1-2. Start with a Couple Chats from Callum Thomas
No shock…global stocks and small value hit new lows in valuation vs. large growth
Defensive Sectors-Staples, Healthcare, Utilities New Lows in ETF market share
3. Nvidia Daily Volume Dwarfs Mag 7
Rosenberg Research
Nvidia, a $126 stock, saw trading volume of around 520 million shares on Thursday and more than 600 million on Friday. The norm so far this year has been over 400 million shares traded daily (split-adjusted), which is beyond the pale. Most of the rest of the Magnificent 7 have seen daily trading volume of between 20 million and 70 million shares, a fraction of Nvidia’s activity. Back in the early 1980s, just before I started in this business, a big day for the overall market was 20 million shares. This is not only surreal, but also it is difficult to understand in terms of the implications of this extraordinary situation when the world’s largest company sees its shares trade hands a half-billion times in one day. Why it’s concerning is that it highlights the extent to which dramatic liquidity inflows are underpinning these mega-cap stocks.
https://www.rosenbergresearch.com
4. Market Leading Semiconductor Sub-Sector -7.2% Since From Highs
5. Bitcoin Technicals Update from Bespoke Investments
Bespoke Investment Group
-Like many stocks, Bitcoin has also found itself treading water for the last several months trying to hang on to the gains from the late 2023/early 2024 rally. This morning, prices are down another 4% near the $60,000 level. After peaking above $70,000 in March, prices have been drifting lower in a sideways range, and if the April lows in the $57,000 range don’t hold, it could be a long summer.
From a longer-term perspective, $65,000 seems to be a level that Bitcoin just can’t shake. In early 2021, it briefly flirted with that level and then quickly erased more than half of its value. Later that year, it got there again and managed to stay there for a few days before crashing over 75%. It took two years and a few months to get back there again, and this time Bitcoin managed to hang around $65,000 again and even take out $70,000, but that level has failed to hold again.
6. Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy weight-loss drug approved in China
Reuters-By Andrew Silver
The number of overweight adults in China, the world’s second most populous country, is projected to reach 540 million by 2030, 2.8 times higher than 2000 levels, a Chinese public health study showed in 2020. Numbers who are obese are seen jumping 7.5 times to 150 million. But Novo may have a much shorter time in the Chinese market to make the most of its early-mover advantage in weight-loss drugs.
Its patent on semaglutide, the key ingredient in Wegovy and its diabetes drug Ozempic, is set to expire in less than two years in China compared to in 2031 in Europe and Japan and in 2032 in the U.S, and local drugmakers are racing to develop generic or biosimilar versions.
Novo is also in the midst of a legal fight in China over the patent, an adverse ruling in which could make it lose its semaglutide exclusivity even sooner. That would make China the first major market where it is stripped of patent protection for the drugs. At least two Chinese firms, Livzon Pharmaceutical Group (000513.SZ), opens new tab and Hangzhou Jiuyuan Gene Engineering, have already applied to begin commercial sales of Ozempic copies.
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/novo-nordisk-says-semaglutide-approved-long-term-weight-management-china-2024-06-25/
7. Fixed Income Yields Above U.S. Inflation
Advisors Perspective Blog
8. UBS Selling Midtown Office Via Online Auction
9. Rolex Prices -40%
10. High Stress Resiliency Linked To Specific Types Of Gut Microbes And Metabolites: Study
ZEROHEDGE BY TYLER DURDEN
Authored by Amy Denney via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
A new study came out on Friday in Nature Mental Health reveals new evidence that the gut and brain work together to build resilience to stress, contributing to a growing body of research that suggests the gut is a possible pathway to help prevent or minimize stress-related psychiatric conditions.
Specifically, a high-resilience phenotype of the gut microbiome was identified based on a mix of microbes and metabolites that had anti-inflammatory and gut-barrier integrity features. This phenotype was associated with lower levels of anxiety and depression.
Besides looking at the traits of the microbiome, the study used clinical and psychological assessment tools and MRIs that examined structural and functional roles of the brain. The study included 116 healthy participants, 18 to 60 years old.
The main finding suggests that “the microbiome is critical in shaping resilience” and modifying the gut microbiome “can optimize mental health.”
Resiliency Equates to Health
The differences in microbes and metabolites between high-resilience and low-resilience individuals were distinct in the study. High resiliency was associated with biomarkers indicating better gut barrier integrity, lower depression and anxiety psychopathology, higher cognitive function, less gray matter volume in the brain, and increased functional circuitry in the brain.
Compromised or weakened gut barrier, sometimes called “leaky gut,” is being considered as a potential factor in a number of chronic diseases. Dysbiosis, or an imbalance of gut microbes, is associated with chronic diseases and inflammation.
Analysis of the gut microbiome in the high-resilience individuals noted increased levels of microbes and metabolites that are:
- Better at environmental adaptation
- Able to replicate and repair DNA
- Better at carbohydrate and energy metabolism
- Anti-inflammatory
Ms. Church said in terms of psychosocial traits, the high-resilient individuals were also more non-judgmental, easy-going, kind, extroverted, and mindful. They had lower levels of perceived stress and also low levels of neuroticism.
She described the relationship between the gut and brain like a car with working brakes.
“If you have great working brakes, you’re able to modulate or control the situation, have emotional regulation and cognitive response,” she said. “And they had gut bacteria and metabolites associated with reduced inflammation and better gut barrier integrity.”