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FED Hearing July 10
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell testifies during the House Financial Services Committee hearing (Tom Williams/Getty Images)

Gold and silver spike to record highs after Powell says DOJ subpoenas are latest Trump attempt to influence monetary policy

“The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the president,” Powell said.

Precious metals are proving their mettle as a store of value, up big in early trading on Monday after the head of the Federal Reserve explicitly said that the executive branch is attempting to use judicial tools to interfere with the conduct of monetary policy.

Gold reached $4,599 while silver traded as high as $84.60, both records for the shiny stuff, as they continue their sensational runs.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that the US central bank had been served with grand jury subpoenas by the US Department of Justice, “threatening a criminal indictment” pertaining to Powell’s testimony before the Senate Banking Committee in June, which touched on the contentious renovation plans of the Fed’s facilities. President Trump and critics of the chair have mused about firing Powell for cause over alleged cost overruns related to the project.

“The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the president,” Powell said in a video message. “This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions — or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation.”

Typically, countries in which central bank policy is judged to be subordinated to political whims face weakness in their domestic currencies and higher borrowing costs. This can increase the appeal of safe haven assets such as precious metals. Since 7 p.m. E.T yesterday evening, the US Dollar Index has shed about ~0.4%, weakening against a basket of major currencies including the euro, yen, and pound sterling.

The iShares Silver Trust and SPDR Gold Shares ETF are the top two trending tickers on the r/WallStreetBets subreddit over the past 12 hours, per SwaggyStocks.

SwaggyStocks SLV GLD
Source: SwaggyStocks

Trump has suggested that the Federal Reserve’s policy rate (currently in a range of 3.5% to 3.75%) should be “1% and maybe lower than that” this year, in part to help reduce the cost of financing government debt. The president is expected to announce his pick to succeed Powell as the top US monetary policymaker imminently.

Interestingly, news of these subpoenas did not see prediction markets meaningfully curb the odds of the “insider” candidate to assume this position, current Fed Governor Christopher Waller. He remains at roughly 10%. Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, retook a narrow lead over former Fed Governor Kevin Walsh as the most likely pick for chair, per prediction markets, with both at around 40% or higher as of 4 a.m. ET on Monday.

(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

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Robinhood jumps as crypto and retail favorites rip

Bitcoin and retail-sensitive stocks are rallying again, so Robinhood Markets is too.

Shares of the brokerage, which counts crypto trading as a key revenue stream, jumped as much as 10% on Tuesday as bitcoin breached $76,000 for the first time since early February. Strong gains for the crypto asset, which doesn’t really have fundamentals, the outfit that’s been synonymous with retail activity, and the stocks retail traders like the most are key signals that risk appetite is returning after the geopolitically induced drawdown.

Separately, Bernstein also sounded a bullish tone on prediction markets, another Robinhood business line, calling for volumes to hit as high as $1 trillion by 2030. Analysts reaffirmed their outperform rating and $130 price target on the shares, saying they offer “asymmetric upside potential.”

(Robinhood Markets Inc. is the parent company of Sherwood Media, an independently operated media company subject to certain legal and regulatory restrictions.)

The brokerage has been trading like three cryptos in a trench coat over the past three months, with the 63-session correlation between the stock and the iShares Bitcoin Trust lingering near its all-time high reached last month.

Robinhood and bitcoin’s all-time highs came in October, with both since suffering large sell-offs along with a host of other speculative assets.

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Vertiv’s dominance in data center cooling earns it an “outperform”

Vertiv Holdings added to its nearly 90% 2026 gain early Tuesday after BNP Paribas analysts initiated coverage on the stock with an “outperform” rating — essentially a “buy” — and a $345 price target, about a 15% premium to the market. (Wall Street’s consensus price target for Vertiv is $304, according to FactSet.)

BNP analysts wrote:

With ~80% of sales tied to data centers, VRT is a leader in cooling solutions, notably for high-density AI computing. We believe VRT’s growth is sustainable given its content is structurally rising as higher density AI clusters drive a step-change in cooling requirements. With a ~$15bn backlog (up >100% y-o-y) and book-to-bill of ~3x, VRT’s visibility provides confidence in sustained growth through 2030.

Vertiv is shaking off a bit of a slump in the broader AI data center trade Tuesday, as high-flying AI plays like networking stocks Lumentum, Ciena Corp., and Corning slide, and memory play Sandisk declines.

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Sandisk initiated at “outperform” by Evercore ISI, with target of $1,200

Evercore ISI analysts see further upside for Sandisk shares, even after their nearly 2,900% gain over the past 12 months.

In a note initiating coverage on the top-performing S&P 500 constituent — giving it an “outperform” rating and an above consensus price target of $1,200 — Evercore analysts wrote:

“We believe SNDK is levered to one of the most attractive areas of the AI infrastructure stack — data storage, where demand is accelerating and supply remains constrained at minimum through CY28 if not beyond. While concerns around peak NAND pricing and cyclicality persist, we think the current cycle is structurally tighter and more durable, underpinned by AI-driven demand and sustained supply discipline that is creating ‘SCA’s’, providing memory providers with pricing floors and upfront cash payments (Strategic Contractual Agreements between cloud companies and NAND/DRAM providers).”

Even with the positive news, Sandisk shares sold off 4% in recent trading, taking a little wind out of an epic run-up that still stands at 16% over the past five days and 30% over the past month.

Sandisk has been the subject of a fair bit of positive commentary in recent days, with both Citi and Bernstein analysts boosting their price targets for the shares ahead of its earnings report due on April 30.

The broader memory/data storage trade has recovered from its recent big wobble following Google’s release of details about a new, potentially less memory-heavy AI algorithm technology called TurboQuant.

Hard disk drive maker Western Digital has more than doubled since the start of the year, Seagate Technology Holdings is up about 90%, and DRAM maker Micron — DRAM is the basis for the AI-focused memory product called high-bandwidth memory, or HBM — is up more than 50% in the first 3.5 months of 2026.

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Lucid climbs after announcements of new CEO and expanded robotaxi partnership with Uber

Shares of luxury EV maker Lucid climbed more than 12% in premarket trading on Tuesday following two announcements, before news of a public stock offering erased most of the gains.

First, the company announced it has found a permanent CEO in Silvio Napoli. Napoli was formerly CEO of the Schindler Group, one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of elevators and escalators.

Lucid has been led by interim CEO Marc Winterhoff for more than a year, who will now step into the role of chief operating officer.

Lucid also announced an expansion of its robotaxi partnership with Uber from 20,000 planned vehicles to 35,000. Uber will increase its investment in Lucid by $200 million, bringing the total to $500 million. The PIF, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, also committed a new investment of $550 million into the company.

The company is still planning a commercial launch of its robotaxi service with Uber later this year in the Bay Area.

Following those updates, Lucid said it would raise an additional $300 million through a public stock offering. Its premarket gain decreased to about 5%.

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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, Robinhood Derivatives, LLC, or Robinhood Money, LLC. Futures and event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC.