PSQ Holdings (NYSE:PSQH) Bolsa

PSQ Holdings

PSQ Holdings Inc operates the website and mobile application named as PublicSq. It is an app and website that connects freedom-loving Americans to high-quality businesses that share values, both online and in local communities. It has three reportable segments comprised of Marketplace; which includes a marketplace platform to access consumers that are drawn to patriotic values and the revenue is generated in the form of advertising and eCommerce transactions, and Brands segment in which through its wholly-owned brand, the company generates revenue from online sales of diapers and wipes and third financial technology which assists consumers, lenders, and retailers in offering point-of-sale financing products.

PSQ Holdings Inc

PSQ Holdings, Inc. Warrants, each exercisable for one share of Class A common stock at an exercise price of $11.50 per share

<h3>Gainers</h3>
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Symbol</th>
<th>Name</th>
<th align="right">Price</th>
<th align="right">Change ($)</th>
<th align="right">Change (%)</th>
<th>Volume</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>(NYSE:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/XLK#NYSE">XLK</a>)</td>
<td>SPDR Select Sector Fund - Technology</td>
<td align="right">254.9400</td>
<td align="right">1.320</td>
<td align="right">0.52</td>
<td>14.9K</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>(NYSE:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/XLI#NYSE">XLI</a>)</td>
<td>SPDR Select Sector Fund - Industrial</td>
<td align="right">148.7804</td>
<td align="right">0.620</td>
<td align="right">0.41</td>
<td>3.4K</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>(NYSE:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/XLU#NYSE">XLU</a>)</td>
<td>SPDR Select Sector Fund - Utilities</td>
<td align="right">81.5271</td>
<td align="right">0.297</td>
<td align="right">0.36</td>
<td>5.4K</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>(NYSE:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/XLY#NYSE">XLY</a>)</td>
<td>SPDR Select Sector Fund - Consumer Discretionary</td>
<td align="right">220.7500</td>
<td align="right">0.740</td>
<td align="right">0.33</td>
<td>4.8K</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>(NYSE:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/XLF#NYSE">XLF</a>)</td>
<td>SPDR Select Sector Fund - Financial</td>
<td align="right">52.7700</td>
<td align="right">0.150</td>
<td align="right">0.28</td>
<td>358.6K</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>(NYSE:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/XLB#NYSE">XLB</a>)</td>
<td>Materials Select Sector SPDR</td>
<td align="right">91.5900</td>
<td align="right">0.160</td>
<td align="right">0.17</td>
<td>2.9K</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>(NYSE:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/XLV#NYSE">XLV</a>)</td>
<td>SPDR Select Sector Fund - Health Care</td>
<td align="right">135.6000</td>
<td align="right">0.240</td>
<td align="right">0.17</td>
<td>10.3K</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>(NYSE:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/XLC#NYSE">XLC</a>)</td>
<td>The Communication Services Select Sector SPDR Fund</td>
<td align="right">107.5800</td>
<td align="right">0.130</td>
<td align="right">0.12</td>
<td>3.6K</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3>Losers</h3>
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Symbol</th>
<th>Name</th>
<th align="right">Price</th>
<th align="right">Change ($)</th>
<th align="right">Change (%)</th>
<th>Volume</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>(NYSE:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/XLE#NYSE">XLE</a>)</td>
<td>SPDR Select Sector Fund - Energy Select Sector</td>
<td align="right">86.853</td>
<td align="right">-0.077</td>
<td align="right">-0.09</td>
<td>40.2K</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<a href="https://pro.benzinga.com/?utm_source=insights">Pulled from Benzinga Pro data</a> the above sector movers alert assists traders in understanding macro-level trends and market variations. Traders will look for sector movers providing information on sectors that are over- or under-performing, deriving these results into investing decisions on exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or individual tickers in those sectors. 
To read more about sector movers, <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/movers">click here</a>.

Sector ETFs

Pre-Market Outlook

Movers

ETFs

Select Sector SPDR-Consumer Discretionary

Leading And Lagging Sectors For July 4, 2025

Financial guru&nbsp;Robert Kiyosaki&nbsp;said Wednesday that George Washington would have been a Bitcoin (CRYPTO: <a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/quote/btc/usd">BTC</a>) advocate, citing the U.S.&#8217;s founding father&#8217;s views on &#8220;paper money.&#8221;
What Happened: Kiyosaki, author of the best-selling book &#8220;Rich Dad Poor Dad,&#8221; remembered the words of the first U.S. president.
"We may one day become a great commercial and flourishing nation. But if, in the pursuit of the means, we should unfortunately stumble again on unfunded paper money or any similar species of fraud, we shall assuredly give a fatal stab to our national credit in its infancy. &#8220;
&#8220;Paper money has had the effect in your state that it will ever have, to ruin commerce, oppress the honest, and open the door to every species of fraud and injustice."
Citing these views, Kiyosaki said, &#8220;America's 1st President George Washington would have been into Bitcoin.&#8221; 
Bitcoin supporters have consistently <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/crypto/cryptocurrency/25/07/46238410/bitcoin-gets-bigger-the-more-money-central-banks-print-says-popular-crypto-analyst-its-a-beautiful-thing">backed the idea</a> that high money printing could lead to inflation, devaluing the dollar, and sending Bitcoin, which they deem as an inflation hedge, soaring.
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">America's 1st President George Washington would have been into Bitcoin. This is what he said about Fiat ( Fake) Money: "We may one day become a great commercial and flourishing nation. But if, in the pursuit of the means, we should unfortunately stumble again on unfunded paper…
&mdash; Robert Kiyosaki (@theRealKiyosaki) <a href="https://twitter.com/theRealKiyosaki/status/1940540446167511353?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 2, 2025</a></blockquote>
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The second quote appears in a <a href="https://founders.archives.gov/GEWN-04-04-02-0428">letter </a>Washington wrote to Jabez Bowen, the then-deputy governor of Rhode Island, according to the U.S. National Archives.
While the source of the first quote was not immediately clear, Washington expressed alarm about the &#8220;emission of paper currency&#8221; in a <a href="https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/04-04-02-0174">letter </a>to Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the U.S., in 1786.
See Also:&nbsp;<a href="https://benzinga.com/crypto/cryptocurrency/25/07/46231186/bitcoin-ethereum-xrp-dogecoin-surge-as-big-beautiful-bill-house-vote-nears" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Dogecoin Surge As &#8216;Big Beautiful Bill&#8217; House Vote Nears</a>
Why It Matters: Kiyosaki&#8217;s views on Bitcoin and other forms of hard money have been consistent. He has repeatedly warned of a <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/crypto/cryptocurrency/25/06/46045741/rich-dad-poor-dad-author-robert-kiyosaki-warns-of-global-debt-collapse-urges-buying-gold-silver-bitcoin">potential global monetary collapse</a> and advised his followers to invest in gold, silver, and Bitcoin. 
He has been vocal about his skepticism towards traditional cash savings and that current market conditions are ripe for investments in <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/markets/cryptocurrency/25/03/44550875/robert-kiyosaki-thinks-saving-in-cash-is-a-bad-idea-heres-why">secure and cost-effective assets</a>.
Kiyosaki has been vocal about his skepticism towards traditional cash savings, having shifted his focus to Bitcoin, gold and silver, He has predicted that silver prices could potentially reach $200 within the next two years.
However, several of his previous predictions have proven to be extremely inaccurate. He predicted Bitcoin would reach $100,000 in June 2024. Needless to say, the forecast was well off target. He even set an unrealistic price target of <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/markets/cryptocurrency/24/06/39198509/rich-dad-poor-dad-author-robert-kiyosaki-comes-up-with-another-bold-projection-bitcoin-wil">$350,000</a> for August 2024.
Price Action:&nbsp; At the time of writing, BTC was exchanging hands at $108,816.37, up 2.45% in the last 24 hours, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://pro.benzinga.com/dashboard?_gl=1&#x2A;380nj0&#x2A;_ga&#x2A;MTEyOTAyOTcxMy4xNzEzMzY0NTYy&#x2A;_ga_V7ZK73W7N0&#x2A;MTcxNDk4MzIzMi42LjEuMTcxNDk4OTE0Ni4wLjAuMA.." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">data from Benzinga Pro</a>. Year-to-date, the coin has surged 17%.
Photo Courtesy: William Potter on Shutterstock.com
Read Next:&nbsp;
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://benzinga.com/crypto/cryptocurrency/25/07/46227149/every-new-trillion-of-debt-in-trumps-big-beautiful-bill-is-free-adertising-for-bitcoin-expe" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Every New Trillion Of Debt In Trump&#8217;s &#8216;Big Beautiful Bill&#8217; Is &#8216;Free Adertising For Bitcoin,&#8217; Expert States</a></li>
</ul>
Disclaimer:&nbsp;This content was partially produced with the help of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.benzinga.com/author/benzinga-neuro" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Benzinga Neuro</a>&nbsp;and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.<a href="https://www.benzinga.com/apis?utm_source=benzinga.com&amp;utm_campaign=article-bottom" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"></a>

Coverage of Bitcoin, Etherum, Ripple and all the latest digital currencies.

