Trade wars, CPI, and Trump/Powell… Bitcoin soars to new highs – what about altcoins?… the latest on AI and jobs… last call for Louis Navellier… good macro news
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It’s a big week for investment markets.
Over the weekend, President Trump unveiled a 30% tariff on goods from both the European Union and Mexico to begin on August 1.
He added that if either trading partner retaliates “then, whatever the number you choose to raise them by, will be added on to the 30% that we charge.”
Additional announcements on tariffs this week are likely.
Next, tomorrow brings the latest Consumer Price Index report.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has said for months that Fed models predict higher tariff-impacted prices are coming – much to the dismay of President Trump who has cited low inflation readings to push for lower rates.
Tomorrow’s CPI data could vindicate Powell if hot or fuel another attack from Trump if cool.
Meanwhile, the ongoing feud between Trump and Powell has heated up. In recent days, reports have circulated that Powell is considering resigning in the wake of Trump’s recent attack on Fed spending.
Here’s The New York Post:
The insider said Powell “had been feeling the heat” and has grown “fatigued “since The Post broke the story in April about how Fed bureaucrats had blown $2.5 billion on the revamp of its DC offices that Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) said was akin to the “Palace of Versailles.”
A Powell resignation has market-moving potential.
Finally, Q2 earnings season is starting.
The big banks kick things off tomorrow. The question is whether corporate earnings strength and forward guidance can overshadow the market’s overhangs including trade wars and inflation risk.
So, there are plenty of potential shoes to drop out there. We’ll keep you updated.
Bitcoin is setting fresh record highs, trading at nearly $122,000 earlier in today’s session
So, what’s behind the buying?
First, hints of a more dovish Federal Reserve.
Last Wednesday, the Fed released the minutes from its latest FOMC meeting. They revealed a growing divide among Fed officials on the pace and scale of potential interest rate cuts. While not a full-throated pivot, the mere hint that some policymakers are leaning dovish was enough to stir risk appetite.
Keep in mind, central banks in other major economies – notably the ECB and Bank of Canada – are already well into their easing cycles. That creates a broader liquidity tailwind that spills over into risk assets globally, including crypto.
Next, there’s the potential for increased government debt created by the recently passed “Big, Beautiful Bill” from President Trump. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that by Fiscal Year (FY) 2034 the bill will increase government debt by nearly $3 trillion.
This is a buy signal for Bitcoin, which often trades as a hedge against monetary debasement. Investors who want to protect the purchasing power of their wealth are looking for hard, scarce assets. Bitcoin fits the bill perfectly.
Next up is a wave of corporate buying. For this, let’s go to CNBC:
Corporate treasuries have surpassed ETFs in bitcoin buying for a third consecutive quarter…
Public companies acquired about 131,000 coins in the second quarter, growing their bitcoin balance 18%, according to data provider Bitcoin Treasuries. ETFs showed an 8% increase or about 111,000 BTC in the same period.
Finally, investors are excited about “crypto week.”
Today, the House begins deliberating on a series of bills impacting the crypto community. The goal is to clarify regulations affecting digital assets.
Investors are eyeing the Genius Act in particular. It would set federal standards for U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins and open the door for private firms to issue digital versions of the dollar.
Given all these tailwinds, what sort of returns are on the table for Bitcoin today?
Let’s go to crypto expert Luke Lango. Back in May, he predicted how high Bitcoin will climb this year.
From Luke’s Crypto Investor Network issue:
As macroeconomic chaos eases and crypto deregulation hopes take center stage, the whole crypto market should surge higher over the next several months.
We see Bitcoin at $150,000 by late summer and potentially $200,000 by the end of the year.
With Bitcoin trading at nearly $122,000 as I write Monday, that puts Luke’s “late summer” milestone of $150,000 about 23% higher – an easily attainable goal given Bitcoin’s high-octane potential.
Luke believes an altcoin rally is fast approaching
Given its monster size, Bitcoin outperforms smaller altcoins early in the cycle. This “Bitcoin dominance” makes sense as the sector is coming out of its prior bust. Bruised investors are in “safety” mode, focusing on what they consider to be the biggest, strongest assets. For crypto, that’s Bitcoin by a mile.
But as the cycle continues, gains snowball, investor confidence returns, and animal spirits take over. Eventually, emboldened investors begin rotating out of Bitcoin into smaller altcoins in search of bigger gains.
Now, this isn’t happening yet. Bitcoin is still on the receiving end of the lion’s share of crypto capital. But leading altcoins are beginning to move.
Let’s go back to Luke:
The real fireworks [last week] came from the altcoin camp.
Ethereum surged 15%. XRP jumped 14%. Dogecoin barked its way up 16%. Stellar rocketed 26%. And a whole list of others — including Cardano, Hyperliquid, Sui, Chainlink, Hedera, and Shiba Inu — all rallied more than 10%.
In fact, more than half of the top 100 altcoins gained over 10% this week. Nearly 30 of them were up more than 15%. A dozen popped more than 20%.
