The Rundown - Trump Signs Executive Order Promoting Crypto, Tesla Launches New Model Y

Episode Date: January 24, 2025

Stock market update for January 24, 2025.

Public.com presents the rundown. Your daily market update in five minutes. My name is Zadadmani, and today is Friday, January 24th. In today's episode, we tell you about comments from President Trump that has the business world buzzing, especially his comments about interest rates. We also recap President Trump's executive order about crypto that have some people really excited and some Bitcoin maxis wanting more. Then stick around to the end of the show to find out how dominant the magnificent seven stocks have been over the last couple years, especially when you compare them to other countries. All right, let's go.

Well, the stock market had its first record close of the year yesterday. The S&P 500 jumped 0.5% on Thursday to close at new record highs, the first time since early December. And the NASDAQ was also in the green up 0.2% and it's now within 1% of its all-time highs. So after a bumpy start to the year, it looks like investors are starting to get. and some confidence. Now yesterday, Donald Trump was at the center of the finance world with his virtual address to the World Economic Forum in Davos. Davos, Switzerland is where all the rich and powerful people go to hang out in January to talk about the economy and other stuff. President

Trump gave a 45-minute virtual address to the conference and he talked about a lot of stuff. He threatened European countries with tariffs that didn't make their goods in the U.S. He told Saudi Arabia to lower their oil prices. He also said that he would demand the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates immediately, that comment got a lot of people's attention on Wall Street because the president doesn't typically tell the Fed what to do with interest rates. So we're kind of an uncharted territories right now.

Now, what's great is we're not going to have to wait long to get Fed shared Jerome Powell's thoughts on Trump's latest comments because the Fed meeting is next week. Right now, the market are still expecting a 99% chance the Fed keeps interest rates unchanged, despite Trump's comments. But that press conference with Jerome Powell is going to be must-see because I'm sure the reporters are going to be,

going to ask a ton of Trump questions. And I wonder how Jay Powell responds to all of them. Remember, a couple months ago, a reporter asked Jerome Powell if he would resign if Trump asked him to, and he said he wasn't. He was also asked what happened if Trump fired him, and he said that it wasn't permitted under the law. So yeah, there might be some tension there because I don't know how much power the president has in influencing interest rates. So I guess we'll see. It all goes down on Wednesday afternoon, and we're going to be covering it on the podcast. So if you guys haven't already, make sure you guys are subscribed to stay in the loop. Let's run through some headlines.

And let's start with crypto. President Donald Trump signed an executive order yesterday to establish the U.S. as a leader in the crypto space. Well, the executive order technically uses the word digital assets. There's a lot to unpack here. The first highlight is a creation of a team. This team is going to submit a report to the president in six months recommending regulatory frameworks, legislative proposals, and a potential need for a U.S. digital asset stockpile. You know, President Trump has mentioned in the past,

for the U.S. government to create a Bitcoin reserve and start buying Bitcoin. So this executive order kind of starts that process. This executive order also spells out protections for people who develop crypto software, also for people that do crypto mining. It also defends the rights for people who choose to self-custody their digital assets, so they have their own hardware wallets instead of relying on exchanges. And to be the most exciting part is stablecoins. This order backs the growth of U.S. dollar-backed projects. Stable coins is something that I'm very bullish on. I think it's the best use case for crypto. So I'm looking forward to further development there. So pretty exciting stuff for the crypto industry in the U.S. And it's a stark contrast from the previous administration.

If you guys remember the old SEC chairman Gary Gensler. Yeah, he wasn't a big crypto guy. I guess that's why he decided to create before Trump took office. Speaking of the SEC, the agency also created a new crypto task force, which is going to be led by Hester Pierce, who is pro-crypto. So a lot of changes happening right now. Seems very positive for the crypto industry in the U.S. What's interesting, though, is the price of Bitcoin was relatively unchanged despite this announcement. I think it might be because Trump's executive order didn't mention Bitcoin specifically instead of use a generic term like digital assets. And I think some Bitcoin Maxis wanted to see more love specifically for Bitcoin. They probably were hoping that this executive order would create a Bitcoin reserve and the US government

would start buying Bitcoin. But that hasn't happened yet. It doesn't mean that it won't happen in the future, but we're just going to have to wait and see. All right, let's shift gears and talk a Tesla. Tesla is launching an updated version of their popular Model Y in the U.S. starting in March. A few weeks ago, Tesla announced its updated Model Y was coming to China. Well, now they're officially launching it in the U.S. in a few weeks, along with Europe and Canada. This new Model Y is called Juniper. Tesla posted some videos and photos of it on their Twitter account, and I think the refresh looks pretty good.