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$BTC

'Rich Dad Poor Dad' Robert Kiyosaki Says George Washington Would Have Been Into Bitcoin: Paper Money Opens Door To 'Every Species Of Fraud And Injustice'

Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates warned on Thursday that U.S. foreign aid cuts could trigger a catastrophic global health crisis, citing new research projecting millions of additional deaths by 2040.
What Happened: &#8220;The facts are simple and devastating: Aid cuts have already cost lives, and the number of deaths will continue to rise,&#8221; Gates wrote on X, referencing multiple studies documenting the impact of reduced American assistance.
A preprint study published in The Lancet analyzed the cumulative effects of U.S. aid reductions across 80 countries. The research projects 8 million additional child deaths before age five by 2040, while warning of 15.2 million excess AIDS deaths and 2.2 million additional tuberculosis deaths between 2025-2040.
The Trump administration&#8217;s decision to withdraw funding from Gavi, the vaccine alliance, particularly concerns health experts. Since 2000, Gavi has delivered vaccines to 1.1 billion children globally. The organization estimates that without continued U.S. support, 75 million children will miss vaccinations over five years, resulting in 1.2 million preventable deaths.
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">The facts are simple and devastating: Aid cuts have already cost lives, and the number of deaths will continue to rise. Here's the evidence.
&mdash; Bill Gates (@BillGates) <a href="https://twitter.com/BillGates/status/1940915900460552200?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 3, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
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UNAIDS analysis indicates that ending the President&#8217;s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) programs could cause 4.2 million additional HIV-related deaths by 2029. PEPFAR, launched in 2003, has saved over 26 million lives and enabled 7.8 million HIV-free births.
Gates emphasized the cost-effectiveness of global health investments, noting that lifesaving vaccines cost as little as 30 cents. &#8220;With a relatively small amount of money, you can do a great deal of good for a great many people,&#8221; he stated.
See Also: <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/news/politics/25/07/46255065/trumps-3-3-trillion-bill-passes-will-vulnerable-americans-pay-the-price">Trump&#8217;s $3.3 Trillion Bill Passes: Will Vulnerable Americans Pay The Price?</a>
Why It Matters: U.S. global health spending represents less than 1% of the federal budget, according to KFF budget tracking data. The Gates Foundation recently pledged $1.6 billion over five years to Gavi, attempting to offset some funding shortfalls.
The research used established mathematical models across HIV, tuberculosis, family planning, and maternal health sectors. Multiple modeling approaches consistently projected severe health impacts if U.S. funding cuts continue without alternative support.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) called PEPFAR &#8220;a bipartisan priority of Congress,&#8221; warning that <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/news/health-care/25/06/46159226/bill-gates-warns-us-its-not-too-late-to-change-course-as-trump-team-targets-hiv-funding-cuts">cutting disease prevention</a> funding would be &#8220;extraordinarily ill-advised and short-sighted.&#8221;
Read Next: 
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://www.benzinga.com/news/politics/25/07/46258994/trumps-big-beautiful-bill-hands-5-billion-win-to-big-pharma-report">Trump&#8217;s &#8216;Big, Beautiful Bill&#8217; Hands $5 Billion Win To Big Pharma: Report</a></li>
</ul>
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
Photo courtesy: Alexandros Michailidis / Shutterstock.com

Health Care

Bill Gates Warns US Aid Cuts Could Kill Millions Of Children, End HIV Programs, Leave 75 Million Unvaccinated: 'Devastating' Lancet Study, Gavi, UNAIDS Sound Alarm

Pure Storage's (NYSE:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/PSTG#NYSE">PSTG</a>) short percent of float has risen 4.49% since its last report. The company recently reported that it has 12.24 million shares sold short, which is 4.65% of all regular shares that are available for trading. Based on its trading volume, it would take traders 5.47 days to cover their short positions on average.
<h3>Why Short Interest Matters</h3>
Short interest is the number of shares that have been sold short but have not yet been covered or closed out. <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/money/how-to-short-a-stock?adType=benzinga-insights&amp;ad=short-interest&amp;campaign=wallstreetadvantage">Short selling</a> is when a trader sells shares of a company they do not own, with the hope that the price will fall. Traders make money from short selling if the price of the stock falls and they lose if it rises.
Short interest is important to track because it can act as an indicator of market sentiment towards a particular stock. An increase in short interest can signal that investors have become more bearish, while a decrease in short interest can signal they have become more bullish.
See Also: <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/short-interest?adType=benzinga-insights&amp;ad=short-interest&amp;campaign=wallstreetadvantage">List of the most shorted stocks</a>
<h3>Pure Storage Short Interest Graph (3 Months)</h3>
<img src="https://www.benzinga.com/files/images/story/2025/1751634026_0.png" alt="short_fig" />
As you can see from the chart above the percentage of shares that are sold short for Pure Storage has grown since its last report. This does not mean that the stock is going to fall in the near-term but traders should be aware that more shares are being shorted.
<h3>Comparing Pure Storage's Short Interest Against Its Peers</h3>
Peer comparison is a popular technique amongst analysts and investors for gauging how well a company is performing. A company's peer is another company that has similar characteristics to it, such as industry, size, age, and financial structure. You can find a company's peer group by reading its 10-K, proxy filing, or by doing your own similarity analysis.
According to <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/pro/">Benzinga Pro</a>, Pure Storage's peer group average for short interest as a percentage of float is 10.99%, which means the company has less short interest than most of its peers.
Did you know that increasing short interest can actually be bullish for a stock? <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/money/how-to-make-money-on-a-short-squeeze?adType=benzinga-insights&amp;ad=short-interest&amp;campaign=wallstreetadvantage">This post by Benzinga Money explains how you can profit from it.</a>
This article was generated by Benzinga's automated content engine and was reviewed by an editor.

Short Sellers

Short Ideas

Trading Ideas

PSTG

Is the Market Bullish or Bearish on Pure Storage?

Eagle Materials's (NYSE:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/EXP#NYSE">EXP</a>) short percent of float has risen 4.62% since its last report. The company recently reported that it has 1.38 million shares sold short, which is 5.44% of all regular shares that are available for trading. Based on its trading volume, it would take traders 3.32 days to cover their short positions on average.
<h3>Why Short Interest Matters</h3>
Short interest is the number of shares that have been sold short but have not yet been covered or closed out. <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/money/how-to-short-a-stock?adType=benzinga-insights&amp;ad=short-interest&amp;campaign=wallstreetadvantage">Short selling</a> is when a trader sells shares of a company they do not own, with the hope that the price will fall. Traders make money from short selling if the price of the stock falls and they lose if it rises.
Short interest is important to track because it can act as an indicator of market sentiment towards a particular stock. An increase in short interest can signal that investors have become more bearish, while a decrease in short interest can signal they have become more bullish.
See Also: <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/short-interest?adType=benzinga-insights&amp;ad=short-interest&amp;campaign=wallstreetadvantage">List of the most shorted stocks</a>
<h3>Eagle Materials Short Interest Graph (3 Months)</h3>
<img src="https://www.benzinga.com/files/images/story/2025/1751634021_0.png" alt="short_fig" />
As you can see from the chart above the percentage of shares that are sold short for Eagle Materials has grown since its last report. This does not mean that the stock is going to fall in the near-term but traders should be aware that more shares are being shorted.
<h3>Comparing Eagle Materials's Short Interest Against Its Peers</h3>
Peer comparison is a popular technique amongst analysts and investors for gauging how well a company is performing. A company's peer is another company that has similar characteristics to it, such as industry, size, age, and financial structure. You can find a company's peer group by reading its 10-K, proxy filing, or by doing your own similarity analysis.
According to <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/pro/">Benzinga Pro</a>, Eagle Materials's peer group average for short interest as a percentage of float is 3.30%, which means the company has more short interest than most of its peers.
Did you know that increasing short interest can actually be bullish for a stock? <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/money/how-to-make-money-on-a-short-squeeze?adType=benzinga-insights&amp;ad=short-interest&amp;campaign=wallstreetadvantage">This post by Benzinga Money explains how you can profit from it.</a>
This article was generated by Benzinga's automated content engine and was reviewed by an editor.

Is the Market Bullish or Bearish on Eagle Materials?

Automatic Data Processing's (NYSE:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/ADP#NYSE">ADP</a>) short percent of float has fallen 3.97% since its last report. The company recently reported that it has 4.93 million shares sold short, which is 1.21% of all regular shares that are available for trading. Based on its trading volume, it would take traders 3.12 days to cover their short positions on average.
<h3>Why Short Interest Matters</h3>
Short interest is the number of shares that have been sold short but have not yet been covered or closed out. <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/money/how-to-short-a-stock?adType=benzinga-insights&amp;ad=short-interest&amp;campaign=wallstreetadvantage">Short selling</a> is when a trader sells shares of a company they do not own, with the hope that the price will fall. Traders make money from short selling if the price of the stock falls and they lose if it rises.
Short interest is important to track because it can act as an indicator of market sentiment towards a particular stock. An increase in short interest can signal that investors have become more bearish, while a decrease in short interest can signal they have become more bullish.
See Also: <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/short-interest?adType=benzinga-insights&amp;ad=short-interest&amp;campaign=wallstreetadvantage">List of the most shorted stocks</a>
<h3>Automatic Data Processing Short Interest Graph (3 Months)</h3>
<img src="https://www.benzinga.com/files/images/story/2025/1751634015_0.png" alt="short_fig" />
As you can see from the chart above the percentage of shares that are sold short for Automatic Data Processing has declined since its last report. This does not mean that the stock is going to rise in the near-term but traders should be aware that less shares are being shorted.
<h3>Comparing Automatic Data Processing's Short Interest Against Its Peers</h3>
Peer comparison is a popular technique amongst analysts and investors for gauging how well a company is performing. A company's peer is another company that has similar characteristics to it, such as industry, size, age, and financial structure. You can find a company's peer group by reading its 10-K, proxy filing, or by doing your own similarity analysis.
According to <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/pro/">Benzinga Pro</a>, Automatic Data Processing's peer group average for short interest as a percentage of float is 5.65%, which means the company has less short interest than most of its peers.
Did you know that increasing short interest can actually be bullish for a stock? <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/money/how-to-make-money-on-a-short-squeeze?adType=benzinga-insights&amp;ad=short-interest&amp;campaign=wallstreetadvantage">This post by Benzinga Money explains how you can profit from it.</a>
This article was generated by Benzinga's automated content engine and was reviewed by an editor.

What's Driving the Market Sentiment Around Automatic Data Processing?

