation report is pretty important because it's the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, and they use it as a data point on deciding what to do with interest rates. So the fact that this report came in line with expectations and not too hot, like the CPI report did a couple weeks ago, that should hopefully bring some calm to the markets. Either way, the next few weeks should be pretty interesting. Earning season is coming to an end, but with all the talks of tariffs and increasing trade wars, we'll have a lot to talk about, so make sure you guys are subscribed to the podcast to stay in the loop. Let's run through some headlines.

And we're going to start with Bitcoin, because Bitcoin is on track to have its biggest weekly fall since the FTX collapse in 2022. You know it's a bad week when you start mentioning FTX. Now, there's been a lot of contributing factors to the Bitcoin slide this month, So I'll break it down into three buckets, macro economics, policy, and shenanigans. Let's start with the macro stuff first. Bitcoin isn't being spared by the tariff escalations and the inflation concerns that are sparking worry about growth and tech investments.

Bitcoin is increasingly acting like a tech stock. So when tech stocks go down, Bitcoin tends to go down. Now, the next issue has to do with policy, or rather the lack of crypto-friendly policies that many were expecting under the Trump administration. Trump was seen as this crypto-friendly president. That would create a national Bitcoin reserve. None of that has seemed to have happened. All we've gotten so far from Trump is a meme coin, and that's down like 50% since it's launched.

And finally, let's talk about the shenanigans. The vibes took a hit after the second largest crypto exchange in the world, ByBit based out of Dubai, got hacked for $1.5 billion. That would make it one of the largest crypto heists ever. It might be the largest. and the FBI has accused hackers backed by North Korea. Not to mention all the rug polls happening in the meme coin market. All of that has really hurt sentiment over the last few weeks.

And the money is starting to come out of crypto. So far, $2.27 billion has come out of U.S. listed Bitcoin ETFs this week. Now, I don't want to just be negative here. There is some good news. The SEC has dropped its lawsuit against Coinbase that accused the company of operating as an unregistered crypto exchange, which is a landmark win for the crypto community. On top of that, the SEC also said on Thursday that meme coins aren't securities.

Some are seeing that as a win for the industry. Personally, I'm not so sure about that. The big takeaway here is that there's going to be less regulation in crypto, which is what the crypto industry wanted. But as of right now, that's not translating to the prices going higher. Let's shift gears from crypto and talk about AI. We're playing all the fan favorites today. Unlike crypto, this was a big week for AI because a ton of major.

announcements were made that we haven't covered yet. So let's do a rapid fire AI recap. Let's start with Meta. They're planning to release a standalone AI app in the next couple of months. Right now, Meta's AI is integrated into apps like Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, but they're planning to launch a standalone product to better compete with chat GPT. And they're also going to have a paid version. Now, that news caught the attention of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who joked on X last night

that OpenAI might launch their own social media app to compete with Meta. Yeah, I'm sure everyone wants to use an AI social media app. Now, OpenAI also had a big announcement yesterday with the launch of their latest AI model called GPT 4.5. Now, I haven't tried it yet since it's only available to chat GPT pro subscribers as of right now, and that membership costs like $200 a month. Yeah, no thanks. But it should be coming out to chat GPT plus subscribers next week, which I do subscribe to. So I'll try it out then.

Sam Altman says this model is massive and expensive, and they're working on adding more GPUs to process all the usage. Now Anthropic, the maker of Claude, also dropped the new model this week called Sonnet 3.7, and it looks to be a pretty solid model. It seems to be really, really good at coding. Personally, I like Claude. You know, I like the vibe from Claude. Also, Elon Musk's AI company XAI dropped their latest model called Grok 3. And I've had a chance to use it, and it is, it's very unhinged. That's probably the best way I can describe it. I'm just starting to feel like there's too many AI apps now.

Let's talk about some stocks making moves today. Rocket Mortgage's parent company rocket company shares are soaring this morning after they beat earnings for the quarter. The company's been on a tear recently releasing new tech products including launching rocket.com this month, which allows users to search for home and finance needs. The company also created a new AI tool. Of course they did, that helps with the approval process for loans. So as a result, shares of rocket companies are up 6% this morning on this news. Now, on the flip side, shares of Duolingo are getting cooked this morning.

company reporting solid earnings. All that savvy marketing has led to a 32% increase in monthly active users for last quarter, bringing that total to nearly 117 million. They also beat on revenue estimates for the quarter, which grew by 39% year over year. But the company's outlook for 2025 missed expectations. So as a result, shares are down more than 18% this morning. They might need to bring the owl back. Let's wrap the show with the fun fact. Microsoft is shutting down Skype, putting an end to one of the most iconic apps of the 2000s. I need to do my unk thing right now and explain to you guys what Skype is, the people that are too young to remember. See, kids, before we had smartphones and FaceTime and stuff, we used to video call each other using Skype from our computers

or laptops. This was back in like the mid-2000s. But then when smartphones came out and became super popular in the 2010s, we all kind of moved on from Skype and just started using FaceTime and stuff. I'll be honest, I didn't even know Skype was still around. You know, Microsoft bought that. them back in 2011, and now Microsoft has Microsoft Teams, so I guess there's really no need for Skype these days. But yeah, pour one out for one of the early goats of the internet. Just had a wave of nostalgia go over my body. Well, all right, guys, that's the rundown for today. I hope you guys enjoyed today's episode. Pretty wild week to say the least, and I bet we're going to get more drama over the next couple weeks as all the trade talks start heating up. So great time to get

subscribed to the podcast to stay in the loop of what's happening. If you guys enjoyed today's show, consider giving us a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. Don't forget to vote in today's Spotify poll. Leave us a comment on Spotify. All that engagement really does help us out, and it helps other people find the show. Thank you guys so much for listening. Shout out to Mike and Connor for all the help behind the scenes. We'll see you guys back here tomorrow.

This is the rundown. Your real-time resource for news events and trends in the markets. All views presented in the 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. Run down guests 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 disclosures. In partnership with Zaidamani, brokerage services for U.S. listed, registered securities are offered by Open to the Public Investing Incorporated, member FINRA and SIPC.