Real Mansion For Sale in the Metaverse

MARKET MOVERS

Demand for luxury homes is being fueled by cryptocurrency wealth and hybrid work, according to Sotheby’s International Realty Luxury Outlook 2022 report. The report found that the increasing number of people turning to hybrid work—which allows employees to work partly from the office and partly from home along with wealth from cryptocurrency, combined with low-interest rates, is seeing a demand for luxury homes with big price tags. Read more here.

Nasdaq jumps 1.3% to lead stock-market bounce as Fed Chair Jerome Powell reiterated the central bank’s efforts to corral inflation. During the hearing, Mr. Powell said the central bank plans to move as aggressively as needed to cool inflation. “If we have to raise interest rates more over time, we will,” he told lawmakers. The bank has made no decisions about shrinking its balance sheet, he added, saying also that “it’s a long road to normal” for monetary policy.

Solar jobs market explodes as companies seek workers to meet renewables demand. Between October and November 2021, PeopleReady’s skilled trades division reported a soaring 32% increase in solar jobs postings, totaling 305,000, compared to pre-pandemic job figures from the same period in 2019. The fastest-growing segment of the solar industry is community solar and is trending in all states and growing so popular that it often has waitlists for residential and commercial customers.

Rivian produced 1,015 vehicles and delivered 920 of them to its customers, by the end of 2021. This is according to an update with the SEC on its production progress. The stock is responding positively even after Rivian's chief operating officer, Rod Copes, left the company in December. This departure was planned for months. Investors so far seem to be accentuating the positive news on production and eliminating any concerns about who is running Rivian. Read more here.

Grand Theft Auto maker Take-Two acquired Zynga to expand its mobile portfolio. The company’s most famous series include Grand Theft Auto, NBA 2K, Red Dead, Borderlands, and more. Most of these games are not on mobile, and if they are they are fairly pathetic ports with obsolete business models. This is a bit of a problem given that mobile is well over half of gaming revenue globally and growing, says the Stratechery. He thinks the first thing that Zynga brings to the table is expertise with free-to-play business models that rely on in-app purchase.

A real mansion is for sale in the Metaverse. One Sotheby’s International Realty is partnering with Voxel Architects, along with Gabe Sierra, a collector of NFTs, to launch the “MetaReal” mansion, dubbed the first home sale of its kind in real estate. The buyer of the NFT asset will be buying the physical and digital versions of the home. The physical version is under construction in Miami.

Citadel Securities’ Silicon Valley funding hints at Crypto entry. The company announced on Tuesday that it had received a $1.15 billion investment from venture-capital firm Sequoia Capital and crypto firm Paradigm, valuing it around $22 billion, as they extend their technology and expertise to even more markets and asset classes, including crypto, The new investment shows that Citadel Securities is embracing a more public role and is likely to expand into cryptocurrency. Read more here.

9to5Mac reported rumors that Apple's headset might cost $3,000. That would put it in the developer kit kind of mode. When people launch something that expensive, it's usually for the first year or two to get developers and really elite enthusiasts and business builders to play with it. The headset is rumored to have both AR and VR which means you could be in a virtual world or you can press a button and see through the lens and see virtual objects in your real-world field of view. Source(37:51)

Digital dollar will be introduced as a stimulus package to encourage adoption, predicts Joe Brown of Heresy Financial. Universal Basic Income aka stimulus will come back this year and the Fed will require you to use a central bank digital currency to get your stimulus. When everybody's hurting from this crash, the Fed will step in to rescue the economy by doing this. However, since it's government-controlled, you won't be able to use it to invest in stocks, crypto, or NFT, and can only use it in basic necessities, he added. Source(20:24)

Housing demand this spring will be strong but so will home-price appreciation, which could combine with higher mortgage rates to weigh on would-be buyers’ wallets, according to a forecast by RBC’s Mike Dahl. The National Association of Realtors expects 30-year fixed mortgage rates to end the year at 3.7%, up from a recent 3.2%, while a consensus estimate collected by the trade group forecasts a 5.7% rise in home prices in 2022.

Planet Fitness to buy franchisee Sunshine Fitness in an $800 million deal. Sunshine Fitness is an operator of more than 100 Planet Fitness fitness clubs in the U.S. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022, the company said in a press release. Planet Fitness said the deal is projected to add to its adjusted earnings at a low-double-digit percent this year.

Ferrari prepares for the EV future with latest management shuffle. The company announced a revamped management team as its CEO Benedetto Vigna prepares to lead the company into a new era of electrified vehicles. This leadership overhaul is Vigna's first major move. Of note, he filled two key positions with executives hired away from STMicroelectronics, his former company. Simply put, Vigna has put in place a team that he feels he can trust to lead Ferrari into the future. Read more here.