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Market Analysis - Last 7 days

Over the last 7 days, the market has dropped 1.7%, driven by losses in every sector, especially the Financials sector. In contrast to the last week, the market is up 22% over the past year. Earnings are forecast to grow by 15% annually.

^{Source - https://www.simplywall.st/markets/us}

Market Trends and Economy

BlackRock’s Q2 2024 Market Outlook

According to the BlackRock report, while the upcoming U.S. election has not dominated company discussions as heavily as in past cycles, green energy companies remain an exception. Nearly 30% of firms in this sector mentioned the election in their quarterly earnings calls, reflecting high sensitivity to potential policy changes that could affect the industry.

Bitcoin Primer: Geopolitics, Halvings And Managing Digital Volatility

If the halving gives you a headache and the only store of value you can think of is just down the road, fear not. Reflexivity Research's Will Clemente gets you up to speed in a snapshot session that's all about Bitcoin. Learn what happens during the halving, why geopolitics matters to Bitcoin, and why volatility is expected to decrease over time.

Conferences

AI in Finance Summit 

April, 18th - 19th, 2024  |  New York

Discover unique insights and technical use cases from AI specialists and data scientists across the Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance sectors.

Fintech + Insurtech Generations

June 12th - 13th, 2024 | North Carolina

To explore the future of finance and insurance attend the Fintech + Insurtech Generations event, scheduled for June 12th to 13th, 2024. This two-day extravaganza promises to be a game-changer, showcasing the cutting-edge innovations and groundbreaking ideas reshaping the financial and insurance industries.

Communities - Let’s Grow Together 🌱

 Astronomic Network

The Astronomic Network was created by and for startup founders in and around Austin, Texas. The community offers three programs: Fast Track, Moonshots, and Constellations. 

Fast Track is a 10-week program for founders to learn business fundamentals, while Moonshots pairs a founder with five other founders or freelancers with similar industries and goals. The Constellations program also matches founders and freelancers with similar industries and goals and has them discuss business over dinners. 

Nomad List

For founders of digital platforms, products, or services, living a nomadic lifestyle may be appealing. Nomad List offers support and connection among those who work remotely. The platform can help founders, freelancers, and anyone working remotely find the best places to live and work as a digital nomad. Members can also arrange meetups with others in their current area.

Emerging Technology Review

Generative AI Is Changing the Hiring Calculus at These Companies

Generative AI is reshaping the conversation around hiring at many companies as they realize that one way the pricey technology will pay off is if it helps them employ fewer people to do more work. 

While early wins from using generative AI don’t necessarily portend future layoffs, they hint at the need for companies to hire less, chief information officers say. This observation comes as business technology leaders seek returns for their increased spending on AI. 

Tesla Plans to Lay Off More Than 10% of Workforce

Two of Elon Musk’s top deputies also depart the world’s most valuable automaker.

Tesla delivered around 387,000 vehicles globally in the first three months of 2024, down 8.5% from a year earlier.

Tesla plans to slash more than 10% of its global workforce and two of Elon Musk’s top deputies said they were leaving the company, a shake-up that reflects a broader cooling in consumer demand for electric vehicles. 

The changes revealed Monday come as the world’s most valuable automaker—long valued by Wall Street for its growth potential—adjusts to a weaker market for its battery-powered cars.

Space Out

Venus is leaking carbon and oxygen, a fleeting visit by BepiColombo reveals

An abundance of gases, including carbon and oxygen, are being stripped away from Venus' atmosphere, according to flyby data from Europe's BepiColombo space probe. This data was obtained as the Mercury-bound spacecraft flew past Venus, and could shed new light on the leaky atmosphere of our planetary neighbor. Down the line, the findings could help scientists catalog the makeup of Venus' fragile magnetic environment as well.

NASA's Mars sample return plan is getting a major overhaul: 'The bottom line is $11 billion is too expensive'

NASA is looking for a new way to get its precious Mars samples back to Earth.

Those samples are being collected by the Perseverance rover in Mars' Jezero Crater, which hosted a lake and a river delta billions of years ago. Getting ahold of the samples is one of NASA's top science goals; studying pristine Red Planet material in well-equipped labs around the world could reveal key insights about Mars — including, perhaps, whether it has ever hosted life, NASA officials say.

The Crypto State

Ethereum validator queue hits highest level since September 2023

Staking on Ethereum has become all the rage recently with the recent popularization of restacking, which we talked about a bit last week.

In a fun update, EigenLayer did launch on the Ethereum mainnet last week along with its EigenDA data availability layer. Coinbase Cloud and Google Cloud are among the protocol’s first operators, and it announced six actively validated services that will be secured through EigenLayer’s restacking on Friday.

Lawmakers demand information on the CFTC chair's relationship with FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried

Lawmakers are probing the relationship between the U.S. head commodities regulator and FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. 

In a letter sent on Monday to Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chair Rostin Behnam, U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) requested documents about the regulator's correspondence with Bankman-Fried. According to the letter, the request is to determine the nature of Behnham’s relationship with the crypto CEO. 

Startup Spotlight

Basedash

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That’s a Wrap Slice

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