stock market

S&P 500 closes in on global peers after rough start to 2025

Equities, ETF equities, stock market, stocks

The S&P 500 is finally catching up to international markets after getting outperformed in the first half of 2025.

While investors with diversified portfolios have been leaning on non-US assets for returns, July is flipping the script. The US index is now outpacing major global ETFs that had previously taken the lead, including those tied to Europe, emerging markets, and ex-US world stocks.

This reversal comes even as trade tensions are ramping up again under President Donald Trump. During a call with Kristen Welker of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Trump pointed to Wall Street’s record levels as proof the tariffs are being “very well-received.” For US investors locked into the S&P 500, that confidence seems justified… at least for now.

White House targets Brazil and Canada as ETFs slide

US markets may be up, but foreign assets are under pressure. The iShares MSCI Brazil ETF (EWZ), which had been outperforming the S&P 500 earlier this year, is now down 4.6% just in July.

That drop came after Trump slapped a brutal 50% tariff on Brazilian imports this week. The iShares MSCI Canada ETF (EWC) is also falling behind, following a similar pattern. Both countries are now facing direct trade retaliation from Washington, and the market is reacting fast.

Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi, Chief Investment Officer for the Americas and Global Head of Equities at UBS Global Wealth Management, said in a note that Trump appears “emboldened to escalate trade actions” after winning some recent policy fights.

Ulrike noted that many of the most heavily weighted stocks in the S&P 500 are largely safe from these tariff shocks. “We think the index can climb to 6,500 by June next year despite periodic volatility,” she wrote. That would represent about a 4% rise from where the index stood last Friday.

The insulation Ulrike is talking about comes from the S&P 500’s heavy exposure to tech and other sectors that aren’t directly tied to the flow of physical goods.

That makes it harder for tariffs to dent the value of many big US companies. It also gives domestic stocks a cushion that international funds just don’t have right now.

US recovers dominance as global bets lose steam

During the first half of 2025, foreign markets had the upper hand—a rare situation, given the last decade of US-led performance. But by July, that dynamic has started to swing back.

Vanguard’s global ETFs excluding the US are now trailing the S&P 500, wiping out earlier gains. Investors who went all-in on diversification at the start of the year are now watching US stocks pull ahead again.

Peter Oppenheimer, Chief Global Equity Strategist at Goldman Sachs International, said US equities are still pricey. “Valuation spreads between the US and the rest of the world are at historical highs,” Peter wrote in a client memo.

Even with that, he admitted that the US has reclaimed its footing faster than expected. “After a decade of US-led dominance, the case for diversification is back,” he said, but current numbers are proving otherwise.

The S&P 500’s comeback puts pressure on global funds that were supposed to be the safe bet in a volatile election year. But that safety looks weaker now that Brazil and Canada are taking direct hits. Trump’s new tariffs are doing more damage abroad than at home, at least in the short term.

Investors with broader exposure might feel the squeeze more than those who stuck with the core US index. And with Ulrike forecasting a 6,500 level by next summer, that bet on the S&P 500 is starting to look more appealing again, even if it comes with occasional swings.

Right now, the American stock market is running hot, tariffs or not. And unless something drastic changes, July could be the point where the US fully reclaims its lead from the rest of the world.

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Securitize says native tokenization is the only true on-chain securities model

Institutional, Real World Assets, Regulation & Policy equities, stock market, stocks

Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo has declared that native tokenization is the only authentic way to represent securities on a blockchain.

Speaking to the media, Domingo said that anything less than native tokenization risks confusing investors and weakening the promise of blockchain technology.

There’s no true on-chain model for securities today—most are confined to walled gardens, Domingo argued in a recent interview. In contrast, native tokenization builds, issues, and records securities directly on the blockchain, with no intermediaries or replicas of traditional assets involved.

Exodus, a crypto software company, is one such example, with its stock trading on the Securitize platform as tokens, for one thing. Investors have a blockchain-based token that is legally the share itself. This would remove counterparty risks, operational friction, and fragmentation, common when a record of value is stored off-chain and on-chain do not tally, Domingo continued.