I bought a Model Y nine months ago, and it's going to look really old compared to this new one. But this updated version of the Model Y is going to be pretty expensive. It's going to start at around $60,000. in the U.S. But the model-wise, one of the best-selling cars in the world, and Tesla is hoping that this new redesign will help boost up sales. Because remember, Tesla is coming off its first year of sales declines in more than a decade. We're actually going to learn more about Tesla's business next week

because they report earnings on Wednesday after the market close. We're going to be covering it here on the rundown, so make sure you guys are subscribed to the pod. Let's talk about some stocks making moves today. Shares of Novo Nordisk are rising after they reported positive early stage results. for their next-gen obesity drug. The study was for the once-weekly amcretin. Amstritin. I got to look up this pronunciation.

All right. It's pronounced amicretin. And this treatment resulted in an average weight loss of 22% amongst patients, while the patient is taking the placebo gained 2%. This amicretin drug mimics the gut hormone GLP1, which is the same one that is in the blockbuster drugs like WeGovie and Ozempic. The difference is that this new drug also mimics a pancreas hormone that suppresses hunger. It's a bit over my mind.

But the takeaway here is that investors are excited about this potential new weight loss drug from Novo Nordisk, and shares are up more than 10% this morning in reaction to these trial results. Another stock having a great day is Twilio. Their shares are soaring after the company announced a positive multi-year profit outlook. Twilio is a software company that offers text and email services to businesses. So if you've ever gotten a text message from a business about a sale or something, they're likely using Twilio on the back end. And the company has some serious clients, including OpenAI, who uses Twilio's tech for its customer support systems. As a result, shares of Twilio are up more than 20% this morning. You know, this stock was a pandemic darling. It's still down more than 70% from its peak back in 2021. But it's great to see that it's making a little comeback.

Now, on the flip side, shares of Boeing are down after the company warned of a bigger than expected $4 billion quarterly loss. That's about three times bigger than what Wall Street was predicting. I mean, I don't remember the last time I've read a positive headline about Boeing. It all started going downhill back in 2019 when two of their 737 Max Jets had fatal crashes. And since then, they've had one disaster after another. They had the doors blow off the Alaskan Airlines flight a year ago. They dealt with a bunch of strikes. They fired their CEO.

They just can't get their act together and it's hurting their business. In 2024, new orders of their jets dropped to less than half of what they were in 20203. Boeing stock is down more than 1% this morning in reaction to this report. Let's wrap the show with a fun fact. The magnificent seven stocks have added more than $11 trillion in market cap since January of 2023. To put that into perspective, that equals the combined market caps of the entire UK, French, and German stock markets.

The total market cap for the biggest seven stocks in the U.S. is now above $16 trillion, which is greater than the total of all of Europe, which is just under $16 trillion. So to put it another way, the seven biggest companies in the U.S. are worth more than all the companies in Europe combined. Absolutely wild. Well, all right, guys, that's the rundown for today. That's the rundown for this week. I know we only had four days this week, but it felt much longer than that. And this was just the appetizer for next week, because we are in for a lot next week. Earnings from Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Tesla, meta, and we're also going to have a Fed meeting. I can't wait.

Longtime listeners know that earnings season, especially the week coming up, is my favorite. favorite part of the year. I'm so excited. I'm stocking up on energy drinks. I will be locked in for next week. So hoping you guys can join me for that. Thank you guys again for listening. Shout out to Mike and Connor

for all the help behind the scenes. And 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. Rundown guests are not financial advisors and are not affiliated with public holdings or

subsidiaries. You should make your own financial and investment decisions or consult. respective professionals. Learn more at public.com disclosures. In partnership with Zayidimani, brokerage services for U.S. listed, registered securities are offered by Open to the Public Investing Incorporated, member FINRA and SIPC.