Markets Moonshot Thanks To SpaceX, AI Bets And The Iran “Deal”

This is our weekly market update where we start in the US, cross to Europe and Asia and end in Australia, covering commodities and crypto along the way. It was a positive week, with the US volatility index falling nearly 18% and the MSCI global equities index up1.16% on Friday, while the STOXX 600 in Europe rose 1.88% and the Asia Ex Japan rose 0.46%. The S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 2 per cent, to 8804 in its biggest one-day gain since April 8. Wall Street ending modestly higher as shares of Elon Musk’s SpaceX soared in their market debut, while oil prices fell more than 3% on fresh hopes for a peace deal between Iran. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.70%, the S&P 500 was up 0.50% and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.31%. 40% of the weight of the US markets are now AI related, so many eggs are going into that basket. Actually, U.S. Stocks had rallied sharply on Thursday after U.S. President Donald Trump called off attacks on Iran and announced the two countries were close to a deal to end their three-month-old war. But details of such a deal were unclear. A senior U.S. official said on Friday that negotiators for the U.S. and Iran are close to the finish line of a deal that could be signed in the coming days. The official told reporters that an agreement would include a commitment by Iran to neither develop nor procure nuclear weapons and would reopen the Strait of Hormuz to normal oil traffic and lift the U.S. blockade. But Iran’s foreign minister said that nuclear issues will be discussed in later stages and that management of the Strait of Hormuz would not return to the pre-war era. And the signing if it happens would be digital. This is of course only a memorandum of understanding, for more negotiations later, and so remains fragile. The SpaceX IPO was a bigger boost for stocks on Friday than the prospect of an Iran deal, as the AI trade remains firmly in play. The Semiconductor index, the SOX, rose 9.42% across the week, after last week’s tumble. Shares in Elon Musk’s space exploration company opened at $US150 and surged as much as 31 per cent before paring some of that advance to finish their debut session up 19.2 per cent to $US160.95 for a market cap of $US2.105 trillion. Musk’s net worth now stands at the once-unimaginable figure of $1.1 trillion, that’s more than three times that of the world’s second-richest person, Google co-founder Larry Page. SpaceX, which also includes Starlink and xAI, has already defied some Wall Street conventions. Some analysts have voiced caution, however, over the fundamentals of the company, which posted more than $4 billion in annual losses last year. For many investors, SpaceX is the closest thing to investing in the railroads during the Industrial Revolution and they are willing to pay the Elon Musk premium for that opportunity. At $75 billion, the IPO’s proceeds were more than double those of Saudi Aramco’s record-setting 2019 IPO. the big investment banks have made out like bandits – Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley will reportedly take $US100 million in fees, while Bank of America, Citigroup and JPMorgan are each expected to earn around $US75 million. One of the big narratives doing the rounds in the lead-up to the IPO concerned the idea that retail investors will provide the liquidity that will allow existing SpaceX investors to get out of this highly speculative stock at very rich valuations. Is this the latest hype, after Crypto? The bull case: vertically integrated AI giant, the bear case: 90x sales and a loss-making 2025! So, we now await the US-Iran outcome, which if positive could be a further catalyst for market optimism, but which could turn markets bearish, if things fall apart again. Meantime the AI trade supports traders despite the signals of higher inflation, risking higher rates. More volatility is likely in the days ahead. http://www.martinnorth.com/ Details of our one to one service are here: https://digitalfinanceanalytics.com/b... Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/ Find more at https://digitalfinanceanalytics.com/b... where you can subscribe to our research alerts Please consider supporting our work via Patreon:   / digitalfinanceanalytics   The full detailed set of post code data is available as a subscription service. Or make a one-off contribution to help cover our costs via PayPal at: https://www.paypal.me/MartinDFA We also can receive bitcoins at: 13zBL1oRib9VJu8Uc9zUGNhxKDBBgUpDN1 Please share this post to help to spread the word about the state of things.... Caveat Emptor! Note: this is NOT financial or property advice!! 🚨BEWARE OF SCAMMERS🚨 As there are accounts impersonating Walk The World in the comments on YouTube, note that our comments will have a distinguishable verified symbol. And remember that we will never message you asking you to give us money or talk to us on other platforms such as WhatsApp or Telegram