He also cited BlackRock’s Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), a $2.8 billion money market fund, as an example of how native tokenization can be done at scale. Rather than using a traditional fund with centralized databases and third-party custodians, Securitize acts as the fund’s on-chain transfer agent, keeping the share register for all shares on its cap table on Ethereum.

Regulators caution against synthetic token offerings

Amid the scramble in tokenization, US regulators grow increasingly weary of how securities are being redesigned on-chain, especially when the technology ostentatiously obscures legal responsibilities.

This week, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce released a statement reminding the industry and retail investors that tokenized assets are still subject to securities laws. She cautioned that blockchain’s technological properties do not alchemically alter the legal nature of an asset.

“As powerful as blockchain technology is, it does not have magical abilities to transform the nature of the underlying asset,” she wrote. “Tokenized securities are still securities.”

Her remarks come at a time of mounting anxiety that forays by non-native token models, including those recently launched by Robinhood and Kraken, are misguided.

Robinhood’s tokens debuted last month on Ethereum’s Arbitrum network and don’t correspond to direct ownership in stocks like OpenAI or Tesla. Instead, they provide “indirect exposure” to private companies via tokenized contracts. The tokens are not tradeable off the platform, are unavailable to US customers, and are subject to full KYC (Know Your Customer) checks.

Kraken has gone a different direction. It’s xStocks, which are released through the Switzerland-headquartered company Backed, are permissionless and can be traded on decentralized exchanges. But US investors remain locked out again, underscoring the tough compliance maze.

Lawyers such as Anthony Tu-Sekine, head of the blockchain group at law firm Seward & Kissel, pointed out that the legal boundaries remain clear despite technological developments.

Tokenization is the future, but it’s time to learn some hard lessons

Interest in the concept of tokenization has spiked this year as platforms race to bridge the world of traditional finance and that of crypto. However, previous experiments demonstrate that shortcuts or vague models can backfire.

Crypto exchange giants such as Binance and one-time FTX have attempted to launch tokenized stock products in recent years. Such offerings were never realized due to regulatory implications.

Abra, a digital asset platform, launched tokens based on contracts attached to US stocks and ETFs in 2019. However, after the SEC and the CFTC opened an inquiry, the company stopped the program and agreed to pay $150,000 in penalties to each organization for selling unregistered securities and breaking laws governing derivatives.

Still, regulators have been more open lately. In May, the SEC held a roundtable on tokenization that gathered a range of voices from the crypto and financial sectors.

SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda said the session was part of an effort to understand the evolving market better. He noted that, in recent history, people seemed to have forgotten one of the most basic principles—that investors and issuers possess valuable perspectives and experiences.

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Bitcoin hits a new all-time high of $112,052 amid Nvidia-led stock rally

Bitcoin, Equities, Institutional Bitcoin, equities, stock market, stocks

Bitcoin exploded to a record high of $112,052 late Wednesday afternoon, pushed up by a red-hot rally in tech stocks led by Nvidia, whose surge helped carry the rest of the market straight into the close.

The rally broke past the previous all-time high of $111,999, set back in May. At the closing bell, Bitcoin hovered around $110,947.49, up 1.9% on the day, according to Coin Metrics.

This move didn’t come out of nowhere. Bitcoin has been stuck in a tight zone for weeks, even as billions of dollars poured into Bitcoin ETFs. But it wasn’t the funds doing the heavy lifting this time.

Public companies buying Bitcoin directly outpaced the ETFs in the second quarter, giving the market its first real push in a while. Even with all that action, Bitcoin was only up 2% in the last month, until today changed the game.

Nvidia’s market cap touches $4 trillion as tech leads

Wednesday’s rally wasn’t limited to crypto. Over in equities, Nvidia briefly hit a $4 trillion market cap, becoming the first company to reach that number even for a moment.

That triggered a tech-wide boost that lifted the Nasdaq Composite to a new record close, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.6% and 0.5%, respectively. Investors also brushed off the newest tariff moves from President Donald Trump, showing they were more focused on risk assets than White House policy shifts.

The connection is simple: when traders get aggressive and pile into growth stocks, Bitcoin usually joins the ride. Despite being labeled “digital gold” by institutions, it still moves like a high-risk play. It rises and falls with stocks when sentiment turns risk-on. That’s what happened today—tech ripped, and Bitcoin followed.

