markets

Luke Kawa2/3/25

Bitcoin and ethereum tumble as traders learn the “Crypto President” is also “Tariff Man”

Shortly before his inauguration, Donald Trump hosted a Crypto Ball. A week into his new administration, the president started a Crypto Bail.

Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum have been some of the most reactive assets to President Trump’s executive orders that slap a levy of 25% on most Canadian and Mexican imports and 10% on Chinese imports effective on Tuesday.

The $TRUMP meme coin, which launched shortly before the inauguration and briefly hit a market cap of $70 billion, has also been in retreat, losing nearly a third of its value over the past week.

0.00%

Today

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies often behave like hyper-leveraged versions of US tech stocks, something we saw quite starkly in the aftermath of the November 5 election to the upside and are seeing recently to the downside.

It’s still early days, but it probably doesn’t help that the high expectations the crypto industry has for this presidency have yet to been met, with any creation of a strategic bitcoin reserve still TBD.

More Markets

See all Markets

markets

Spotify notches another quarter of strong active user growth and improved profitability

Spotify shares are up 3.25% as of 6:45 a.m. ET, as investors digest the streaming giant’s Q3 earnings, in which the company reported that it had added more than 70 million monthly active users, posted revenues that were up 7% from last year, and improved profitability.

Total revenues climbed to €4.27 billion, or around $4.91 billion, for the quarter, while net income came in at €899 million ($1.03 billion) which translated into adjusted earnings per share of €3.28 — ahead of the ~€1.96 that analysts had expected, per FactSet figures cited by the Wall Street Journal. Spotify now counts a whopping 713 million monthly active users, including 281 million premium subscribers, compared to 640 million and 252 million on the same quarter last year.

The boosted figures come on the back of a host of new features that the streaming platform’s introduced, such as “lossless listening,” playlist mixing controls, and direct messages. The company is now forecasting that its total monthly active users will climb to 745 million by the end of the fourth quarter.

With the latest gains today, Spotify is now up ~48% in the year to date, even as co-founder Daniel Ek announced in September he’d be stepping down as CEO at the end of the year, almost 20 years on from the company’s inception.

J. Edward Moreno

Pfizer reports earnings beat, boosts guidance

Pfizer reported earnings on Tuesday.

Pfizer Building Facade

markets

Michael Burry, of “Big Short” fame, discloses ~$1.1 billion options bet against Nvidia and Palantir

"Big Short" investor Michael Burry, famous for predicting the 2008 housing crash — and a number of crashes since that haven’t materialized quite as spectacularly — has placed massive bets against Nvidia and Palantir, according to a new regulatory filing for the quarter ending September 30.

The 13-F filing released Monday discloses that Burry's fund, Scion Asset Management, bought put options on roughly 5 million Palantir shares worth $912 million, and 1 million Nvidia shares worth $187 million. Together, the two positions make up 80% of Scion's disclosed US equity holdings, per the 13F.

'Big Short' Michael Burry bet against Palantir and Nvidia

'Big Short' Michael Burry bet against Palantir and Nvidia

The 13-F filing released Monday discloses that Burry's fund, Scion Asset Management, bought put options on roughly 5 million Palantir shares worth $912 million, and 1 million Nvidia shares worth $187 million. Together, the two positions make up 80% of Scion's disclosed US equity holdings, per the 13F.

markets

Max Knoblauch & Claire Yubin Oh46m

Nintendo’s Switch 2 sales are outpacing the original Switch by ~2x

After a booming first month in which it sold 5.82 million Switch 2s, Nintendo on Tuesday reported that it has now sold 10.36 million units of the handhelds through September.

That’s well ahead of the original Switch’s pace at the same period in its lifetime — the first Switch model sold 4.7 million units through its first four months, though it went on to become the company’s all-time console sales leader.

Nintendo appears to be growing more confident in the Switch 2, despite US tariffs. Last month, the company boosted its annual production target to 25 million units by the end of March 2026, according to reporting by Bloomberg.

The new data came as the Japanese gaming giant reported its first-half earnings on Tuesday. Nintendo posted ~$3.6 billion in sales for the three months ending September, topping the $3.04 billion expected by analysts polled by Bloomberg.

The company also hiked its full-year guidance to a revenue of ~$14.6 billion, as well as its expectations for Switch 2 sales. The company now anticipates selling 19 million units compared with 15 million units projected previously. Despite the news, Nintendo’s US-traded ADRs were relatively flat in after hours trading on Monday, suggesting elevated expectations into the print.

J. Edward Moreno

Hims rises on revenue beat, discloses it’s again in partnership talks with Novo

Hims also disclosed on Monday that it’s in talks with Novo Nordisk to make the drugmaker’s weight-loss drugs available on its platform. Last time, that didn’t go so well.

Latest Stories

Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate, including Robinhood Markets, Inc., Robinhood Financial LLC, Robinhood Securities, LLC, Robinhood Crypto, LLC, or Robinhood Money, LLC.

©2025 Sherwood Media, LLC