A long-time Bitcoin (CRYPTO: <a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/quote/btc/usd">BTC</a>) enthusiast using the alias JohnGalt in May <a href="https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5543336.0">shared</a> an incredible story on the Bitcoin Forum: they finally redeemed their 100 &#8216;physical Bitcoin&#8217; bar — which had remained untouched since 2012 — for a profit of over $10 million.
What Happened: Originally bought for just $500, the physical BTC bar, one of the rare 100 BTC versions with a private key engraved on the bar, grew in value exponentially over the years. 
As Bitcoin rallied past key milestones like $10,000 and later $100,000, JohnGalt admitted to feeling increasing anxiety, noting the immense pressure of holding such a valuable physical asset.
Despite fielding offers and considering auctions, concerns over trust, low bids, and symbolic value kept them from selling, until now. 
With BTC trading near its all-time highs in 2025, the estimated value of the bar had surpassed $10 million, prompting the long-awaited redemption.
Also Read: <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/crypto/cryptocurrency/25/07/46242838/anthony-scaramucci-predicts-bitcoin-treasury-frenzy-will-fade">Anthony Scaramucci Predicts Bitcoin Treasury Frenzy &#8216;Will Fade&#8217;</a>
Why It Matters: JohnGalt's story struck a chord across the crypto community. 
While he expressed some regret about holding so long, most users celebrated his unwavering conviction and restraint through a dozen volatile years.
 Many likened the 100 BTC bar to a "Golden Wonka Ticket" — a rare treasure finally unlocked.
The redemption wasn't without technical challenges. JohnGalt described how he used bitaddress.org offline to convert the mini private key into WIF format, scanned the QR code, and accessed the BTC. 
To ensure secure custody, he split the funds across multiple addresses via Trezor Suite and finalized the transfer using Electrum, verifying all details before sending.
The redemption also comes at a time when dormant BTC wallets have been springing back to life, as early adopters take profits amid Bitcoin's historic 2025 rally.
Read Next:
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<li><a href="https://www.benzinga.com/crypto/cryptocurrency/25/07/46242242/bitcoin-ethereum-xrp-dogecoin-surge-ahead-of-independence-day">Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Dogecoin Surge Ahead Of Independence Day</a></li>
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Image: Shutterstock

This Bitcoin Collector Turned $500 Into Over $10 Million By Selling 100 'Physical' Bitcoin

While the stock market has been scaling new records, the CIO of FundStrat Capital, Tom Lee, has said that his institutional clients are &#8220;hating&#8221; the current rally in the stock market. Additionally, he spoke about three levers that could propel the market higher in the future.
What Happened: Lee, in conversation <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/video/2025/07/03/fundstrats-tom-lee-this-is-the-most-hated-v-shaped-rally-by-institutional-investors.html">with</a> CNBC, highlighted the $7 trillion in cash that is locked up in the money market funds and said, &#8220;I can tell you, our clients, institutional clients, remain very skeptical. This is the most hated V-shaped rally.&#8221;
While the markets rally, the liquidity parked in the money markets has made the investors wary of this up move in the stocks.
&#8220;There is a lot of high-net-worth money, I know there is a lot of our institutional long-short macro, that is shorting this rally, the long-only managers are defensively positioned, they don&#8217;t believe in cyclical long, but look if rates come down and Fed starts easing it&#8217;s going to force people into a cyclical tilt,&#8221; said Lee.
However, the market bull was still hopeful of a further leg up in the market. He said, &#8220;I think there are three levers that are going to get pulled.
According to him, the first lever was the Federal Reserve still being on hold, and once they cut rates, the markets were poised for further upside.
Secondly, he said that the market was not overpriced and the price-to-earnings ratios were not &#8220;stretched.&#8221; He said that the &#8220;PE should be expanding.&#8221;
Lastly, he highlighted the reshaping of the &#8220;economic flows around tariffs,&#8221; and how it could lead to an earnings surprise.
See Also:<a href="https://www.benzinga.com/markets/equities/25/07/46259886/elon-musks-tesla-is-a-multi-trillion-dollar-opportunity-but-short-term-outlook-is-shaky-says-exp"> Elon Musk&#8217;s Tesla Is A &#8216;Multi-Trillion-Dollar Opportunity,&#8217; But Short-Term Outlook Is &#8216;Shaky,&#8217; Says Expert</a>
Why It Matters: The S&amp;P 500 and Nasdaq indices clinched record highs for the third time this week on a shorter trading day on Thursday.
This &#8220;V-Shaped&#8221; recovery comes from the April lows when the markets plunged nearly 20% from their 52-week highs.
The senior global strategist at Wells Fargo, Scott Wren, said that "Our feel is that stocks are ahead of themselves, and we are looking to trim positions in overvalued markets and sectors."
Wren explained that most market strategists don&#8217;t want to see the kind of market volatility the S&amp;P 500 Index has experienced over the past four months.
"But just when a bit of panic set into the minds of some investors, stocks turned seemingly on a dime and in less than three months gained back all that was lost and then some, setting a new record high to close out last week&#8217;s trading."
He also reiterated that Wells Fargo believes the Wall Street consensus is overly optimistic on the tariff outlook and thus the growth rate in calendar-year 2025.
Price Action: On the truncated trading day of July 3rd, the SPDR S&amp;P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/SPY#NYSE">SPY</a>) and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/QQQ#NASDAQ">QQQ</a>), which track the S&amp;P 500 index and Nasdaq 100 index, respectively, scaled fresh records and ended higher. The SPY was up 0.79% at $625.34, while the QQQ advanced 0.98% to $556.22, according to <a href="https://pro.benzinga.com/dashboard">Benzinga Pro</a> data.
Read Next:
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://www.benzinga.com/markets/equities/25/07/46188237/bill-gates-is-betting-two-thirds-of-his-foundations-portfolio-in-these-3-stocks" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bill Gates Is Betting Two-Thirds Of His Foundation's Portfolio In These 3 Stocks</a></li>
</ul>
Photo courtesy: Shutterstock

Equities

Tom Lee Says Institutional Investors 'Hate This V-Shaped Rally' With $7 Trillion On Sidelines, Sees 3 Drivers For More Gains

Own. App, a social media platform focused on creator content ownership and monetization, has announced a partnership with Jaime Rogozinski, the founder of WallStreetBets, to build what it describes as a creator-owned media ecosystem. 
Rogozinski will join Own. App as a strategic advisor, supporting the platform's growth as it prepares to open its beta to the public this July.
The partnership integrates the well-known retail investor community WallStreetBets into Own. App's infrastructure, aiming to provide creators with direct control over their content and communities, without depending on traditional social platforms that typically retain ownership.
"Own. App changes that. It's built from the ground up to give creators true ownership over what they build," Rogozinski told Benzinga in a statement.
Own. App positions itself as an alternative to ad-driven, algorithm-centric platforms by offering decentralized tools that enable creators to retain full rights to their content and audiences. 
Also Read: <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/crypto/cryptocurrency/25/07/46242838/anthony-scaramucci-predicts-bitcoin-treasury-frenzy-will-fade">Anthony Scaramucci Predicts Bitcoin Treasury Frenzy &#8216;Will Fade&#8217;</a>
The platform is designed to support monetization models like tipping, tokenized rewards, and a Creator Fund linked to its native (CRYPTO: OWN) Token.
Amir Kaltak, CEO and Co-Founder of Own. App, said the collaboration with Rogozinski and the WallStreetBets community signals a push toward reshaping creator rights in social media. 
"The current system isn't built for creators—it's built on them," Kaltak said.
Own. App's upcoming Plug-In Layer, expected later this year, will allow WallStreetBets to integrate its community tools directly into the platform, providing its user base with more control over their engagement and monetization.
According to the company, this collaboration highlights a broader movement where online communities are seeking direct ownership of their platforms and influence, a shift being enabled by blockchain-backed infrastructure.
Own. App's COO and Co-Founder, Katia Zaitsev, emphasized that the platform's focus is on improving creator outcomes rather than leading with Web3 terminology. 
"We led with better outcomes for creators," Zaitsev said.
The platform has gained early traction with over 45,000 users waitlisted during its private phase. 
It promises features such as global monetization access, merit-based visibility without algorithmic gatekeeping, and blockchain-backed licensing for content.
Own. App's long-term roadmap includes building a decentralized foundation for social media where creators, rather than platforms, control narratives, revenue, and audience relationships.
Read Next:
<a href="https://www.benzinga.com/crypto/cryptocurrency/25/07/46228386/inside-the-trump-familys-620-million-crypto-empire">Inside The Trump Family&#8217;s $620 Million Crypto Empire</a>
Photo courtesy: Shutterstock/mundissima

Social Media Without Middlemen? WallStreetBets Founder Backs Creator-Controlled Platform