Expectations for Bitcoin breaking new highs this summer have been building. Corporate treasuries have been loading up, and lawmakers in Washington, D.C. are inching closer to passing long-awaited crypto legislation. The combination of money flowing in and possible regulatory clarity is setting the table for more price jumps in the coming weeks.

Traders expect Bitcoin to run past $120K

With Crypto Week approaching in D.C., traders are getting more aggressive. Ryan Gorman, chief strategy officer at Uranium Digital, said this might just be the beginning. “With crypto week on the horizon next week in DC, and a likely flood of positive momentum heading into the dog days of summer, bullish sentiment and thinner trading volumes could see prices gap up to $120,000 or higher by the end of next week,” Ryan said. He added that open call interest outweighing puts “normally reveals traders are bullish and expect upward price momentum to continue.”

This bullish behavior has been building for a while. But what’s different now is the pace. Corporate buying is ramping up. Retail is waking back up. Options markets are leaning hard toward calls. And for once, everyone’s looking ahead instead of bracing for a sell-off.

Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures stayed mostly flat Wednesday evening. Futures for the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Dow Jones barely moved after recouping some losses from the recent tariff-driven slide earlier in the day. The calm didn’t rattle crypto traders, though. They’re still focused on momentum.

Chris Kline, the chief operating officer and cofounder of BitcoinIRA, pointed out that macroeconomic conditions haven’t changed. “The same fundamentals of a scarce asset are at play amid record-breaking budgets and debt ceilings,” Chris said. He also mentioned that the regulatory environment is becoming more crypto-friendly, and that Bitcoin is finally gaining real traction among institutional players.

But that wasn’t all. Chris also brought up growing speculation about Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s future. “The rumor mill has continued to accelerate speculation that Fed Chair Jerome Powell may either step down or be removed, which has crypto bulls excited about a potential rate cut,” he said. Lower interest rates would make risky assets like Bitcoin even more appealing.

Chris wrapped it up by saying, “This is a perfect storm for even the smallest catalyst to springboard Bitcoin and crypto overall to new price discovery levels and … more volatility.”

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Global markets aren’t buying Trump’s tariff threats this time

Equities equities, stock market, stocks

Global stocks are breaking records in 2025 while Donald Trump keeps yelling tariffs from the White House. Investors clearly aren’t flinching. They’ve heard it before. And this time, they’re not pulling money out of the system.

According to CNBC, the MSCI All Country World Index, which tracks over 2,500 stocks worldwide, jumped nearly 10% since January and hit an all-time high on July 4.

Greece, Poland, and the Czech Republic are leading the global pack with massive year-to-date gains. Greece is up nearly 60%, Poland jumped 56%, and the Czech Republic hit 52%, all beating out the US, which only managed about 7% during the same stretch.

Europe gains while American stocks crawl

Greece’s equity surge is backed by a mix of banking gains, economic recovery, and tourist dollars. Gabriel Sacks, who leads global emerging markets equities at Aberdeen, said Greece has been ahead in Eastern Europe for a while, thanks to its economy bouncing back, cleaned-up banks, and a strong tourism season. Investors also liked that the Greek government started paying back its bailout debt early and kept running fiscal surpluses.

George Efstathopoulos, a multi-asset manager at Fidelity International, said Greek stocks should keep climbing because of how well Greek banks are doing. Poland and the Czech Republic followed close behind, with strong year-to-date performances. Among the ten top-performing markets globally, eight are in Europe. Alongside Greece, Poland, and the Czech Republic, other top performers include Spain, Italy, and Germany.

Michael Field, the EMEA Chief Equity Market Strategist at Morningstar, said the “sell America” trend at the start of the year and improving economic numbers in Europe pulled cash into those markets. Michelle Gibley, Director of International Research at Schwab, said Germany’s break from austerity also helped fuel growth.

Defense and bank stocks in Europe are performing well and facing less risk from US tariffs. Mark Mobius, who chairs the Mobius Emerging Opportunities Fund, said those sectors are safer from Trump’s trade policies and still producing solid returns.

Meanwhile, US stocks took a hit earlier in the year as investors fled Trump’s chaotic economic messaging. But by midyear, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq managed to recover and hit fresh highs. Still, their total growth this year is low compared to the booming European markets.

Asia splits as Korea rises and Thailand crashes

Asia’s performance is all over the place. South Korea has been one of the few bright spots, jumping over 30% year-to-date. That came despite Trump putting a 25% tariff on Korean exports and political drama back home. Daniel Yoo, a global strategist at Yuanta Securities, said the market already expected the tariffs and priced them in. He thinks there’s still a chance those tariffs get reduced if talks drag out until August 1, the deadline for the countries still negotiating with Trump’s White House.

Manishi Raychaudhuri, the CEO at Emmer Capital Partners, said Korean exporters might survive Trump’s trade hits because US buyers would probably just eat the extra costs. Investors were also optimistic after Lee Jae-myung from the opposition party won a snap election in June, replacing Yoon Suk Yeol. Yoon had tried to declare martial law earlier in the year and got forced out. Morningstar’s senior analyst Kai Wang said sectors like shipbuilding and high-bandwidth AI chip manufacturing helped fuel Korea’s growth.

China’s stock market climbed more than 17% this year, even while staying in Trump’s crosshairs. Steven Sun, head of research at HSBC Qianhai Securities, said investors expect the yuan to strengthen, earnings to improve, and policies to help. But he warned there’s no major stimulus planned, so pressure remains on China’s overall growth.

Thailand is at the very bottom. Its market dropped more than 13% in 2025, dragged down by political messes, weak tourism, and US auto tariffs that hit Thai car part exports. Sacks said the country is still trying to crawl out of the Covid-era slump.

Right above Thailand sits Turkey, where inflation, capital flight, and political repression continue to scare off investors. Sacks said any hopes for recovery disappeared when Istanbul’s mayor was arrested. Mobius added that the Turkish lira collapsing by almost 13% against the US dollar didn’t help either.

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Tesla crashes along with gold and S&P 500 as Bitcoin makes highest weekly close ever

Bitcoin, Equities, ETF Bitcoin, equities, stock market, stocks

Tesla stock opened the week with a red candle, falling to $315.35, a 0.095% dip that lined up with a broader selloff across US equities and metals.

The drop hit as Bitcoin blew through resistance and ended the June 29 week with its highest weekly close ever. The action split risk markets in two. Stocks went down, crypto went up.

As per usual, the trigger came straight out of Washington after President Donald Trump confirmed on Sunday that new tariffs will begin August 1, not July 9 as markets had priced in.

The news sent US stock futures into a tailspin Sunday night. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 146 points, down 0.32%. S&P 500 futures lost 0.39% and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.42%. Trump didn’t make the announcement alone.

Standing beside him was Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who told reporters, “Tariffs go into effect Aug. 1. But the president is setting the rates, and the deals, right now.” Trump nodded in agreement, ending the market’s weekend hopes. The update came after days of guessing by investors and left Wall Street hanging just as they were coming off a strong week.

Bitcoin makes history as ETF inflows build

Bitcoin managed to stay above $108,500 before closing Sunday at over $109,000, according to data from CoinGecko. Over the past month, nearly 50,000 BTC moved into US spot ETFs, signaling strong institutional demand.

Based on their flow-to-price model, the next major target sits at $117,000. That model has tracked closely with price action in previous cycles, especially during aggressive ETF accumulation. Market analysts are calling it “whale games,” as large buyers quietly accumulate while retail watches from the sidelines.

While Bitcoin moved up, metals moved down. Gold, which had gained almost 2% last week, gave back ground and hovered around $3,325 per ounce on Monday. It’s still up over 25% in 2025 and is sitting just under $170 shy of its April record.

ETF inflows and central bank demand have kept gold up this year, but short-term traders pulled back after the White House announcement.

S&P 500 loses steam after tariff delay creates confusion

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed the new tariff date during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” earlier Sunday. “If there’s no deal, tariffs go back to April 2 levels on August 1,” he said. That announcement set expectations that major duties could return unless a breakthrough is made in trade talks. Most investors had planned around tariffs starting this week. That now looks wrong.

