Early Bird
Posts
Ethereum's Shanghai Upgrade

Ethereum's Shanghai Upgrade

Today is Friday, April 14, 2023.

New to this newsletter? Sign up here.

Ethereum's Shanghai Upgrade

On the first day after the Shanghai Upgrade, Ethereum jumped by over 10%, hitting the $2,100 mark for the first time since May 2022.

Details: Wednesday was the Ethereum Shanghai hard fork, which transformed the network from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake. This long-awaited upgrade made Ethereum more energy efficient.

Background: There was concern among investors that the upgrade would cause the price of the cryptocurrency to decline because the upgrade added $31 billion worth of Ethereum tokens to the market. Some worried that this could result in investors wanting to cash out and get their liquidity. But it turns out that this actually motivated investors to stay in Ethereum and buy more out of it.

Bigger Picture: By comparison, Ethereum had a stronger Thursday than Bitcoin, which went up about 2%.

What’s Next: Keep an eye on the deposits flowing in and out of Ethereum over the next few weeks. The direction of those deposits will indict the short-term momentum of Ethereum’s price.

Final Thoughts: Investors still have concerns about Ethereum’s prospects, but the fact that it is surging after the upgrade is a positive sign.

Notables

Notable Earnings Today: JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), Citigroup (NYSE: C), Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC), PNC (NYSE: PNC), BlackRock (NYSE: BLK), Byrna Technologies (Nasdaq: BYRN).

Notable IPOs Today: CytoMed Therapeutics Ltd (Nasdaq: GDTC).

Notable Equity Crowdfunding Campaigns Ending Today: Sully’s Golf and Gathe (Mainvest), MicroMGx (Netcapital), Ranch Rider Spirits (Wefunder), Amazing Pizza (Mainvest), Blue Jacket Movie (StartEngine), HipChefs (StartEngine).

Notable Economic Events Today: Retail Sales / Core Retail Sales (8:30 a.m. ET), Export Price Index / Import Price Index (8:30 a.m. ET), Industrial Production (9:15 a.m. ET), Business Inventories (10:00 a.m. ET), Michigan Consumer Expectations / Sentiment (8:30 a.m. ET).

Lucid Motors Falls Short in Q1

Photo by Daniel Salcius / Unsplash

Lucid Group (Nasdaq: LCID) disappointed investors with its first-quarter production numbers, causing the electric vehicle maker to decline by 6.06% in after-hours trading on Thursday.

Details: Lucid Motors produced 2,314 vehicles during the quarter and delivered 1,406 vehicles; analysts wanted more.

Also: The company also announced it will report earnings on April 24 and all shareholders can submit questions to be answered during the earnings call.

Stock Price: After a bad 2022, Lucid is up 33% so far in 2023.

Final Thoughts: There are a lot of industry concerns about lower EV demand. Lucid’s numbers didn’t erase these concerns at all.

FDA Rejects Eli Lilly’s Ulcerative Colitis

The Food and Drug Administration rejected an ulcerative colitis drug from Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY), causing the stock to tick down by 0.17% in after-hours trading on Thursday.

Details: In the letter, the FDA cited issues related to the proposed manufacturing of the drug. However, the FDA did not issue any concerns about the clinical data package, safety, or label for the medicine.

Final Thoughts: Eli Lilly’s stock is up about 2% so far in 2023. The company will work with the FDA to make changes so that the drug can get on the market someday.‌‌