Bitcoin Broke Its 9-Week Losing Streak

June 8th, 2022

Bitcoin believers had been predicting a price rebound…but for nine long weeks in a row, they had been wrong. That changed last Friday as Bitcoin finally closed out a much-need winning week.

The SEC is ramping up its crackdowns on misleading ESG claims and OpenSea is in regulatory hot water of its own. Mortgage rates fell last week and the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) released a positive jobs report on Friday.

Learn more about each of these stories as we cover the key financial news that you need to know in less than five minutes…starting now.

Clint, Editor-in-Chief

What Everyone’s Been Buzzing About

Bitcoin broke its long losing streak. After a painful 9-week stretch of losing, Bitcoin finally ended a week in the green. As of writing, BTC is continuing to rise and has broken through the $31,000 mark. Many crypto investors are breathing a sigh of relief. But the bad news is that Bitcoin (and the crypto market as a whole) seems more correlated to the stock market than ever before. So much for the “Great Decoupling” that many analysts have been predicting.

SEC cracks down on “greenwashing.” As the SEC prepares to unveil new climate disclosure requirements for funds, it's already beginning to crack down on companies that are deceptive about the sustainability of their investments. The regulation board fined BNY Mellon $1.5 million for ESG fund misstatements and is currently investigating Deutsche Bank over allegations of similar overstatements.

Mortgage rates fall for the third straight week. The average 30-year mortgage rate decreased ever so slightly last week to 5.09%. That makes three straight weeks of declines, but average home loan rates are still nearly two full percentage points higher than they were a year ago.

Troubled waters at OpenSea. OpenSea is the world’s largest NFT marketplace. But a New York Times exposé that was released on Monday detailed the various legal troubles that the company is currently facing. The platform has been dealing with an epidemic of plagiarized NFTs and one of its executives was just indicted on charges of insider trading.

U.S. jobs market continues to impress. The Labor Department’s May jobs report was encouraging. The U.S. added 390,000 jobs last month, wages rose 5.2% (year-over-year), and unemployment held steady at 3.6%.

What To Keep Your Eye on This Week

Five Below Reports Q1 Earnings. Last week, we explained why bargain stores like Dollar Tree and Dollar General tend to perform well during periods of high inflation. Both of those companies have seen their stock shares rise over the past 6 months. But Five Below is one budget brand that has yet to pop in 2022. Many investors are hoping that it will be able to reverse those fortunes with a strong earnings report today.

European Central Bank (ECB) Interest Rates. Wall Street will be closely watching the ECB’s interest rate decision on Friday. Most experts aren’t expecting a hike until July, but the commentary from this month’s press conference could provide a hint as to the size of that increase and others down the road.

Staff Favorites

Here are three stories from around the web that our team found interesting:

• We must regulate stablecoin providers as banks (The Hill)
• The myth of passive real estate investing (Kiplinger)
• El Salvador’s president wants to make the country world’s first to use bitcoin as legal tender (Washington Post)

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