The original 90-day pause from April’s “reciprocal” tariffs was set to expire Tuesday, with an EU agreement deadline hitting Wednesday. If no deal is struck with the European Union, tariffs up to 50% on EU goods are expected.

Last week’s stock rally came from the belief that Trump wouldn’t actually follow through with the most extreme tariff threats. That optimism collapsed. Still, some traders are holding out hope. They believe US firms will beat weak earnings expectations if they can show they’re ready to handle tariffs.

The US Dollar Index dipped slightly to 96.90, while China’s Renminbi fell 0.07% to 7.1656. The Japanese Yen also slipped to 0.0069, with a minor move of +0.0000090. Other currencies, including the euro, pound, and ruble, are also trading just below neutral.

Silver, unlike gold, ripped to $37.225, the highest price seen in nearly 14 years. That spike stood out in a market dominated by selling pressure.

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US Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra expresses optimism for an end to the US-Canada trade negotiation

Equities, Regulation & Policy equities, stock market, stocks

The US ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, expressed optimism about ongoing trade negotiations between the two nations, suggesting that President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney could soon reach a fair and mutually beneficial deal.

Speaking at an Independence Day event in Ottawa, Hoekstra noted that both leaders have dedicated negotiators working on the deal. He envisioned a scenario where each leader could proudly tell their citizens, “I secured a fantastic deal for my Canada.” Hoekstra further speculated that at that moment, they would have a president who could say, ‘I got a great deal for the USA.’

Based on his argument, this was possibly a ” win-win situation.”

Hoekstra expresses optimism for an end to the US-Canada trade negotiation

The US, Canada, and Mexico already have a trade agreement that Trump signed in his first term. The president, however, has avoided it, setting tariffs of up to 50% on imported steel and aluminum and duties on cars and trucks. Interestingly, Canada plays an important role in exporting all of those goods.

On the other hand, the Canadian government imposed counter-tariffs on tens of billions of dollars worth of American-made goods. This included automobiles and other consumer goods.

Notably, Carney, Canada’s prime minister since March, chose not to respond when Trump raised the tariffs on steel and aluminum weeks ago.

Meanwhile, trade talks restarted between the United States and Canada immediately after Ottawa removed a digital services tax, which the US objected to, according to White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett. Hassett stated that when he was asked about the talks starting up again.

This came after Mark Carney telephoned US President Donald Trump to inform him that the tax was being canceled, the White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters, describing it as a big win for US tech firms.

Leavitt described this as straightforward, referring to Prime Minister Carney giving in to President Trump and the US. She praised Trump’s tough negotiating approach for the change.

The secretary further stated that President Trump understands that every country needs to have strong trade ties with the US. Based on Leavitt’s argument, Canada made a mistake by promising to put in place a tax that would have harmed their tech companies.

The two leaders agreed on a July 21 deadline for reaching an agreement.

Hoekstra, who used to be a member of the US House of Representatives from Michigan, which relies heavily on trade with Canada, asserted that they will get through this. He then concluded that when this is all over, they will be stronger and better than they were at the start.

Canada drops its digital services tax on the US, resulting in a trade deal with the nation

Canada backed off a plan to start imposing a new digital services tax aimed at US technology giants just hours before it came into effect in hopes of helping move forward the halted trade talks with the US.

This was after Trump asked Canada to drop the tax at a G7 meeting in Canada earlier in June. According to Hassett, this is something that they had studied, and now they had agreed to it. Therefore, Hassett anticipated that they could get back to the negotiations.

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick commented on the situation in a post on X. Lutnick expressed gratitude to Canada for removing its Digital Services Tax. According to him, it was intended to stifle American innovation and would have been a deal breaker for any trade deal with America.

As a result of this change, stocks reached new highs on Wall Street as market sentiment lifted on hopes that the US would make progress on its trade negotiations with major trading partners, including Canada.

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President Trump pushes simple tariff deals as deadline pressures mount

Equities, Regulation & Policy equities, stock market, stocks

President Donald Trump said that his administration will begin notifying trading partners of a sweeping new round of US tariffs on their exports, with duties set to take effect August 1.

