Hey Snackers,
While crypto booms, those funky NFTs are bottoming out in new and devastating ways. In a sign that the days of sky-high profitable NFTs are over, one of the oldest and most valuable NFT brands, CryptoPunks, was just sold off by Bored Ape Yacht Club creator Yuga Labs to a nonprofit focused on preserving digital art.
The hot run for US stocks continues, with the S&P 500’s 0.7% advance powering the benchmark index back into positive territory for the year. The tech-heavy rally saw the Nasdaq 100 gain 1.6% while the Russell 2000 rose 0.5%.
Tech was the best-performing S&P 500 sector ETF, up more than 2%, while healthcare brought up the rear with a 3% decline.
Crypto joins the club
Shares in Coinbase were up a jaw-dropping 24% yesterday, riding a broader wave that lifted fintech but also in no small part because the company has been added to the S&P 500. Dropping out of the benchmark index is Discover, the credit card company in the process of being absorbed by Capital One. The move will go into effect next week, on May 19.
Still, the news is a big deal for a lot of reasons.
First up, it’s a major moment for crypto as a whole. After years on the periphery of global markets, a company whose entire business is crypto has been invited to the adults table.
It comes at a broader inflection point for crypto. Last week, bitcoin spiked past the $100,000 price point as traders bought the coins through exchanges and increasingly popular bitcoin ETFs.
Coinbase’s invitation to the S&P 500 comes a week after it announced its plans to buy Deribit, the world’s biggest crypto options trading platform, for a whopping $2.9 billion — the largest crypto deal to date.
Joining an index does have some perks: given that there are lots of investors who just engage in a set-and-forget, buy-the-whole-market strategy, getting into the S&P 500 does get a company into a lot more boring retirement funds and 401(k)s.
The Takeaway
Either way, it’s a stroke of good luck for Coinbase at a moment when it needed a little push. Yesterday’s move undoes some of the weakness in its shares this year, which had dropped about 17% as of Monday’s close.
One of the "World's Best Bars" Is Raising the Bar
Death & Co has earned global acclaim—from features on the “World’s 50 Best Bars” list to a shelf full of hospitality awards. But the real story is in the numbers: $14M in 2024 revenue1 and 6 planned openings for 2025.
As Death & Co expands from New York to Nashville, Atlanta, Seattle, and even Australia, the team continues to scale with craft, care, and capital efficiency across bars, hotels, e-commerce, and publishing.
Now, they’re opening the door to new investors. In addition to equity in a fast-growing company, investors receive exclusive perks: priority reservations, annual happy hours, discounts, and more.2
Tomorrow is the last day to invest at the current share price. Don’t miss it.3
Cars get pricier, driving interest in the low-cost Slate EV truck
Well, that was fast. According to a new report by Cox Automotive, new vehicle prices climbed 2.5% in April from the previous month, the biggest jump in five years.
As of April, a new car will set Americans back $48,699 on average. Average transaction prices (ATP) for vehicles from GM and Tesla climbed by about $1,500 from March, while Ford’s new vehicle prices rose by more than $600. None of these are all-time highs for the automakers, as you can see by this chart, but across the board, new vehicles are hitting their highest prices of 2025.
The rise in automakers’ ATP follows a surge in panic buying from US consumers for both new and used vehicles to get ahead of President Trump’s auto tariffs, which most carmakers acknowledge lead to higher prices. GM’s US sales jumped 17% in the first quarter, while Carvana sold 46% more used cars in the same period.
So it’s no surprise that the buzzy Slate Auto EV truck, which promises a price tag of under $20,000 with the federal EV credit, has garnered 100,000 reservations in just two weeks. Of course, Tesla’s Cybertruck had more than a million reservations before the first one rolled off the lot. But despite CEO Elon Musk’s assurance that “demand is off the charts,” the company sold only 46,000 in the first year the model was out and now they’re piling up in Tesla lots, unsold.
The Takeaway
Despite Reddit posts asking, “Who in the world is gonna want to daily driver” the Slate EV, the answer seems clear: a whole heck of a lot of people. Even in the Cybertruck subreddit, the top upvoted comment is, “I dig it, it’s exactly the kind of thing I think the vehicle/EV space needs right now.” Even without the federal EV credit, which many current owners attribute their purchase to, the Slate truck will still be cheaper than any new Tesla, especially if the low-cost Model Y continues to be delayed.
Snack Fact Of The Day
The number of de minimis packages entering the country surged to more than 1.36 billion last year — the equivalent of 43 packages every single second.
THE BEST THING WE READ TODAY
Pandora’s CEO thinks lab-grown diamonds will reign in 10 years
The Danish jeweler has seen sales of lab-grown diamonds rise 88% year on year, and while that accounts for a teeny 1% of the company’s revenue, CEO Alexander Lacik says the synthetic stones are “disrupting in a big, big way.”
Creating the life you’re envisioning starts today
Where do you want to go next? Discover how DIA — the only ETF that tracks the Dow — can help you get there. With DIA, tap into 30 US blue-chip stocks in a single trade. Wherever you’re heading, getting there starts here.4
Yesterday’s Big Daily Movers
UnitedHealth shares sank after its CEO stepped down and the company suspended its full-year guidance
Palantir closed at a new record high
First Solar shone brightly after a draft GOP tax plan was less harsh on renewables incentives than expected
Hertz returned terrible results late Monday, and the stock didn’t like its massive losses
What Else We're Snackin'
Apollo’s top economist has slashed his 2025 recession odds way down from his former odds of 90%
One chart shows how much tariffs are living rent-free in Corporate America’s heads
Airbnb has revamped its app, including a relaunch of its Experiences platform, where you can join Megan Thee Stallion in anime cosplay and more
GM says EVs with a 400-mile range are on the way after a battery breakthrough
Apple is working on tech that would allow you to control your iPhone with your brain
Events
April Producer Price Index
April Retail Sales
Earnings expected from Cisco, CoreWeave, and Tencent
1 Please see p.2 of this document for further details on financials.
2 See website for further details on investor perks.
3 The minimum investment is $1,003.94. Gin & Luck is the parent hospitality group of the cocktail brand Death & Company. This is a paid advertisement for Gin & Luck Inc’s Regulation A Offering. Please read the offering circular and related risks at https://invest.deathandcompany.com/.
Note: In the Offering Circular, the terms “Gin & Luck Inc” or “Death & Co,” refers to Gin & Luck Inc., a Delaware corporation and its consolidated subsidiaries.
DealMaker Securities LLC, a registered broker-dealer, and member of FINRA | SIPC, located at 105 Maxess Road, Suite 124, Melville, NY 11747, is the Intermediary for this offering and is not an affiliate of or connected with the Issuer. Please check our background on FINRA's BrokerCheck.
4 Before investing, consider the funds' investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. To obtain a prospectus or summary prospectus which contains this and other information, call 1-866-787-2257 or visit www.ssga.com. Read it carefully. Investing involves risk. ALPS Distributors, Inc. (fund distributor); State Street Global Advisors Funds Distributors, LLC (marketing agent).