| | | | | | | Presented By OurCrowd | | | | Axios Markets | | By Sam Ro ·Jul 09, 2021 | | Today's newsletter is 1,250 words, 4.7 minutes. Situational awareness: President Biden will sign an executive order with 72 initiatives aimed at promoting competition. (White House) 💰 of the day: $180,000, the current bid for an immaculate 1986 Fleer Michael Jordan rookie card. | | | | | | 1 big thing: Serious money in joke cryptos |  | | | Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios | | | | The cryptocurrency market is becoming one of the few places where internet meme culture can translate into serious money, Axios' Hope King writes. Why it matters: "Joke" cryptocurrencies can thrive when bored people who have cash to spare look for new ways to entertain themselves with seemingly benign bets — hoping that one of those bets could turn into a lucrative investment. Catch up quick: A meme coin or token is a cryptocurrency inspired by internet memes, jokes, notable personalities and existing cryptocurrencies. They are typically worth fractions of a penny and have no utility. The market cap of meme coins and tokens is now over $34 billion, per CoinMarketCap. - Dogecoin, the most valuable of the meme coins with a $29 billion market cap, is just one of possibly thousands of meme cryptos that have been created since around 2011.
Yes, but: 90%-95% of jokes coins end up dead, according to dead-coin tracker Coinopsy. State of play: Launching new cryptocurrencies has become easier over the past few years, making it possible for someone to do so without expensive equipment or technical knowledge — sometimes in less than an hour. How it works: Many joke cryptos are available to trade on exchanges like Gate.io and PancakeSwap. - Dogecoin was created in 2013 and features the Shiba Inu dog from the "Doge" meme as its logo. But it didn't soar in value until earlier this year when it became a target for the Reddit crowd.
- Other joke and meme cryptos have monikers like Loser Coin and Sad Cat Token. Both of those are worth fractions of a penny, and combined, are held by more than 100,000 addresses.
What they're saying: Outside of crypto, there aren't that many real-world examples of literal jokes that turn into something of monetary value, says Guan Yang, a data scientist who launched Stalwartbucks as an inside joke with journalist Joe Weisenthal in 2014. - Like baseball cards or NFTs, joke currencies can be viewed as collectibles, Yang says. When enough people are interested in them, and assign them monetary value, they morph into an asset class.
- "We have a craving to do that with almost anything," he says.
What to watch: Regulators are taking notice as pump and dump schemes and losses tied to crypto scams spike. Go deeper with Axios' Felix Salmon on The world's largest regulatory arbitrage |     | | | | | | 2. Catch up quick | | President Biden is expected to encourage the Federal Communications Commission to reinstate net neutrality rules. (Axios) Pfizer plans to ask regulators to authorize its COVID vaccine booster shot. (CNN) U.S. regulators are expected to add more than 10 Chinese companies to its blacklist over alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang. (Reuters) | | | | | | | | 3. Used car price growth finally stalls |  Data: Manheim; Chart: Axios Visuals The average price of a used car fell slightly in June, suggesting that the white-hot market for these vehicles may finally be cooling off. Why it matters: Used car prices exploded as unprecedented supply chain issues during the pandemic limited the availability of new cars, an issue that spilled into the used car market. By the numbers: The average price of a used car in the wholesale market in June fell 1.3% from May levels, as measured by the Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index. This was the first month-to-month decline since December. - However, this is still 34.3% above year-ago levels.
- Pickup truck prices have led price gains, up 49.5% from a year ago. Vans and SUVs were up 33.4% and 32.5%, respectively.
- The most popular used vehicle in June was the 2018 Nissan Rogue SV, which went for $21,100 in the wholesale market. Last year, it was worth $16,750.
- The most popular used pickup was the 2018 Ford F-150 Crew Cab, going for $38,400. That was up from $35,000 a year ago.
The bottom line: "The latest Manheim number is an encouraging sign that the recent spike in consumer price inflation may soon reverse," Matthew Klein, author of The Overshoot, tells Axios. - "After all, about 1 percentage point of the total 3.8% increase in the level of the core consumer price index over the past 12 months came from the surge in prices of used cars and trucks."
| | | | | | | | A message from OurCrowd | | Meet the AI tech deployed by the world's largest food service company | | |  | | | | Invest in the tech transforming customer experience — at OurCrowd. Zippin combines advanced AI, computer vision and a sophisticated sensor system to enable contactless payments for the world's leading retailers. Explore Zippin's investment potential at OurCrowd. | | | | | | 4. Wells Fargo abandons personal loans biz |  | | | Photo: Alex Tai/ Getty Images | | | | Not so long ago, Wells Fargo was in trouble for opening accounts its customers didn't want. Now, having seen the error of its ways, it has decided instead to close accounts its customers do want, Axios chief financial correspondent Felix Salmon writes. Driving the news: Wells is shutting down all existing personal and portfolio lines of credit, after last year deciding it would stop issuing new home equity credit lines. What they're saying: "We apologize for the inconvenience this Line of Credit closure will cause," the bank is saying in a letter to its customers obtained by CNBC. "The account closure is final." Between the lines: Wells Fargo is keeping all its credit card accounts, which generally carry much higher interest rates. Personal lines of credit are often used as a way to pay down credit card balances and reduce total interest payments. The big picture: Offering personal loans to customers used to be a core part of what any self-respecting bank had to do. But those loans tend to be labor-intensive and not very profitable, and new online banks can get millions of customers without having any loan products at all. The bottom line: Banks have for decades tried to steer customers into lucrative credit cards rather than staid personal loans. But it's still shocking to see one of America's big four consumer banks getting out of personal credit lines entirely — especially when many customers used those lines as a way of avoiding overdraft fees. | | | | | | | | 5. Why stocks got rocked |  | | | Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios | | | | Financial markets were rattled on Thursday amid signs that the economic recovery is at risk of stumbling. But experts say the longer-term outlook for markets remains bright. Why it matters: Even with the selloff, the stock market is near an all-time high, with the S&P 500 having closed at a record 4,358 on Wednesday. - Largely driven by expectations for future earnings growth, the stock market is vulnerable to suggestions that growth may be peaking and potentially turning lower.
- The spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19 is among the risks that could hinder growth.
- Tumbling Treasury yields and the unexpected increase in initial claims for unemployment benefits didn't help.
What they're saying: Dave Lutz, a strategist at JonesTrading, tells Axios one of the drivers of volatility this week is the absence of traders in the market. - "Dealing with summer vacations makes things much more whippy than we normally would see."
- Lutz added that many players in the market were positioned for higher yields, which may be contributing to the drop in yields as traders unwind their wrong-way bets.
The big picture: Despite hiccups like what we saw on Thursday, market experts say things still look good for stocks. - "Given that vaccinations are limiting case growth, which should keep the country open for business, the economic risks are likely limited," Commonwealth Financial Network CIO Brad McMillan said in a report.
- "Also, with interest rates still low, which should support valuations, and with earnings likely to grow sharply again this quarter, any further downside is likely to be limited."
Be smart: History says it would be very normal for stocks to fall much more at this point of a bull market before recovering all of those losses and then some. - By no means is this a guarantee that stocks are headed much higher. But don't be surprised if they do.
| | | | | | | | A message from OurCrowd | | Meet the AI tech deployed by the world's largest food service company | | |  | | | | Combining advanced AI, computer vision and a sophisticated sensor system, Zippin helps optimize the checkout experience for consumers and retailers. Billion dollar retailers have deployed this tech. Now, you can invest. Zippin is transforming the trillion dollar retail industry. | | |  | | It'll help you deliver employee communications more effectively. | | | | | | Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters. If you're interested in advertising, learn more here.
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