The move marks a major escalation in his push for what he calls “reciprocal” trade and comes just five days ahead of a self-imposed July 9 deadline for countries to strike deals with the US.

Trump told reporters that “10 or 12” letters will be sent Friday, with additional notices expected in the following days. “By the ninth, they’ll be fully covered,” he said, referring to the expiration of the 90-day window he provided when initially announcing the tariff plan on April 2. The new tariffs could range from 10% to 70%, surpassing his earlier maximum of 50%.

Trump pushes simple tariff deals as deadline pressures mount

Trump reaffirmed his preference for direct tariff implementation over drawn-out negotiations, saying, “It’s much easier. I’d rather just do a simple deal where you can maintain it and control it.”

He confirmed that payments from the tariffs would start flowing into the US beginning August 1. While importers or intermediaries pay tariffs, the ultimate cost is often passed to consumers or absorbed in profit margins.

As the deadline nears, talks with key economies — including South Korea, Indonesia, the EU, and Switzerland — are in a critical phase. Bloomberg Economics estimates the average tariff on US imports could rise to 20% from just 3% before Trump took office.

So far, only the UK and Vietnam have finalized agreements. A deal with China has resulted in a truce, easing tit-for-tat measures and loosening export restrictions.

This week, Trump unveiled the Vietnam deal, which imposes a 20% tariff on Vietnamese exports and a 40% tariff on transshipped goods. Though lower than the initial 46%, the rates exceed the interim 10%. Vietnam, however, says negotiations are still ongoing.

Global trade partners scramble for last-minute deals as tariff deadline looms

Indonesia expressed optimism about finalizing a bold trade pact covering minerals, energy, and defense cooperation. Cambodia announced it had agreed on a reciprocal trade framework, with details to be made public soon. Trump had threatened Cambodia with a 49% tariff, one of the steepest.

Japan, South Korea, and EU members are still finalizing accords. Some European automakers are pushing for tariff relief in exchange for increased US investment.

South Korea’s top trade envoy is expected to visit Washington this weekend with fresh proposals in a last-minute attempt to avoid new tariffs.

Trump has remained optimistic about reaching a deal with India but has sharply criticized Japan, describing it as a tough negotiator. This week, he said Japan might face tariffs as high as 35%.

Despite growing concerns, Trump insisted there would be no delay to the deadline. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed Thursday that the president would decide whether countries negotiated in good faith and whether any extensions were warranted.

“We’re going to do what the president wants,” Bessent said on CNBC.

Markets slide, and fed holds firm as Trump’s tariff threats rattle the global economy

Global markets reacted swiftly. Stocks in Asia and Europe dropped, and the US dollar weakened. American equity and bond markets were closed for the Fourth of July holiday.

Federal Reserve officials remain cautious, with some warning that increased tariffs could stoke inflation — a concern that’s kept interest rate cuts off the table despite pressure from the White House.

As Trump moves to reshape global trade through unilateral action, trading partners face a stark choice: strike a deal now or pay the price come August.

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OpenAI says Robinhood’s tokenized shares aren’t real equity

Equities, Exchange News, Legal & Crime, Real World Assets equities, stock market, stocks

OpenAI has made it clear that Robinhood’s new crypto offering does not represent real equity in its company.

OpenAI took to X to warn users that “these ‘OpenAI tokens’ are not OpenAI equity,” stressing that the firm had no role in the rollout, no partnership with Robinhood, and does not back the tokenized shares.

Your “equity” is fake

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 2, 2025

The statement went on to note that any genuine transfer of OpenAI stock would need the company’s direct sign-off, something it did not grant, and urged investors to “please be careful.”

Shortly after OpenAI’s warning, Elon Musk replied on X to the company’s post, writing, “Your ‘equity’ is fake,” further fueling debate over the legitimacy of tokenized shares.

Robinhood unveiled the tokenized shares on Monday in Cannes, France, as part of a broader showcase of its plans in digital assets. The product launch, which also covered staking services and new blockchain infrastructure, helped lift Robinhood’s share price past the $100 mark, setting a fresh record.

