MARKET MOVERS

  • Short-term rentals surge among remote and hybrid workers. Nearly half of the nights booked in the third quarter on Airbnb’s short-term house rental platform were for stays of at least seven days, up from 44% in 2019. Airbnb predicts that people will continue to use short-term rentals to spread out to more towns and cities and have longer stays—staying for weeks, months, or even longer.

  • Bidding wars hit the luxury market hard in December. Nearly 60% of Redfin transactions in December included a multiple-offer situation with buyers facing at least one competing bid. Luxury homebuyers faced continued interest in vacation and second homes. Nearly 65% of homes priced between $800,000 and $1 million received multiple offers, while 55% of homes priced between $200,000 and $80,000 received the same interest. Read more here.

  • It looks like another Commodity "Super Cycle", says Tony Greer of TG Macro. The sell-off in technology is not bothering anybody in the commodity space. Oil is still pinned to the highs. Copper is retesting 10k on the upside. Aluminum pressing the highs again out of the blue. Nickel carving an all-time high. The commodities index right now does not care about de-risking. Source(16:52)

  • Netflix’s slowing growth could be bad news for streaming rivals. Shares of Netflix were down more than 19% in premarket trading Friday after the streaming giant gave first-quarter subscriber guidance that came in well below expectations. Netflix’s growth highlights the difficulty of the streaming business model as a whole, says Michael Nathanson, one of Wall Street’s top media analysts. Read more here.

WHAT TO WATCH

  • Google is reportedly working on an AR headset. They seem to be building a newer version of the Google Glass codenamed "Project Iris" to take on Meta and Apple. The target ship year is 2024 for the headset and what they're calling "Project Starline" which is a futuristic 3D video conferencing tech. Source(3:35)

  • Fed opens debate on possible digital currency. The Fed released a lengthy paper that’s expected to be the basis of a heated debate. In the paper, the Fed said a central bank digital currency could provide a safe digital payment option for households and businesses. But there may also be downsides. Meanwhile, China is already piloting a digital renminbi, and Europe’s central bank is moving forward with similar plans. Source(0:53)

  • Amazon to open up high-tech physical clothing stores later this year at Kohl's in sunny Glendale, California. The store, called Amazon Style, will feature some techy upgrades to old-school physical retail. Customers can send items to a fitting room via the Amazon Shopping app. QR codes on items can be scanned to see additional sizes, colors, and ratings. Fitting rooms will offer new recommendations based on what customers want to try on.

  • The ‘bubble extravaganza’ is coming to an end, says Jeremy Grantham. He says the burst of multiple-asset bubbles will cause the S&P 500 to tank 45%. He believes that after the historic rebound from the Covid-induced sell-off, the market is due for a big correction amid “crazy” investor behavior. We are “approaching the end of the first U.S. bubble extravaganza: housing, equities, bonds, and commodities,” he said.

  • Banks are investing billions to not be displaced by crypto. JPMorgan plans to spend $12 billion on technology this year. $6 billion of that will be spent on maintenance. Downtown Josh Brown in the Compound and Friends podcast said that it would be hard to displace banks if the banks themselves are investing heavily to catch up on blockchain technology. Source(1:08:50)

  • Intel to invest $20 Billion in U.S. chip-making site. The investment, to create 3,000 jobs, could be the first step of an operation that would include up to eight factories on the site of New Albany, Ohio, the reports indicated. The investment is part of Intel’s push to reclaim leadership in the chip sector, and better compete against global rivals like TSMC and Samsung. Read more here.
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