Nano Labs Ltd. (NASDAQ:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/NA#NASDAQ">NA</a>) has confirmed a $50 million purchase of 74,315 Binance Coin (CRYPTO: <a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/quote/bnb/usd">BNB</a>) tokens, expanding its digital currency reserves to approximately $160 million as part of a broader strategic accumulation plan.
The <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/07/03/3109830/0/en/Nano-Labs-Has-Purchased-About-US-50-Million-BNB-Expands-Digital-Asset-Reserves-to-around-US-160-Million.html">transaction</a>, executed through over-the-counter (OTC) channels at an average price of $672.45 per token, demonstrates the company&#8217;s intention to significantly deepen its exposure to Binance Coin.
Nano Labs, which develops high-throughput and high-performance computing solutions, including proprietary "Cuckoo" chips, now manages nearly $160 million in mainstream crypto holdings, including both Bitcoin (CRYPTO: <a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/quote/btc/usd">BTC</a>) and BNB.
This move forms the first phase of a $1 billion BNB acquisition plan funded through convertible notes and private placements, with a target of securing 5–10% of BNB's circulating supply.
The company's digital treasury strategy builds on a recent $500 million convertible note agreement intended to finance additional BNB purchases.
Also Read: <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/crypto/cryptocurrency/25/07/46244196/bitcoin-ethereum-poised-for-bullish-july-experts-say-but-only-one-is-underowned">Bitcoin, Ethereum Poised For Bullish July, Experts Say, But Only One Is &#8216;Underowned&#8217;</a>
Nano Labs emphasized a thorough evaluation of BNB's long-term viability before committing to future acquisitions.
This accumulation effort positions Nano Labs as a rare publicly listed company, placing significant confidence in BNB.
Their reserve now includes roughly 1,000 BTC, alongside the latest BNB infusion.
Following the initial convertible note announcement, Nano Labs&#8217; stock price doubled, hitting its highest level in two years and boosting BNB&#8217;s price by around 2.7%.
Read Next:
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://www.benzinga.com/crypto/cryptocurrency/25/07/46243544/arthur-hayes-shares-his-stablecoin-play-and-it-isnt-betting-on-circle">Arthur Hayes Shares His &#8216;Stablecoin Play&#8217; — And It Isn&#8217;t Betting On Circle</a></li>
</ul>
Photo Courtesy: DIAMOND VISUALS on Shutterstock.com

$BNB

Why Nano Labs Wants To Control A Big Chunk Of Binance Coin's Circulating Supply

Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a strong day of inflows on July 3, with a total net addition of approximately $602 million, according to data from SoSoValue. 
Fidelity's Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (CBOE: FBTC) led the activity, pulling in $237 million, while BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (NASDAQ:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/IBIT#NASDAQ">IBIT</a>) followed closely with $224.5 million in net inflows.
The surge <a href="https://sosovalue.com/assets/etf/us-eth-spot">underscores </a>continued institutional appetite for Bitcoin (CRYPTO: <a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/quote/btc/usd">BTC</a>) exposure, despite recent price volatility. 
Fidelity's fund has now seen cumulative net inflows surpass $12 billion, with BlackRock's IBIT accumulating over $52 billion to date.
The day's flows pushed total assets under management across Bitcoin spot ETFs to $137.6 billion, representing around 6.29% of Bitcoin's total market capitalization. 
Other major players, including Ark's ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (CBOE: ARKB) and Bitwise's Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (NYSE:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/BITB#NYSE">BITB</a>), also contributed to the day's gains.
In parallel, Ethereum (CRYPTO: <a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/quote/eth/usd">ETH</a>) ETFs reported a net inflow of about $149 million, pushing cumulative inflows to $4.4 billion as of July 3. 
BlackRock's iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (NASDAQ:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/ETHA#NASDAQ">ETHA</a>) led with $85 million in new investments.
Speaking with Benzinga, Dom Harz, co-founder of BOB, emphasized the broader market context: "Bitcoin ended June with a record monthly close at $107K and its strongest Q2 on record. Its ability to hold above $105K in the days that followed signals two things: Bitcoin is now embedded in the foundations of global finance, and it's showing remarkable resilience amid ongoing geopolitical uncertainty."
Also Read: <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/crypto/cryptocurrency/25/07/46251827/crypto-tax-loopholes-closing-a-look-inside-bitcoin-senator-lummis-new-bill">Crypto Tax Loopholes Closing? A Look Inside &#8216;Bitcoin Senator&#8217; Lummis&#8217; New Bill</a>
Harz further pointed to the growing influence of corporate treasuries, noting, "For the third consecutive quarter, public companies have acquired more Bitcoin than ETFs have. This is a powerful signal of long-term conviction."
Market analysts are also watching key levels closely. 
Nicolai Søndergaard, research analyst at Nansen, said: "We were recently rejected at $111K, which is where a lot of liquidations would happen, with liquidation support now around $108K, so these levels are important when seen in isolation."
Søndergaard also cautioned that while historical patterns offer some guidance, "It is dangerous to always rely on them. A lot of market movements are driven by self-fulfilling prophecies. Macro and geopolitical developments will likely shape where the market heads next."
With the U.S. money supply continuing to expand and spot ETF participation remaining strong, traders and institutions appear poised to closely watch whether Bitcoin can decisively break through the $111,000 level in the near term.
Read Next:
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<li><a href="https://www.benzinga.com/crypto/cryptocurrency/25/07/46248538/bitcoin-ethereum-solana-treasury-companies-need-to-manage-market-volatility-franklin-templeton-report-warns">Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana Treasury Companies Need To Manage Market Volatility, Franklin Templeton Report Warns</a></li>
</ul>
Photo courtesy: Shutterstock

$ETH

ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF

ARKB

Bitwise Bitcoin ETF Common Shares of Beneficial Interest

BITB

ETHA

Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund

FBTC

IBIT

Bitcoin ETFs Just Pulled In $600 Million In A Day—Is A Major Price Breakout Coming Next?

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/TSLA#NASDAQ">TSLA</a>) stock experienced a 0.73% dip in this record-setting week, as a renewed &#8220;war of words&#8221; between President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk added to existing pressures.
What Happened: While the EV giant faces a &#8220;shaky&#8221; short-term outlook, John Murillo, the chief business officer at B2BROKER, told <a href="https://www.benzinga.com">Benzinga</a> that its long-term potential remains a &#8220;multi-trillion-dollar opportunity.&#8221;
According to Murillo, several factors are currently weighing on Tesla&#8217;s stock. &#8220;The short-term TSLA outlook is shaky due to <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/markets/tech/25/07/46212611/gary-black-says-teslas-q2-deliveries-could-be-a-buy-the-news-event-i-believe-tsla-will-miss">delivery</a> misses, political risks, and high valuation,&#8221; he said.
&#8220;Tesla's stock has been under pressure recently. There are many downgrades from the top market voices, such as JPMorgan, who predicts around a 63% crash from the current levels, which is a big bearish signal.&#8221;
He also noted downgrades from Baird and Argus, attributing them to &#8220;<a href="https://www.benzinga.com/markets/tech/25/06/46133153/tesla-robotaxi-has-a-major-advantage-over-rivals-waymo-and-zoox-says-gary-black-could-be-very-significant">robotaxi uncertainties</a> and Musk&#8217;s political involvement.&#8221;
A recent Morgan Stanley survey, cited by Murillo, revealed that 85% of investors believe his politics hurt Tesla.
Despite these immediate challenges, Murillo maintains a strong sense of optimism regarding Tesla&#8217;s long-term prospects, particularly in autonomous vehicles and energy storage. &#8220;I see some optimism about the long-term potential of robotaxis and energy storage. It is still possible to see a 45% upside if Tesla can scale the robotaxi business,&#8221; he stated.
Murillo adds, &#8220;If Tesla can execute on its robotaxi and Optimus projects, it could be a multi-trillion-dollar opportunity.&#8221;
See Also: <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/markets/equities/25/07/46257412/is-the-market-open-on-july-4th-everything-you-need-to-know">Is the Market Open On July 4th? Everything You Need To Know</a>
Why It Matters: To improve its short-term standing and capitalize on this long-term potential, Murillo suggests several strategic imperatives for Tesla.
&#8220;Tesla needs to stabilize its sales, especially in <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/markets/tech/25/07/46257617/elon-musk-led-tesla-sales-surge-12-in-the-uk-during-june-q2-deliveries-beat-analyst-estimates">Europe</a> and China. But most importantly, the company should address regulatory issues with the robotaxi service and reduce political risks by toning down Musk&#8217;s involvement.&#8221;
He also highlighted the importance of &#8220;diversifying the product line with more affordable models&#8221; and &#8220;improving supply chain localization to mitigate tariffs and geopolitical risks.&#8221;
Price Action: While Tesla dropped by 0.73% in the three and a half trading days of this week, it ended 0.10% lower at $315.35 per share on Thursday. The stock has experienced a 21.91% decline on a year-to-date basis, whereas it was up 25.38% over a year.
Benzinga Edge Stock Rankings shows that TSLA had a stronger price trend over the short, medium, and long term. Its momentum ranking was moderate, and its value ranking was poor at the 10.04th percentile. The details of other metrics are <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/premium/ideas/benzinga-edge-4/#:~:text=Turn%20Market%20Chaos,when%20markets%20rebound">available here</a>.
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><a href="https://www.benzinga.com/premium/ideas/benzinga-edge-4/#:~:text=Turn%20Market%20Chaos,when%20markets%20rebound"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="158" src="https://editorial-assets.benzinga.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/04034251/Tesla-Edge-Juy-4-1024x158.png" alt="" class="wp-image-972983" srcset="https://editorial-assets.benzinga.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/04034251/Tesla-Edge-Juy-4-1024x158.png 1024w,https://editorial-assets.benzinga.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/04034251/Tesla-Edge-Juy-4-300x46.png 300w,https://editorial-assets.benzinga.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/04034251/Tesla-Edge-Juy-4-768x119.png 768w,https://editorial-assets.benzinga.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/04034251/Tesla-Edge-Juy-4.png 1287w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a></figure>
Price Action: On the truncated trading day of July 3rd, the SPDR S&amp;P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/SPY#NYSE">SPY</a>) and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/QQQ#NASDAQ">QQQ</a>), which track the S&amp;P 500 index and Nasdaq 100 index, respectively, scaled fresh records and ended higher. The SPY was up 0.79% at $625.34, while the QQQ advanced 0.98% to $556.22, according to <a href="https://pro.benzinga.com/dashboard">Benzinga Pro</a> data.
Read Next:
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<li><a href="https://www.benzinga.com/markets/equities/25/07/46188237/bill-gates-is-betting-two-thirds-of-his-foundations-portfolio-in-these-3-stocks">Bill Gates Is Betting Two-Thirds Of His Foundation&#8217;s Portfolio In These 3 Stocks</a></li>
</ul>
Photo courtesy: Ken Wolter / Shutterstock.com