Robinhood defends tokenized shares as “indirect exposure”

In a reply to OpenAI’s notice, a Robinhood spokesperson explained that the tokens offer “indirect exposure to private markets” for retail clients. They added that this access is made possible by “Robinhood’s ownership stake in a special purpose vehicle”.

Under the new scheme, eligible users in the European Union who register to trade these tokenized equities by July 7 receive €5 worth of OpenAI and SpaceX tokens. These digital assets fall under Europe’s more flexible investor rules and trade on Robinhood’s crypto platform.

Johann Kerbrat, senior vice president and general manager of crypto at Robinhood, said the aim was to expand access and bring more people into private markets through tokenization.

The incident underscores a clash between crypto platforms trying to make investing easier and the companies whose names and shares they’re turning into tokens.

Investors in the United States remain barred from buying these tokens because of stricter domestic regulations. To date, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has not given the green light for such products.

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Indexes break records while earnings chatter grows louder

Equities equities, stock market, stocks

Stocks kept pushing higher Sunday night as traders and investors ended June with risk still very much on the table. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures both rose by 0.1%, while Dow futures climbed 130 points, or 0.3%, according to data from CNBC.

The market is now grinding toward the end of a strong month, even with global trade threats still lingering under Donald Trump’s second term. Traders are reacting fast to every development, but so far, the worst of Trump’s tariff moves haven’t hit, and that’s kept money flowing into stocks.

The gains come after weeks of volatile headlines out of Washington and Beijing, with investors watching every trade comment. For now, the fear that tariff threats might become full-blown policies hasn’t played out. That relief helped the S&P 500 rally 4.4% in June.

The Nasdaq, stacked with tech names, is up almost 6.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added around 3.7%. This rally has been fast and loud. Just two months ago in April, the S&P 500 was nearly 18% underwater for the year. Now it’s closing out the month with a fresh four-month high, finishing Friday’s session 0.5% higher at 6,173.07, overtaking the previous record of 6,147.43.

Indexes break records while earnings chatter grows louder

The Nasdaq Composite ended Friday at an all-time high too, rising 0.5% by the close. The Dow finished the week nearly 1% higher. The move wasn’t just driven by lower fear around trade. Company earnings are starting to guide the conversation again.

John Butters, senior earnings analyst at FactSet, said more S&P 500 companies are giving optimistic guidance than usual. Of the 110 companies that have issued EPS guidance so far for the second quarter, 51 issued upbeat projections. That’s better than the five-year average of 42 and the 10-year average of 39. Still, it’s not all sunshine. 59 companies gave negative EPS guidance.

Even though some companies are hopeful, the actual growth rate for Q2 is expected to be slower. John said the estimated year-over-year earnings growth is around 5%, which would be the weakest since the final quarter of 2023. That contrast between good vibes and slowing numbers is exactly what’s keeping traders from going all-in. Everyone’s bullish, but no one wants to be caught holding the bag.

Europe runs ahead of Wall Street while Asia follows cautiously

Across the Atlantic, European markets outperformed their US peers in the first half of 2025. The Stoxx 600, covering broad European stocks, is up 7% year-to-date. Germany’s DAX has soared 20%, Italy’s FTSE MIB is up 16%, and Spain’s IBEX 35 has also climbed 20%.

Even the UK’s FTSE 100, usually more sluggish, is up 7.7%. But the rally is making analysts nervous. Some are unsure if Europe can keep up the momentum, especially with the eurozone’s own political mess brewing.

Asian markets opened higher Monday as investors worked through industrial production numbers from Japan and South Korea, plus manufacturing activity from China. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 1.13% in early trading. The Topix index also rose 0.77%.

Over in Seoul, the Kospi added 0.63%, while the smaller-cap Kosdaq went flat. Australia’s ASX 200 opened 0.3% higher. In Hong Kong, futures for the Hang Seng Index pointed to a weak open, standing at 24,182. That’s below Friday’s close of 24,284.15.

Away from stocks, gold stayed soft. It dropped after two straight weeks of losses, with risk appetite taking over. Investors are waiting for Trump’s administration to finalize multiple trade deals before the July 9 deadline. That risk-on mood is cutting into demand for safe-haven assets.

