The stock market had a rollercoaster of a week but ended Friday afternoon on a positive note. The S&P 500 rallied this afternoon to set a new record price of 4,247.44 at the closing bell. The Dow and NASDAQ both also ended the day in positive territory.
Meme stocks had a meltdown this week. After some incredible gains over the past two weeks for meme stocks like AMC (AMC), GameStop (GME), and Bed Bath & Beyond, most of the hot meme stocks ended the week down from their earlier highs. But all of these meme stocks are trading much higher than they were prior to the WallStreetBets crowd pumping these stocks up. Some financially stable companies like Wendy’s and Clover Health received some unexpected attention from retail investors as the meme stock revolution moved focus away from AMC.
Earlier this week, the FBI recovered a little more than half, or approximately $2.3 million of the Bitcoin ransom that was paid to individuals in the criminal hacking group DarkSide. Joseph Blount, CEO of Colonial Pipeline Co., told The Wall Street Journal that the company paid hackers the $4.4 million ransom because the extent of the intrusion was unknown along with how long it would take to restore operations. The news that the FBI was able to recover part of the ransom caused the price of Bitcoin to fall on Tuesday and Wednesday. People have always assumed cryptocurrencies were untraceable but using the blockchain and the public ledger actually helped confirm the FBI’s investigation. This fact may have scared some shadier investors but I’m sure it was actually something institutional investors liked hearing and knowing there are ways to recover stolen cryptocurrencies.
In other Bitcoin news, the 401(k) provider company ForUsAll Inc., will start a new program in July which will let workers in the retirement plans it administers to invest up to 5% of their contributions in the leading cryptocurrencies through Coinbase. This is a huge step for institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies. People are curious about crypto and they want to invest in it after seeing its incredible growth over the past year.
I know the S&P 500 hit a record closing price, but I feel that inflation concerns and the inevitable rise of interest rates is going to cause a big downturn in the stock market soon. Popular meme stocks appear to be on the decline, does that mean some other stocks will start to be pumped like Wendy’s and Clover Health did? Bitcoin seems to be gaining traction with institutions in the US and I think this is the time to buy because I believe cryptocurrency prices will have a nice rebound soon from their current slump.
Those are my thoughts anyways. What are your thoughts? Leave me a comment below. Don’t forget to check out my YouTube channel, Vance Alm, where I post videos related to investing and finances.
Photo by Sophie Backes on Unsplash
High Finance Thoughts 