Politics

Tech

General

TSLA

Elon Musk's Tesla Is A 'Multi-Trillion-Dollar Opportunity,' But Short-Term Outlook Is 'Shaky,' Says Expert

At just 28 years old, financial advisor Luke Lloyd learned some of life's toughest lessons—many of them forged in the blue-collar heart of Martins Ferry, Ohio. Growing up in a town where generations worked &#8220;their tails off&#8221; in coal mines and steel mills, Lloyd saw firsthand the grit and dedication it takes to build a life <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/money/the-importance-of-finding-a-financial-advisor-thats-right-for-you">from the ground up</a>.
But it was his father's battle with cancer—and the cold way his employer treated him after 25 loyal years—that ignited something deeper.
"I might be a little crazy," he admits, "but I didn't feel a sense of purpose building someone else's dream." Watching his father be "discarded like a line item" while fighting for his life, Lloyd realized early on that you have a choice: "You either work for the man, or you are the man." 
That lesson from his dad stuck and, this year, Lloyd launched his own firm — Lloyd Financial Group. In a conversation with Benzinga, he offers his perspective on today&#8217;s market trends, the emerging role of artificial intelligence in finance, the need for universal basic income, and what the second half of 2025 will bring.
See Also: <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/trading-ideas/movers/25/06/45805623/palantir-ceo-warns-us-china-ai-race-will-have-one-winner-urges-west-to-keep-up">Palantir CEO Warns US-China AI Race Will Have One Winner, Urges West To Keep Up</a>
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Benzinga: With so much <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/money/mastering-market-swings-tools-to-trade-volatility-like-a-pro">market volatility</a>, how do you gauge what stock to target?</h3>
The easy answer is: Know your specialty. You need to know your craft and what you excel at. Is it trading stock futures? Is it trading options? Is it trading stocks? Is it trading the bond market? If you&#8217;re a trader, rather than a long-term investor, many people will spread themselves too thin. They focus on too many areas — even with the help of AI.
So, if you are a trader — day trader or swing trader — you want to make sure that you know exactly where your best kind of chance of success is. Once you&#8217;ve identified the best thing you&#8217;re good at, it&#8217;s essential to start incorporating the technical indicators, like <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/money/fibonacci-retracement">Fibonacci</a>. 
Suppose you&#8217;re not using technical indicators as a trader. In that case, you&#8217;re behind the curve and losing out on potential opportunities to know where to buy and sell. I do expect that volatility is not going to go away. There will be a lot of back-and-forth news, especially about tariffs and China. However, it&#8217;s essential to have a stop loss in place for any position and stick to it.
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">BZ: What&#8217;s the hardest skill to have as a trader?</h3>
The most challenging skill for a trader to possess is the mental fortitude to adhere to their strategy. Once you stray away from the strategy, you&#8217;re already at a disadvantage. So, having a sell target on the upside and a buy target on the downside is probably the most straightforward yet most important advice I can give to any trader out there, as someone who used to day trade in college. I&#8217;m more of a long-term investor today, but I&#8217;ve been around the game long enough.
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">BZ: <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/markets/forex/25/04/44730411/asia-and-europe-markets-rally-after-trumps-tariff-u-turn-gold-nears-record-high-global-markets-today-while-us-slept">From April 9-10</a>, President Trump walked back some of his tariff rhetoric, triggering a historic market rally. The S&amp;P soared 9.5% in one day. There were <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/news/25/04/44891038/clearly-word-got-out-scott-galloway-says-april-9-will-go-down-as-the-greatest-day-of-insider-trading-in-history">signs of manipulation</a>. Should retail traders or long-term investors be happy about that?</h3>
As a long-term investor, I have to not only analyze what I think will happen, but also position my clients accordingly. So it doesn&#8217;t matter if it makes me happy or sad. It doesn&#8217;t matter whether I like it or not. It&#8217;s the world I was born into, and I have to play along with it because I won&#8217;t change the system. The government&#8217;s too big. The Libertarian in me says that we&#8217;ll never go back to a proper free market, capitalistic system. So, yes, it does upset me, but it doesn&#8217;t matter because I don&#8217;t live in that system and never will. My clients rely on me to listen, not necessarily to share my opinion. As a trader, confirmation bias — or what you want to happen — is one of the biggest mistakes you can make: positioning your portfolio around what you want to happen, not what will happen.
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">BZ: Anthony Scaramucci recently <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dPT3vIZUCw">said</a> he uses Grok AI for his business. What are your thoughts on AI being used in finance?</h3>
I use it every single day, and it probably saves me, personally, 40 hours a week, between marketing, branding, and emails.
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">BZ: What about financial analysis, like stock picks and research?</h3>
Instead of going on Google and having to read 10 articles, I can type in a prompt to get the macro analysis news of the day, and it gives me the most important news. Of course, I fact-check it. But I used to have to wake up two to three hours before work, read the news of the day, and spend a couple of hours digesting stuff. Now it probably takes me 30 minutes to digest everything, because I can get it so quickly. So, yes, I use it every single day for stock analysis. However, the key is that, and this is where people often get themselves into trouble if they rely solely on AI.
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">BZ: Will AI take finance jobs?</h3>
I don&#8217;t think AI will ever be able to do all the jobs, or all of the analysis. I call it &#8220;inefficiently efficient.&#8221; We&#8217;re going to reach a point where AI and algorithms will account for close to 100% of the volume on the New York Stock Exchange. At that point, you&#8217;ll have essentially things priced to perfection. The only way the stock market works is if there are inefficiencies; if something is not priced appropriately, because supply and demand will eventually give it a fair price. So that&#8217;s discrepancy, and that inefficiency is what makes a market. 
If you have AI, or all the same kind of most efficient algorithms pricing stocks and digesting the same information — giving out PE ratios, price-to-sales ratios, and growth ratios — you have almost a too efficient market where there will be no traders left. So, yes, my answer is that it will take the trader&#8217;s job. If you&#8217;re a day trader, it&#8217;s going to be a lot harder to make money, because AI is going to be so efficient that it&#8217;s going to make the markets inefficiently efficient. And UBI will come into the equation.
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">BZ: How does UBI (universal basic income) factor in?</h3>
Once AI starts taking jobs on a bigger scale, especially in the white collar world, you&#8217;re going to see a lot of people get angry, because no one likes losing their job on a massive scale. You&#8217;ll see systematic unemployment rise, and the solution to that will be a universal basic income. There&#8217;s no doubt in my mind that this is likely to happen over the next couple of decades due to the rise of AI, which will replace jobs and systematically increase the unemployment rate. 
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">BZ: We can&#8217;t even get both parties to agree on basic stuff. They&#8217;re going to agree on UBI?</h3>
They have to. If you have fewer workers or fewer people working, because AI is so productive, it will also funnel money to the top. If you have a more productive corporation with fewer workers, margins increase, which in turn creates a higher stock price. Essentially, the only way it doesn&#8217;t create a higher stock price is if there are workers who can&#8217;t afford the product themselves because they are unemployed. So, that&#8217;s where the social safety net comes in to protect those people, because they do need an income, and that money will get funneled to the corporations.
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">BZ: What are your short-term predictions for the third and fourth quarters of 2025?</h3>
I think the third and fourth quarters are going to be very similar to what we saw in the first month or two of this year and right after the Trump election, in some ways, where you saw a lot of the equal-weight S&amp;P 500 do better than the cap weight. I think the days of big tech are little bit behind us. In some ways, they have too much beta on the market — too much money in them. I think you&#8217;ll see money rotation into more international areas that we discussed, as well as some of the smaller mid-cap names, particularly on the value side. And you&#8217;ll see the equal-weight probably do better then the cap-weighted indices. 
Now Read:
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<li><a href="https://www.benzinga.com/personal-finance/25/02/43994419/i-dont-think-were-going-to-have-a-choice-elon-musk-predicts-universal-income-will-eventually-be-high-but-fears-people-will-feel">&#8216;I Don&#8217;t Think We&#8217;re Going to Have a Choice&#8217;: Elon Musk Predicts Universal Income Will Eventually Be &#8216;High&#8217;—But Fears People Will Feel &#8216;Useless&#8217;</a></li>
</ul>
Image: Courtesy of Lloyd Financial, Shutterstock

Analyst Color

Financial Advisors

Entrepreneurship

Exclusives

Personal Finance

Interview

Efficiently Inefficient: 28-Year-Old Finance Pro Presents Paradox For An AI-Traded Future

As Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/NVDA#NASDAQ">NVDA</a>) turned the most valuable publicly traded company on Thursday, inching closer to a $4 trillion market capitalization, this multinational technology company, nicknamed &#8216;Big Blue,&#8217; has outperformed the Magnificent 7 and the Jensen Huang-led tech giant in 2025.
What Happened: International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/IBM#NYSE">IBM</a>) has quietly outpaced the gains in Magnificent 7 stocks on a year-to-date basis, emerging as one of the most profitable artificial intelligence plays this year.
IBM&#8217;s generative AI book of business has <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/content/46151129/is-ibms-ai-transformation-powering-a-sustained-rally">surpassed $5 billion since its inception</a>, a clear indicator of customer demand. The stock has returned 32.75% YTD, higher than Nvidia&#8217;s 15.20% gains and also much higher than all the other Magnificent 7 stocks.
Even on a five-year basis, IBM has outperformed four out of seven Mag 7 components.
Moreover, the stock has also gained more than the exchange-traded fund tracking the Magnificent 7 stocks, Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF (BATS:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/MAGS#BATS">MAGS</a>).
<figure class="wp-block-table is-style-stripes"> 
<table class="has-fixed-layout">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Stocks</td>
<td>YTD Performance</td>
<td>One-Year Performance</td>
<td>Five-Year Performance</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/NVDA#NASDAQ">NVDA</a>)</td>
<td>15.20%</td>
<td>26.63%</td>
<td>1558.06%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/AAPL#NASDAQ">AAPL</a>)</td>
<td>-12.43%</td>
<td>-5.65%</td>
<td>134.59%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/MSFT#NASDAQ">MSFT</a>)</td>
<td>19.17%</td>
<td>6.69%</td>
<td>141.85%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/AMZN#NASDAQ">AMZN</a>)</td>
<td>1.45%</td>
<td>11.70%</td>
<td>54.60%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/GOOG#NASDAQ">GOOG</a>)</td>
<td>-5.29%</td>
<td>-5.94%</td>
<td>146.52%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/META#NASDAQ">META</a>)</td>
<td>19.99%</td>
<td>33.17%</td>
<td>208.03%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/TSLA#NASDAQ">TSLA</a>)</td>
<td>-16.86%</td>
<td>25.38%</td>
<td>291.35%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF (BATS:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/MAGS#BATS">MAGS</a>)</td>
<td>3.27%</td>
<td>14.47%</td>
<td>123.1% (Since 2023)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/IBM#NYSE">IBM</a>)</td>
<td>32.75%</td>
<td>65.87%</td>
<td>155.37%</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</figure>
See Also: <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/news/politics/25/07/46258864/ray-dalio-warns-us-debt-per-family-will-rise-85-to-425000-over-next-10-years-as-house-passes-trumps-big-beautiful-bill">Ray Dalio Warns US Debt Per Family Will Rise 85% To $425,000 Over Next 10 Years As House Passes Trump&#8217;s &#8216;Big Beautiful Bill&#8217;</a>
Why It Matters: Apart from AI, IBM also emerged as one of the top investors alongside Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/GOOG#NASDAQ">GOOG</a>) (NASDAQ:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/GOOGL#NASDAQ">GOOGL</a>), making significant investments in the <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/markets/equities/25/06/45901958/ibm-google-emerge-as-top-investors-in-quantum-computing-with-most-patents-issued-in-2025-only-two-companies-seriously-investing-says-martin-shkreli">quantum computing space</a> on a year-to-date basis.
According to the data shared by Martin Shkreli in mid-June, there was a steep drop in the number of quantum computing patents issued after IBM and Google, suggesting that other companies are either smaller players or not prioritizing quantum computing as heavily.
Meanwhile, highlighting the tariff impact during the <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/markets/equities/25/04/44972416/ibm-plays-down-trump-tariff-concerns-doge-could-affect-consulting-business-but-its-us-federal-business-is-less-than-5-says-ceo">first quarter earnings call</a>, IBM's CFO and Senior Vice President, James Kavanaugh, said that the company was exploring alternatives to mitigate any indirect effects because the direct tariff impact was "minimal." 
"Goods imported to the U.S. represent less than 5% of our overall spend, and under current U.S. tariff policy, the impact to IBM is minimal. While we have limited direct exposure outside the United States, we are tactically evaluating alternative sources and other strategies to mitigate tariffs," he said.
Talking about the impact of DOGE-related initiatives, its Chairman, President, and CEO, Arvind Krishna, highlighted that its consulting business was "susceptible to discretionary pullbacks and DOGE-related initiatives."
The company is set to report its <a href="https://newsroom.ibm.com/2024-07-10-IBM-to-Announce-Second-Quarter-2024-Financial-Results#:~:text=ARMONK%2C%20N.Y.%2C%20July%2010%2C,at%205%3A00%20p.m.%20ET">second-quarter earnings</a> on July 24. -.
Benzinga Edge Stock Rankings shows that IBM had a stronger price trend over the short, medium, and long term. Its momentum ranking was solid, and its value ranking was poor at the 17.38th percentile. The details of other metrics are <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/premium/ideas/benzinga-edge-4/#:~:text=Turn%20Market%20Chaos,when%20markets%20rebound">available here</a>.
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><a href="https://www.benzinga.com/premium/ideas/benzinga-edge-4/#:~:text=Turn%20Market%20Chaos,when%20markets%20rebound"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="159" src="https://editorial-assets.benzinga.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/04062451/IBM-Edge-New-1024x159.png" alt="" class="wp-image-973084" srcset="https://editorial-assets.benzinga.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/04062451/IBM-Edge-New-1024x159.png 1024w,https://editorial-assets.benzinga.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/04062451/IBM-Edge-New-300x47.png 300w,https://editorial-assets.benzinga.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/04062451/IBM-Edge-New-768x119.png 768w,https://editorial-assets.benzinga.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/04062451/IBM-Edge-New.png 1279w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a></figure>
Price Action: On the truncated trading day of July 3rd, the SPDR S&amp;P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/SPY#NYSE">SPY</a>) and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/QQQ#NASDAQ">QQQ</a>), which track the S&amp;P 500 index and Nasdaq 100 index, respectively, scaled fresh records and ended higher. The SPY was up 0.79% at $625.34, while the QQQ advanced 0.98% to $556.22, according to <a href="https://pro.benzinga.com/dashboard">Benzinga Pro </a>data.
Read Next:
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<li><a href="https://www.benzinga.com/markets/equities/25/07/46216283/dan-ives-urges-apple-to-make-a-move-saying-that-perplexity-acquisition-is-a-no-brainer-its-a-matter-of-when-and-not-if" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dan Ives Urges Apple ‘To Make A Move,' Saying That Perplexity Acquisition Is ‘A No-Brainer': ‘It's A Matter Of When And Not If'</a></li>
</ul>
Photo courtesy: MacroEcon / Shutterstock.com

AAPL

AMZN

GOOG

GOOGL

MAGS

MSFT

NVDA

Everyone Talked About Nvidia, Apple And Tesla, But This One Tech Stock Has Left Them All Behind In 2025

Elon Musk&#8216;s artificial intelligence startup xAI has hired Katie Miller, wife of President Donald Trump&#8216;s Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, as a communications manager just as the company secured a controversial permit for its Memphis data center operations.
What Happened: The Shelby County Health Department on Wednesday approved xAI&#8217;s application to <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/markets/tech/25/07/46257227/elon-musks-xai-secures-permit-to-burn-natural-gas-for-grok-supercomputer-in-memphis-amid-clean-air-act-lawsuit-pollution-complaints">operate 15 natural gas-burning turbines</a> at its Colossus supercomputer facility, despite months of community protests over air quality concerns. 
The permit includes emissions limits and testing requirements, with penalties reaching $10,000 per day for non-compliance.
Katie Miller, a seasoned political operative who previously worked at the Department of Government Efficiency, announced the permit approval in a rare email to reporters from her xAI corporate address, <a href="https://fortune.com/2025/07/03/katie-miller-trump-white-house-elon-musk-xai/">reported</a> Fortune. The communication marked an unusual departure for Musk&#8217;s companies, which disbanded media relations teams years ago and typically communicate only through social media.
&#8220;xAI welcomes today&#8217;s decision by the Shelby County Health Department,&#8221; Miller wrote. &#8220;Our onsite power generation will be equipped with state-of-the-art emissions control technology, making this facility the lowest emitting of its kind in the country.&#8221;
See Also: <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/news/politics/25/07/46259176/trumps-decision-to-end-tax-free-loophole-for-low-value-goods-from-china-leads-to-a-sharp-decline-in-air-cargo-shipments">Trump&#8217;s Decision To End Tax-Free Loophole For Low-Value Goods From China Leads To A Sharp Decline In Air Cargo Shipments</a>
Why It Matters: Miller&#8217;s hiring comes amid growing tensions between Trump and Musk. She departed the White House in May to work full-time for Musk&#8217;s ventures, according <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-presidency-news-05-28-25#cmb8dqgz400003b6siifazr80">to</a> CNN, while her husband remains with the Trump administration. The relationship between the two billionaires has deteriorated, with Musk recently threatening to fund a rival political party.
The Memphis facility powers xAI&#8217;s Grok AI model and represents Musk&#8217;s direct challenge to OpenAI&#8216;s ChatGPT and Alphabet Inc.&#8216;s (NASDAQ:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/GOOGL#NASDAQ">GOOGL</a>) (NASDAQ:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/GOOG#NASDAQ">GOOG</a>) Google Gemini. The company recently raised $10 billion in debt and equity, with discussions underway for an additional $20 billion equity round that <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/markets/tech/25/07/46187301/elon-musks-xai-secures-10-billion-in-debt-and-equity-amid-soaring-burn-rate-as-ai-arms-race-intensifies">could value xAI at over $120 billion</a>.
The Memphis supercomputer utilizes primarily NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/NVDA#NASDAQ">NVDA</a>) GPUs, with additional chips from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/AMD#NASDAQ">AMD</a>). Musk plans to <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/markets/tech/25/07/46257227/elon-musks-xai-secures-permit-to-burn-natural-gas-for-grok-supercomputer-in-memphis-amid-clean-air-act-lawsuit-pollution-complaints">deploy 1 million GPUs at the facility</a>, with acquisition costs estimated between $30 billion and $40 billion, according to analyst Gene Munster.
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</ul>
Disclaimer:&nbsp;This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
Photo courtesy: JRdes / Shutterstock.com

Elon Musk's xAI Hires Trump Aide Stephen Miller's Wife Katie Amid Controversial Memphis Data Center Permit Win