Early Monday, bullion dropped as much as 0.8%, before recovering some of those losses. As of 8:24 a.m. local time, spot gold was down 0.2% to $3,269.16 per ounce. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was off 0.1%. Silver and palladium also fell, while platinum rose.

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Bitcoin dives, rebounds, then tanks again as ETF flows collapse

Bitcoin, ETF, Institutional Bitcoin, equities, ETF, stock market, stocks

Markets went straight into meltdown mode Sunday night after the United States bombed Iran in a direct military strike and Iran retaliated by shutting down Strait of Hormuz, the most important oil route on the planet.

That has triggered violent selloffs across every major market, from stocks to Bitcoin, from oil to the dollar and the euro. The world’s financial system is now reacting like it just got sucker punched. Its unlike anything we have ever seen.

Oil was first to go wild. In the first trading session after the futures market opened, US crude rose $1.76, or 2.38%, to $75.60 per barrel. Brent crude climbed $1.80, or 2.34%, landing at $78.81. Brent even briefly touched $81, which was a 5.7% spike, before it slipped back.

By press time, the price gains were gone. Oil was down 0.5%, which made no sense to anyone watching. Traders are now locked on Tehran, waiting to see what it does next. Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran’s foreign minister, said Sunday that Iran reserves “all options” to defend its sovereignty. S&P Global Platts noted the price surge could reverse entirely if Iran chooses not to respond.

Bitcoin dives, rebounds, then tanks again as ETF flows collapse

The crypto market didn’t waste a second. Bitcoin had dropped to $98,000 on Sunday. That was its lowest point in over a month. Less than an hour later, it swung back above $102,000, before slipping again. At the time of writing, it sat at $100,879. The market was a disaster. More than $1 billion in crypto positions were liquidated in just 24 hours, and over 95% were long bets.

Stocks, oil, gold, Bitcoin, dollar, and euro keep crashing and rebounding in historic show of volatility — Source: TradingView

Things got uglier when inflows into spot Bitcoin ETFs dried up. Between Monday and Wednesday, $1.04 billion had gone in, based on CoinGlass data. But by Thursday, that number was flat. On Friday, just $6.4 million came in. That was the same day President Donald Trump left the G7 early and announced a two-week review of US options on Iran.

The assumption that Bitcoin would act like a safe haven collapsed. It started trading like a risky tech stock instead. Kaiko, a crypto data provider, said Bitcoin’s correlation with the Nasdaq had surged quite fast in recent weeks.

Stock indexes bleed across Asia, Europe, and US futures

Futures tied to US stocks also started dropping. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 109 points, or 0.3%. S&P 500 futures lost 0.3%, while Nasdaq 100 futures were down 0.4%.

Asian markets opened deep in the red too. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 dropped 0.56%, and the Topix fell 0.49%. The worst-hit companies were all in tech: Screen Holdings crashed 4.78%, Lasertec Corp sank 4.31%, and Disco Corp went down 3.38%. Big names like Advantest and Softbank didn’t escape either, falling 1.66% and 0.76%.

It was the same story in South Korea. The Kospi index lost 1.05%. The Kosdaq, which includes smaller-cap companies, got hit even harder, down 1.78%. The country’s top automakers took the brunt. Hyundai Motor shares dropped 4.05%, and Kia Corp fell 4.15%.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 also took a dive, down 0.76%. In Hong Kong, futures for the Hang Seng Index pointed to more losses. They stood at 23,396, well below the index’s last close of 23,530.48, suggesting more downside ahead.

Japanese carmakers had no luck either. As of press time, Nissan Motor dropped 2.22%, and Mazda Motor was down 2.17%. Mitsubishi Motors lost 1.87%, Honda Motor slid 1.55%, and Toyota dropped 1.36%.

Over in Europe, markets weren’t much better. The IBEX 35 rose 0.77%, closing at 13,850.3, and Germany’s DAX jumped 1.27% to 23,350.55. But the FTSE in London dropped 0.2% to 8,774.65, and France’s CAC 40 was completely flat at 7,589.66. The STOXX600, a broader European index, barely moved, up just 0.13% to 536.53. And the euro was trading at $1.15 against the dollar after going as high as $1.8 just an hour ago.

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