Nvidia’s Market Cap, the TXSE, Robinhood, and More!
Editor’s Note: Happy Friday, dear reader!
Nvidia’s Market Cap Moves Beyond $3T
Nvidia (NSDQ: NVDA) has been on a roll since last year. Year to date, shares of the chipmaker have surged by more than 150%. And over the last five years, Nvidia shares have gained an incredible 3,300%.
Nvidia has also been credited with bolstering the S&P 500; NVDA shares account for roughly one-third of the index’s gains so far in 2024. So far this year, the S&P 500 has roughly 13%.
So it probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that Nvidia’s market cap overtook that of Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) this week.
On Wednesday, the company’s valuation surged beyond $3 trillion for the first time ever. Nvidia is now the second-most valuable publicly traded company, after Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT).
Nvidia designs hardware critical to artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Its products are in hot demand, pushing Nvidia far ahead of rivals such as Intel (NSDQ: INTC) and Advanced Micro Devices (NSDQ: AMD).
In fact, it’s been estimated that Nvidia controls roughly 80% of the market for AI chips used in data centers.
This demand pushed Nvidia to report a 427% year-over-year increase in its revenue from its data center business for the most recent quarter. This segment accounted for nearly 90% of the company’s quarterly sales.
A New Bourse on the Block?
This week, a LinkedIn post indicated that the creation of a Texas-based national stock exchange has taken a step closer to becoming a reality.
According to James Lee, the chairman and CEO of TXSE, the project has raised more than $120 million from investors that include BlackRock (NYSE: BLK) and Citadel Securities.
“Texas’s booming economy and the strong economic and population growth among states in the southeast quadrant of the U.S. present incredible opportunities for businesses — and ultimately, the Texas Stock Exchange,” Lee wrote.
According to an earlier report from The Wall Street Journal, the TXSE is intended to be a “more-CEO friendly” exchange than the Nasdaq or the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and to address “disaffection with increasing compliance costs.”
Still, the TXSE will be registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The exchange intends to begin trading in 2025. And apparently, its operations will function entirely online but will be based out of Dallas — where Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) happens to be building a major new campus.
“The Texas Stock Exchange will focus on enabling U.S. and global companies to access U.S. equity capital markets and will provide a venue to trade and list public companies and the growing universe of exchange-traded products,” a statement on the TXSE website says.
According to James Lee, there’s a growing demand for exchanges on which companies can list their stocks. “Changes in equities trading markets are driving more volume to exchanges and more choices for issuers and sponsors,” he said.
“TXSE will ultimately create more competition around quote activity, liquidity, and transparency, resulting in more consistent and reliable markets.”
Why Robinhood Wants to Buy Bitstamp
Trading platform Robinhood (NSDQ: HOOD) announced this week that it has agreed to purchase Bitstamp, a cryptocurrency exchange based in the U.K.
The all-cash deal is worth $200 million and is expected to close in the first half of next year, according to a company statement.
“The acquisition of Bitstamp is a major step in growing our crypto business,” Robinhood Crypto’s general manager, Johann Kerbrat, said. “Bitstamp’s highly trusted and long-standing global exchange has shown resilience through market cycles. By seamlessly coupling customer experience with safety across geographies, the Bitstamp team has established one of the strongest reputations across retail and institutional crypto investors.
“Through this strategic combination, we are better positioned to expand our footprint outside of the U.S. and welcome institutional customers to Robinhood.”
Bitstamp is one of Europe’s largest crypto exchanges, offering spot trading for more than 85 cryptocurrencies.
By purchasing Bitstamp, Robinhood could not only open itself up to institutional crypto trading but and expand its customer base around the globe and also get ahead of Coinbase (NSDQ: COIN), which is also looking to grow its cryptocurrency operations beyond the U.S.
Robinhood first started allowing its users to trade Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) back in 2018. Since then, the company has steadily worked to build out its cryptocurrency offerings.
Is the Labor Market Getting Back to “Normal”?
According to the latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), the number of job vacancies in the U.S. fell to the lowest point in more than three years in April.
The JOLTS report indicated that there were 8.06 million unfilled positions on the final business day of April. That’s the lowest reading since February 2021.
It’s also lower than what economists had been expecting. The consensus had been estimating 8.36 million job openings.
According to the Labor Department, unemployment also rose in April, to 6.39 million. There are now 1.24 open jobs for every job seeker in the U.S. That’s a return to the pre-COVID days, when, in March 2020, there were 1.2 job openings per unemployed person.
Take a look:
You will find more infographics at Statista
As Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has repeatedly said, the central bank is waiting on the labor market to rebalance itself before initiating the first rate cut of the current cycle.
Although it’s unlikely the Fed will slash rates at its June or July meetings, according to the CME FedWatch Tool, the futures markets are pricing in the likelihood of a cut in September.
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