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="900" height="340" src="https://contributor-assets.benzinga.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/04015427/brief-finance-v3.1-5.png" alt="" class="wp-image-15337" style="width:900px;height:auto" srcset="https://contributor-assets.benzinga.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/04015427/brief-finance-v3.1-5.png 900w,https://contributor-assets.benzinga.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/04015427/brief-finance-v3.1-5-300x113.png 300w,https://contributor-assets.benzinga.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/04015427/brief-finance-v3.1-5-768x290.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" /></figure>
Amber International Holding Ltd. (NASDAQ:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/AMBR#NASDAQ">AMBR</a>) <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/amber-international-accelerates-crypto-reserve-strategy-with-recently-announced-25-5-million-private-placement-backed-by-leading-global-investors-302497677.html">said</a> on Thursday that it will use new funds from its recently unveiled $25.5 million private placement to further enhance its $100 million "crypto ecosystem reserve," and also to expand its institutional crypto services in the growth markets of the U.S. and Southeast Asia.
Under the placement, Amber is selling 12.2 million Class A ordinary shares, equal to about 2.44 million ADSs, based on the company's ratio of 5 ordinary shares to each ADS. The subscription price is $10.45 per ADS, representing a 5% discount to the average price between June 25 and June 27 just before the original fundraising announcement.
Others participating in the placement include Mile Green, Harvest Capital, Pantera Capital, CMAG Funds, Choco Up and Kingkey Financial International (1468.HK). Mile Green, led by Thai conglomerate CP Group's Chatchaval Jiaravanon, is set to provide additional support for Amber's expansion in Southeast Asia.
Amber said it will use the new funds to support its strategic investments in cryptocurrencies with high potential such as bitcoin, ethereum and solana, as part of the development of its cryptocurrency reserve.
Amber International provides crypto financial services and solutions targeting institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals to optimize their digital asset portfolios. The Singapore-based company was listed on the Nasdaq in March this year.&nbsp;
By Teri Yu

Offerings

Opinion

AMBR

Amber International Raises $25.5M To Enhance $100M Crypto Ecosystem Reserve

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="900" height="600" src="https://contributor-assets.benzinga.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/04031741/IPO-0704-900x600-1.png" alt="" class="wp-image-15343" srcset="https://contributor-assets.benzinga.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/04031741/IPO-0704-900x600-1.png 900w,https://contributor-assets.benzinga.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/04031741/IPO-0704-900x600-1-300x200.png 300w,https://contributor-assets.benzinga.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/04031741/IPO-0704-900x600-1-768x512.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" /></figure>
Hong Kong listings by 44 companies raised $13.6 billion in the first six months of 2025, accounting for a quarter of the world's total IPO fundraising
<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Key Takeaways:</h4>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Hong Kong led the world in IPOs in the first half of the year with $13.6 billion in new fundraising, as New York IPOs by Chinese companies raised just $841 million</li>
<li>Hong Kong has taken steps to lure Chinese companies to the city, as they avoid New York over U.S.-China frictions and face difficulties listing in Shanghai and Shenzhen</li>
</ul>
Hong Kong became the world's leading IPO market in the first half of 2025, accounting for a quarter of global fundraising from new listings, as money-hungry Chinese firms raced to list in the city after a quiet period over the previous three years. Second listings in Hong Kong by Shanghai- and Shenzhen-listed Chinese firms were a major factor behind Hong Kong's boom, as such companies sought to raise both cash and their global profiles.
At the same time, many Chinese firms that might have previously chosen to list in New York largely abandoned that route this year amid heightened geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China. Only one Chinese company made a major new U.S. listing in the first half of 2025, as milk tea chain&nbsp;Chagee&nbsp;(CHA.US) raised more than $400 million in its April IPO. And even that was offset by announcement of a privatization bid for electric vehicle (EV) maker&nbsp;Zeekr&nbsp;(ZK.US), which raised a similar $441 million with a New York listing just a year ago.
If those trends continue, which looks likely, 2025 would mark the best year for Hong Kong IPOs since 2021, and would be the second-highest year for IPO fundraising year in the last decade.
Forty-four IPOs by companies in Hong Kong raised a combined HK$107.1 billion ($13.6 billion) in the first half of the year, equal to seven times the amount raised in the first half of 2024, PwC said in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pwchk.com/en/press-room/press-releases/pr-020725.html#:~:text=In%20the%20first%20half%20of%202025%2C%20Hong%20Kong%20raised%20HKD,total%20in%20the%20past%20decade.">a report</a>&nbsp;this week. In a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ey.com/en_cn/newsroom/2025/06/a-h-listings-support-hk-reclaiming-the-top-spot">similar report</a>&nbsp;issued in June, Ernst &amp; Young said that Hong Kong IPOs accounted for 24% of all fundraising from new listings worldwide in the first half of the year.
Both reports said the momentum in Hong Kong was likely to continue into the second half of the year, with PwC forecasting companies would raise more than $200 billion with new listings on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for all 2025.
While Hong Kong boomed, E&amp;Y observed that fundraising by Chinese companies through U.S. IPOs tumbled by 62% to $841 million, even as the number of new listings rose by 44% to 36. That showed that mega-IPOs from China, typically worth $100 million or more, are increasingly rare in the U.S., and most deals still going to New York are pint-sized offerings worth $20 million or less.
Reflecting the growing preference for Hong Kong, which dates back over the last two years, China's securities regulator approved 30 new listings by Chinese companies seeking to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in the first half of the year. That was more than double the 12 companies approved to list on the Nasdaq by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), which must approve all such new overseas listings.
The CSRC's pipeline of pending overseas listing applications looks similar in terms of the preference for Hong Kong. Of the 183 applications currently under consideration by the regulator, 126 are from companies hoping to list in Hong Kong, while just 42 are seeking to list on the Nasdaq. And none of the pending Nasdaq applicants has hired a top-tier investment bank, indicating most or all will likely raise $20 million or less.
<h4 class="wp-block-heading">All about policy</h4>
Several factors are behind the Hong Kong boom, nearly all of them policy-related. The biggest factor driving Chinese companies from the U.S. is increasingly tense relations between Beijing and Washington, with some American politicians even suggesting that all Chinese companies should be delisted from U.S. stock exchanges.
China is playing a role as well due to its concerns that large amounts of personal and customer data held by Chinese companies could become accessible to the U.S. government if those companies list in New York. Such concerns led to the forced delisting of leading ride-sharing company&nbsp;DiDi Global&nbsp;from the New York Stock Exchange in 2021.
Similar concerns were also likely a factor in the uncertain fate of a pending blockbuster listing by online fast fashion sensation&nbsp;Shein. The company originally aimed to list in New York, but abandoned that plan after running into political headwinds from Washington. Shein later shifted its sights to a London IPO. But it abandoned that plan last month, reportedly over objections from the CSRC, which would like the company to list in Hong Kong.
China has also fueled the rush of companies to Hong Kong by limiting the number of new listings on its domestic A-share markets in Shanghai and Shenzhen, in a bid to support those markets. Reflecting the weaker sentiment among domestic investors, the Shanghai Composite Index is up just 6% this year, well behind a 23% rise for Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index.
Hong Kong has seized on U.S. and Chinese political frictions, as well as China's data security concerns and limits on new IPOs in Shanghai and Shenzhen, by taking steps to make its stock market more attractive to new Chinese listing candidates. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange launched a Technology Enterprises Channel in May, making it easier for early-stage specialist tech and biotech companies to list. And last October it published another new policy making it easier for Chinese companies with A-share listings in Shanghai or Shenzhen to make second IPOs in Hong Kong, which is more open to international investors.
The largest Hong Kong IPO in the first half of the year came from one such second listing, as EV battery giant&nbsp;Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd.&nbsp;(3750.HK; 300750.SZ), or CATL, raised about $4.6 billion through a Hong Kong IPO to complement its older listing in Shenzhen.
While Chagee stood out from its peers by listing in the U.S., the first half of 2025 was also notable for IPOs by several of the company's larger rivals in Hong Kong, led by the $440 million IPO by leading premium tea chain&nbsp;Mixue&nbsp;(2097.HK).
Gold listings were also popular in the first half of the year as prices for the precious metal soared to record highs. That helped&nbsp;Jilong Gold&nbsp;(6693.HK) to raise $419 million in its February IPO. The same gold fever could also spark another mega listing in the second half, following&nbsp;Zijin Mining's&nbsp;(2899.HK)&nbsp;<a href="https://thebambooworks.com/brief-zijin-mining-files-to-separately-list-international-gold-unit/">filing&nbsp;</a>of a preliminary prospectus this week as it gets set to spin off and separately list its&nbsp;Zijin Gold International&nbsp;unit.

