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Markets: Stocks continued their second-quarter slump, with the Dow notching its third down day in a row. Ulta Beauty plunged like a wand being dipped into mascara after its CEO revealed that, despite the resilience of the beauty category, sales have slowed.

Market Analysis - Last 7 days

Over the last 7 days, the market has risen 1.3%, driven by gains of 1.9% in the Information Technology sector. As for the past 12 months, the market is up 30%. As for the next few years, earnings are expected to grow by 13% per annum.

The stock market kicked off its short trading week with a whimper as some investors questioned the enthusiasm around the Fed’s recent assurances that it’s still planning three rate cuts this year. But one stock that roared was Digital World Acquisition Corp., the shell company that’s merging with Donald Trump’s Truth Social and will begin trading under its new ticker, DJT, today. It popped after Trump got good news from a New York appeals court.

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

Market Trends and Economy

IPO Stocks: Will Reddit Unplug The Bulging U.S. IPO Pipeline?

Since stocks took off on a powerful rally in late October, one typical ingredient of a healthy market has been hard to find: IPOs.

A strong level of initial public offerings signals investors feel confident enough in the economy to embrace newer stocks, which tend to be riskier. IPO stocks also supply the market with new blood — often young companies with new business ideas or technologies that have the potential to produce superior growth over time.

So the early success of Reddit (RDDT) and Astera Labs (ALAB) cheered market watchers. On March 21, social media platform Reddit soared 48% in its debut. The day before, AI chip play Astera Labs surged 72% on its first trading day.

Conferences Coming Up

The U.S. Fintech Symposium

June 4th - 6th, 2024  |  Chicago

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FinovateSpring 2024

May 21st, 2024 | San Francisco

FinovateSpring returns to San Francisco! This is your chance to reconnect face-to-face with the fintech community and plot a course for the future. Finovate’s signature mix of innovative demos, engaging panelists, insightful speakers, and high-impact networking will give you the perspective and connections you need to thrive in a changing landscape. There’s no better place to find your path forward. It’s up to all of us to define what the fintech industry is going to look like in the future. Join us at FinovateSpring and make sure you’re a part of the discussion.

Communities - Let’s Grow Together🌱

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Aviation’s Week in Charts provides detailed data analysis of the commercial aviation market, presenting key trends, developments, and statistics through visually engaging charts and graphs. From passenger traffic to market forecasts, this newsletter offers valuable insights for industry professionals, investors, and aviation enthusiasts. Stay ahead of the curve with the latest trends and data-driven insights driving the global aviation landscape.

Emerging Technology Review

Meta’s Smart Glasses Are Becoming Artificially Intelligent. We Took Them for a Spin.

In a sign that the tech industry keeps getting weirder, Meta soon plans to release a big update that transforms the Ray-Ban Meta, its camera glasses that shoot videos, into a gadget seen only in sci-fi movies.

Next month, the glasses will be able to use new artificial intelligence software to see the real world and describe what you’re looking at, similar to the A.I. assistant in the movie “Her.”

The glasses, which come in various frames starting at $300 and lenses starting at $17, have mostly been used for shooting photos and videos and listening to music. But with the new A.I. software, they can be used to scan famous landmarks, translate languages, and identify animal breeds and exotic fruits, among other tasks.

AI photos show people with secondary breast cancer their lost future

From attending a child's wedding to taking a special holiday, 10 people living with secondary breast cancer have been given a glimpse into a future they know they may not live to see.

Using AI and photos taken by renowned photographer Jillian Edelstein, the images make up the Gallery of Hope at London's Saatchi Gallery.

Louise Hudson, from Caldicot, Monmouthshire, is one of those who took part.

Like all the other participants, Louise has secondary breast cancer, which occurs when cancer cells spread from the breast to other parts of the body, making the disease treatable, but incurable.

Space Out

NASA's Parker Solar Probe makes 1st-of-its-kind observation within a coronal mass ejection

Every so often, the sun's simmering magnetic field burps colossal clouds of plasma out into the space beyond. These are called coronal mass ejections (CMEs). If one CME strikes Earth, for example, the result can be spectacular auroras — and, just-as-spectacular disruptions of electrical grids and satellites.

Now, NASA's Parker Solar Probe has gotten a first-ever peek inside a CME as it erupted from the sun. And what lies inside appears to be a treasure trove for solar physicists. The probe's visible-light-detecting, Wide-field Imager for Parker Solar Probe (WISPR) instrument caught clear, turbulent eddies within the CME.

NASA’s Webb Confirms Its First Exoplanet

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has unveiled its first exoplanet, LHS 475 b, a nearly Earth-sized world at 99% of Earth's diameter, located 41 light-years away in the constellation Octans. This discovery signifies a leap in our quest to explore the universe, showcasing Webb's unmatched capability to study distant planets.

LHS 475 b's initial analysis challenges our expectations, suggesting it might lack a detectable atmosphere—a departure from the methane-rich environments seen in bodies like Saturn's moon Titan. Yet, the door remains open to the presence of a carbon dioxide atmosphere or perhaps none at all. This marks just the beginning of our journey to understand this fascinating Earth-sized exoplanet further.

This groundbreaking finding by the Webb Telescope not only highlights its critical role in space exploration but also paves the way for future discoveries that could revolutionize our understanding of the cosmos.

The Crypto State

Spot Bitcoin ETFs return to net daily outflows; Grayscale’s GBTC total outflows eclipse $15 billion

The original cryptocurrency reached an all-time peak of almost $72,968 on Tuesday, before paring the increase. It was the third record in five days. A record $2.7 billion flowed into crypto assets last week, according to a report from CoinShares International Ltd., with the bulk of that going to Bitcoin. Both the token and a gauge of the largest 100 coins are up roughly 70% this year.

Steven Tananbaum’s GoldenTree Asset Management sells crypto unit to investment firm Republic

Global asset manager GoldenTree has sold its digital asset unit to investment firm Republic, with former partner Joe Naggar set to join the company.

Republic announced the acquisition of GoldenChain on Tuesday, a wholly owned subsidiary of GoldenTree, which managed the firm’s digital asset funds. Nagger will become CEO and CIO of the newly formed digital asset-focused entity Republic Digital. 

Republic said the deal was designed to bolster its market position. It will leverage the combined expertise to explore new opportunities in the digital asset space.

Startup Spotlight

There is a high demand for privacy-focused data management services, and Skyflow is the perfect example. They just raised $30 million in a series B funding to take their AI-powered platform to enterprises. It can be integrated across any app, data cloud, or LLM. Read the announcement here on TechCrunch.

Linguix an Edtech startup has a new take on the writing assistant, built for non-native English speakers. Through the Linguix platform, users are not only able to correct their writing mistakes in real time, but they are also able to learn and improve their writing skills as they go.

That’s a Wrap Slice

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