And the CMC Altcoin Season Index soared to 30 — its highest level in a month.
Here’s Luke’s overall bottom line as we look ahead to the end of summer:
We see BTC sprinting toward $150,000 — and likely overshooting.
We see alts playing catch-up in dramatic fashion. We see a market that’s finally waking up to the reality that crypto is not only here to stay… it’s on the verge of going mainstream in a way we’ve never seen before.
So, stay positioned. Stay bullish. And stay sharp. Because this rocket ship is just leaving the launchpad.
Meet Devin: Wall Street’s newest (and non-human) engineer
Last Friday, we learned that Goldman Sachs just hired an engineer who never eats, never sleeps, and never complains about meetings…
It’s an AI named “Devin.”
Developed by a startup called Cognition Labs, Devin is an “autonomous software engineer” – not just a chatbot that answers coding questions, but a full-stack agent that can independently plan and execute entire software projects.
In early demos, Devin has built apps from scratch, debugged code, learned new technologies on the fly, and documented its own work.
According to Cognition, Devin can complete about 13.86% of real-world coding tasks on the SWE-bench (a benchmark used to evaluate the software engineering capabilities of large language models). This is far beyond prior AI systems, including GPT-4, which scored less than 2%.
To be clear, Devin doesn’t replace every engineer. But it does mark a leap forward in the trend we’ve profiled here in the Digest: Agentic AI.
These are AI systems that can reason, make decisions, and perform multi-step tasks without human micromanagement. Rather than just answering questions like ChatGPT, agentic AIs take initiative, handle ambiguity, and operate more like digital employees.
As regular Digest readers know, this is just the beginning
From warehouse robots to AI paralegals, the agentic wave is gathering speed.
McKinsey recently estimated that generative AI could automate work equivalent to 60–70% of employee time across sectors like finance, law, software, and customer service. And Goldman Sachs projects that two-thirds of U.S. jobs could be affected by AI to some degree, with up to 300 million jobs disrupted globally.
Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean mass unemployment – though that’s a risk – but at a minimum, it means massive reshuffling. From coding, research, analytics, and even creative work, everything is about to have some version of “AI-assisted.”
There are a few implications:
- For employers, this means higher productivity with lower headcounts…
- For investors, it means investing in the companies building or embracing these agentic tools, benefiting from all that higher productivity via fatter profit margins…
- And for workers, it’s a wake-up call. Knowing how to work with AI might be the most important skill of the decade.
Bottom line: AI continues barreling toward us. Make sure you’re ready.
For the latest idea on being “ready,” legendary investor Louis Navellier is spotlighting leading rare earth elements (REEs) providers
To make sure we’re all on the same page, REEs are essential components in advanced technology, electric vehicles, wind turbines, and national defense systems.
Basically, if it’s an advanced tech product, it requires REEs.
Last week, Louis held a special broadcast that delved into why this is such an attractive investment opportunity today. Here’s the quick set-up:
- The U.S. needs REEs for all its next-gen AI technologies
- Currently, about 80% of the REEs that we need come from China
- An Executive Order from President Trump is set to kickstart a massive national AI infrastructure buildout focused on domestic REEs
- A handful of under-the-radar stocks stand to benefit
During Louis’ broadcast last Wednesday, he revealed one of his top picks to attendees – MP Materials (MP).
The very next morning, the Pentagon announced a $400 million investment into MP Materials, instantly positioning the company as a strategic national security play – and sending its stock soaring 51% on Thursday.
The gains have continued – the stock is up 59% since Louis revealed it to attendees. But back to Louis for why this is just the beginning:
This is just the first domino to fall, folks.
At last [week’s] briefing, I also introduced a special report highlighting five additional smaller, lesser-known companies.
MP Materials already had a market cap of about $5 billion. So, these other picks could deliver even more upside than MP Materials as this national AI buildout continues. (In fact, one of them already popped 10% on the news [last Thursday], too.)
Frankly, I wouldn’t be shocked to see more announcements like this.
To catch a free replay of Louis’ broadcast last week and learn more about his five additional stocks, click here. I’ll note that tomorrow is the final day the video will be available. So, if you’ve been meaning to watch, this is last call.
Let’s end with some positive macro news
Last week, we learned that trade wars aren’t having an impact on private-sector jobs.
Applications for unemployment benefits fell to a nearly two-month low.
Here’s MarketWatch:
Initial jobless claims dropped by 5,000 to 227,000 to in the seven days ended July 5, based on seasonally adjusted data, the government said Thursday.
What’s more, the actual or unadjusted number of new jobless claims was virtually identical to the low levels that prevailed in the same week one year earlier.
Now, even though layoffs are low, it’s taking longer for job seekers to find new work. As we’ve profiled in past Digests, we’re in a “low hire, low fire” jobs market.
But for today, we’ll focus on the “low fire” part of the equation. The labor market isn’t exactly booming, but it’s holding its ground.
Of course, the question is what happens when a wave of overachievers like Devin start clocking in…
We’ll keep you updated.
Have a good evening,
Jeff Remsburg
