#market-volatility

#market-volatility

The markets are sinking across the board as traders and investors run for the exits on technology and inflation-related fears. All three of the major stock market averages are suffering steep declines, including a 1% drop in the Nasdaq Composite alongside a nearly 2% decline in the Russell 2000 index comprised of small-cap names.

Preferred shares represent a hybrid form of ownership. They're classified as equities for accounting and capital structure purposes. However, this asset's cash flows resemble debt. Holders receive fixed or floating dividends that must be paid before common shareholders see a cent, giving these securities a senior position in the payout hierarchy.

He said that while many people set target retirement ages, people in the FIRE movement set target portfolio numbers. Unfortunately, he believes this is "inherently riskier" because you're biased towards being exposed to risk as long as possible to help your wealth grow quickly - unlike people who usually rebalance their portfolios and shift to safer assets as their retirement age nears.

Market volatility is high, with the VIX index up 5% in today's session. The latest inflation data came in better than expected, offering what should become relief for markets. Consumer prices rose 2.4% year over year last month, a cooler reading that brings inflation back toward levels last seen in mid-2025. As the gauge edges closer to the Federal Reserve's 2% target, expectations for an eventual rate cut are likely to gain momentum, even as this week's labor market data reflected strength.

Strategy's ($MSTR) Executive Chairman Michael Saylor said on the company's fourth-quarter 2025 earnings call that Strategy will initiate a Bitcoin Security Program. The effort is meant to coordinate with the global cyber, crypto, and Bitcoin security community. In the call, Saylor framed quantum computing as a long-term engineering challenge rather than an immediate danger. He said the technology is likely more than a decade away from posing a serious risk to Bitcoin's cryptography.

Michael Lewis and Tom Lee held court in a podcast taping in New York City on Tuesday, talking to SoFi's head of investment research Liz Thomas for her show The Important Part. In a wide-ranging conversation that covered, among other things, Lee's thoughts on flash-frozen technology and Michael Lewis' dinner with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on the subject of Sam Bankman-Fried, the two towering figures in finance debated whether the current sell-off in software stocks was turning into something more serious.

Markets were closed on Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, compressing the week's activity into four sessions. Early in the week, stocks fell sharply after renewed concerns about a potential global trade conflict. Investor sentiment weakened following comments from President Donald Trump about imposing tariffs on certain European nations in connection with negotiations over Greenland. However, midweek optimism returned when the president signalled a softer stance and postponed the planned tariffs.

"The United States government appears to be partway through a multi-year process to declassify and disclose information on the existence of a technologically advanced non-human intelligence responsible for Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs),"

Investors should be watching this closely. The TACO trade lacks the precision of a proper model, yet the repetition looks too consistent to ignore,

Perhaps we should not have been surprised.In what now looks like a well-worn negotiating tactic, President Trump yesterday did a complete 180-degree U-turn from his previous threats and said he would not use military force to invade Greenland, would not impose tariffs on European countries resisting a U.S. takeover of Danish territory, and would accept "additional discussions" instead.The markets breathed a big sigh of relief.

The U.S. stock market bounced back from its worst day since October on Wednesday after President Donald Trump said he reached the framework for a deal about Greenland, an island he's long coveted, and won't impose tariffs he had threatened on several European countries. The S&P 500 rallied 1.2% after Trump said the deal, "if consummated, will be a great one for the United States of America" and its allies in the North Atlantic region.

Investors reacted emphatically to President Trump's insistence that he won't back down on his plan to take over Greenland: They hate it. The S&P 500 fell 2% yesterday, even though 81% of its companies have beaten their Q4 earnings expectations so far. The dollar fell off a cliff, losing nearly 1% of its value against a basket of foreign currencies. U.S. bond prices weakened modestly. Gold, the safe-haven investment, hit yet another new record high.

Trump's decision to announced tariffs on a raft of European nations as a means to force through the transfer of Greenland is perhaps one of the most egregious cases of blackmail against an ally in living memory. While many made peace with the unorthodox Venezuela operation given the claims of drug trafficking and population suppression, Trump's attempts to force the transfer of a fellow Nato member's land takes things a step further.