Morning Market Download from Invincible Money

Personal finance + economics + markets

Staying on top of the markets, economics and the global issues that affect your money takes a lot of time and effort. We distill it down to a quick 5 minute read to help you make better money decisions.

EconomyThe Producer Price Index were the latest numbers to be released and it showed prices declined by 0.5% from February to March. Coupled with the CPI data, it's starting to look like inflation is easing. Inflation isn't going down (called deflation), but the pace of increase is slowing (called disinflation).

The IMF (and U.S. citizens and economists) urged the Biden administration to cut spending to help the Fed bring down inflation. They said the banking crisis is contained and central banks should focus on inflation.

The CEO of JPMorgan and the British Exec of Citigroup warned the U.S. will fall into recession in the second half of the year.

NewsFrench protesters broke into the HQ of LVMH (sidenote: The owner is the richest person in the world. I guess luxury pays.) Coincidentally, the stock hit an all time high on Friday.

Remember during the pandemic there were stories of how rents were tanking in Manhattan as 10,000 people moved out of the city? Well, the city and the people are back and rents hit another high in March with the median rent at $4,175.

Amazon launched its answer to ChatGPT called Bedrock. For a great discussion of the promise and dangers of AI, give the latest "All In" podcast a listen. They talk about some fascinating implications, like soon being able to feed a movie script into an AI and it produces an animated movie of any length.

StocksSummer travel is coming back as Delta reported a record number of summer bookings, resulting in a 17% increase in prices over last year. Delta is seeing an increase in revenue but labor costs are also up, so they booked a net loss for Q1.

Amazon stock was down 50% in 2022 after having a historic 2021. Last year was the largest loss since 2000, when it was down several times up to 80%. So far this year the stock is up 19%.

Amazon CEO Andy Jessy said of the stock price, “I don’t spend a lot of my time focused on the stock price. In any one period of time it may be further up or further down, but it really matters what you do for customers over a long period of time,” Jassy said.

AMZN stock since 1998:

CryptoAre you kidding me? FTX is considering restarting its exchange in Q2 2024. No word on if Mr. Wonderful, Tom Brady or Matt Damon ...or any of the investors, will be back for the second run.

Arkansas advanced the "Right to Mine" bill aiming to protect BTC mining in the state.

Bitcoin narrative: Early this year BTC rallied on the narrative that inflation may be easing and the Fed would slow its rate hikes, then more recently it rallied as the regional bank crisis cast doubts on the dollar and the financial system as a whole. So far this year, BTC can do no wrong and ETH is not far behind.

Be a Better Investor

Get Smarter

What's the difference between a Mutual Fund and an ETF?

A mutual fund and an ETF (exchange-traded fund) are both investment vehicles that allow individuals to invest in a diversified portfolio of assets managed by a professional fund manager. However, the main difference between the two is the way they are traded. Mutual funds are bought and sold at the end of the trading day at the net asset value (NAV) price, while ETFs are traded like stocks throughout the day and their prices fluctuate based on supply and demand. Additionally, mutual funds usually have higher fees and require minimum investment amounts, while ETFs typically have lower fees and can be traded in smaller amounts.

Legal StuffNothing in this newsletter is financial advice. Always do your own research and think for yourself.