Asia

IPOs

Global

Hong Kong IPOs Explode In H1-25 As China Inc. Abandons New York

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="900" height="600" src="https://contributor-assets.benzinga.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/04020431/Cheng-tech-900x600-1.png" alt="" class="wp-image-15340" srcset="https://contributor-assets.benzinga.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/04020431/Cheng-tech-900x600-1.png 900w,https://contributor-assets.benzinga.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/04020431/Cheng-tech-900x600-1-300x200.png 300w,https://contributor-assets.benzinga.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/04020431/Cheng-tech-900x600-1-768x512.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" /></figure>
The automotive sensor maker is seeking IPO funds to boost its capacity, as intelligent driving systems move from luxury cars to mainstream models
<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Key takeaways:</h4>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>The company focuses on millimeter-wave radar, which is cheaper than laser-based LIDAR sensors but less precise</li>
<li>It relies heavily on custom from car giant BYD, which generated 94% of company revenues last year</li>
</ul>
Laser, cameras or radar? Smart driving technology is dividing into competing camps as it percolates down from luxury vehicles to budget cars.
Suppliers of high-end automotive LiDAR, which uses laser pulses as a positioning tool, are struggling to make a profit as driver assistance enters the mass car market. Meanwhile, a firm providing base-level driving technology to auto giant&nbsp;BYD&nbsp;(1211.HK; 002594.SZ) is taking a different route.
Shenzhen Cheng-Tech Co. Ltd., founded on the back of expertise built at Huawei,specializes in a type of short-wave radar as a cost-effective way to help drivers with tasks such as staying in lane or judging distances.
While LIDAR companies such as&nbsp;Hesai Technology&nbsp;(HSAI.US)and&nbsp;RoboSense Technology&nbsp;(2498.HK) target elevated levels of intelligent driving at L3 to L4 on the industry's five-point scale, Cheng-Tech is content to focus on the lower rungs of L0 to L2+ with its millimeter-wave radar, a simpler technology with a potentially broader market base.
Doubling down on its strategy, the company has&nbsp;<a href="https://www1.hkexnews.hk/app/sehk/2025/107468/documents/sehk25062300152.pdf">filed&nbsp;</a>for Hong Kong IPO under relaxed listing rules for specialist tech companies, hoping to raise money to boost its research and production capacity, with Guotai Junan International as the sole sponsor.
Cheng-Tech's short-wavelength systems have the benefit of being cheap to run, resistant to disruption and able to operate around the clock. The downsides are reduced resolution and precision, thus limiting their use for advanced assistance scenarios without support from additional sensors. But millimeter-wave radar comes at a fraction of the cost of LiDAR and does not require sophisticated technical input, making it an attractive option for deployment in mass-market vehicles.
Founded in 2016, the company specializes in millimeter-wave radar at a frequency of 77GHz for products such as front and corner radars or centralized radar processing systems. By June this year Cheng-Tech had launched seven key radar products covering L0 to L2+ levels of driver assistance.
The company ranked as the biggest domestic Chinese supplier of frontal millimeter-wave vehicle radar last year with 945,000 shipped units, giving it 9.3% of the market, according to data from China Insights Consultancy (CIC). In the automative millimeter-wave radar business as a whole, it came third by shipment volume, with a market share of 4.5%.
<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Huawei legacy</h4>
Chairman Chen Chengwen and co-founder Zhou Ke both cut their teeth at&nbsp; Huawei. Chen served as a senior product manager while Zhou held key technical positions at the Chinese tech firm, where the pair developed expertise in engineering and embedded algorithms that was applied to signal processing and hardware integration in the new company.
Revenues have been rising fast but the radar company has yet to break even on a net basis. Cheng-Tech logged revenues of 57.65 million yuan ($8.05 million) in 2022, followed by 157 million yuan in 2023 and 348 million yuan last year. Losses over the three-year period reached 197 million yuan, although in 2024 the loss narrowed 77% to 21.77 billion yuan, for an operating profit of 15.07 million yuan. Gross profit margin rose from 28.7% in 2022 to 33.9% in 2024, reflecting improved cost control and pricing power.
However, the company is facing a financial squeeze, with only 15.87 million yuan in cash and cash equivalents by the end of last year. Any urgent need to expand production or upgrade technology could require more financing in future.
<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Big dependence on BYD</h4>
The company has benefited from close ties with BYD, China's biggest maker of electric vehicles, but the dependence also represents a risk. Since becoming a designated sensor supplier in 2022, Cheng-Tech has deployed its radar in more than 20 BYD models. In 2024, it earned 326 million yuan from BYD, accounting for 93.6% of its total operating revenue.
In February BYD announced an equality drive to make assisted driving more widely available, under a slogan "intelligent driving for all". Since then, it has been equipping models retailing for less than 100,000 yuan with advanced driver-assistance functions, incorporating Cheng-Tech's 4D millimeter-wave radar as a key component. However, any shift in BYD's procurement strategy or a pivot to other suppliers would be a hammer blow to the company.
Moreover, millimeter-wave radar has a lower technological barrier to entry than LIDAR, leaving Cheng-Tech exposed to competition. Another company active in the same radar segment is Wuhu Sensortech Intelligent Technology, a subsidiary of&nbsp;Hikvision&nbsp;(002415.SZ). The rival firm, with stonger finances and superior production capacity compared to Cheng-Tech, is also a BYD supplier, offering corner, front and surround radars within its product mix.
Established companies such as HASCO Automotive and Suzhou Everbright Photonics are also stepping up their investment in this area, threatening to erode Cheng-Tech's tech advantage and cloud its growth prospects in the medium to long term.
The company finished its Series C financing in May last year with a post-financing valuation of 1.32 billion yuan, far less than Hesai Technology's 14.5 billion yuan and RoboSense Technology's 7 billion yuan. However, RoboSense's share price has tumbled nearly 30% since its IPO, while U.S.-listed Hesai Technology has shed 17% of its market value. Catering to the middle and lower end of the market, Cheng-Tech has a potentially wider range of customers but is hampered by limited pricing power. The road from here may be bumpy, but if it can tap new clients and export markets, Cheng-Tech could stay in the driving seat in an accelerating mass market for automotive intelligence. Still, as far as investors are concerned, the firm does not really deserve high-tech status and should probably be viewed as one of many auto industry suppliers out there.

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BYD Supplier Cheng-Tech Bets On Budget Option For Assisted Driving

Multinational bank BNP Paribas has said that Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/TSLA#NASDAQ">TSLA</a>) rivals Rivian Automotive Inc. (NASDAQ:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/RIVN#NASDAQ">RIVN</a>) and Lucid Group Inc. (NASDAQ:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/LCID#NASDAQ">LCID</a>) could benefit from U.S. President Donald Trump's <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/markets/tech/25/07/46257394/trumps-big-bautiful-bill-passes-ev-tax-breaks-to-end-on-september-30-what-it-means-for-electric-vehicles">Big Beautiful Bill</a>.
What Happened: "Similarly to RIVN, we do believe LCID stands to benefit from reduced EV competition as OEMs deemphasize US EV ambitions," a BNP analyst cited by Bloomberg said <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-07-03/rivian-lucid-to-benefit-from-trump-tax-bill-bnp-paribas-says">on</a> Thursday.
The report said that while U.S. automakers like General Motors Co. (NYSE:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/GM#NYSE">GM</a>) and Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/F#NYSE">F</a>) have ramped up EV production, analysts from the bank predict that Trump's tax bill could slow down the activities of the legacy automakers.
This could benefit new-age companies like Rivian and Lucid with more market share available for the brands. BNP also expects Rivian to gain from the backlash surrounding Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
The analysts also shared that third-quarter deliveries could rise as consumers would want to avail benefits of the $7,500 tax credit before it ends on September 30.
Why It Matters: The news comes as Rivian shared its <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/trading-ideas/movers/25/07/46224223/rivians-production-dips-for-next-gen-models-volkswagen-infusion-boosts-outlook">Q2 delivery figures</a>, which outlined the EV maker recording over 10,661 units in the quarter and producing over 5,979 units from April to June.
Lucid shares, meanwhile, surged as the company shared <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/trading-ideas/movers/25/07/46248543/lucid-stock-is-climbing-higher-thursday-whats-going-on">its Q2 statistics</a>. The company's production increased from 2,212 units in the first quarter to 3,863 units in Q2. Deliveries saw a slight increase to 3,309 units.
Meanwhile, Tesla also reported a strong rebound for its Q2 deliveries as the company delivered over <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/markets/tech/25/07/46239998/dan-ives-hails-teslas-better-than-expected-q2-deliveries-says-fireworks-come-early-for-elon-musk-led-ev-giant">384,211 vehicles in Q2</a>, largely driven by the Model 3 and the Model Y.
Check out more of Benzinga's Future Of Mobility coverage by<a href="https://www.benzinga.com/topic/mobility"> following this link.</a>
Read Next:
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<li><a href="https://www.benzinga.com/markets/tech/25/07/46258669/tesla-made-2-76-billion-from-zev-credits-in-2024-in-us-but-trumps-tax-bill-just-killed-this-revenue-stream">Tesla Made $2.76 Billion From ZEV Credits In 2024 In US But Trump&#8217;s Tax Bill Just Killed This Revenue Stream</a></li>
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Photo courtesy: Michael Berlfein via Shutterstock

LCID

RIVN

Trump's Tax Bill Could Be A Boost For Tesla-Rivals Rivian, Lucid Amid EV Slowdown, Says BNP Paribas

The decision by the U.S. to terminate a tax-free exemption for low-value goods from China has led to a drop in air cargo shipments from Asia to North America.
What Happened: The International Air Transport Association (IATA) reported a 10.7% decrease in air cargo demand from Asia to North America in May compared to the same period last year. According to a Reuters report, this decline is attributed to the U.S. decision to end the tax-free exemption for low-value packages from China in early May.
See Also: <a href="https://benzinga.com/news/topics/25/07/46253645/trump-lectures-japan-about-rice-but-u-s-tariffs-make-sugar-and-peanuts-140-more-expensive-for-america">Trump Lectures Japan About Rice But U.S. Tariffs Make Sugar And Peanuts 140% More Expensive For Americans, Says Peter Schiff</a>
Shipments valued under $800, commonly sent by air to U.S. customers of low-cost e-commerce platforms such as Shein and PDD&#8216;s (NASDAQ:<a class="ticker" href="https://www.benzinga.com/stock/PDD#NASDAQ">PDD</a>) Temu, were previously exempt from taxes. However, since May 2, these shipments from China and Hong Kong have been subjected to taxes, initially as high as 145%, before settling to as low as 30% after a mid-May trade deal between the U.S. and China.
Why It Matters: This development comes on the heels of a series of trade policy changes by the U.S. government. In May, President Donald Trump significantly reduced tariffs on Chinese imports as the United States entered a <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/government/regulations/25/05/45368852/trump-lowers-de-minimis-tariff-on-chinese-imports-from-120-to-54-pauses-200-postal-fee-amid-90-day-trade-shift">90-day period</a> of trade negotiations with China. 
However, the US&#8217;s decision to end the tax-free loophole for low-value goods from China comes at a time of heightened trade tensions between the two countries.
Trump recently announced a <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/news/politics/25/07/46241070/trumps-vietnam-trade-deal-with-40-tax-on-transshipments-may-result-in-chinese-backlash-say-economists-they-want-inflation">trade deal with Vietnam</a>, imposing a 20% tariff on Vietnamese exports to the US and a 40% tariff on goods transshipped through Vietnam, particularly targeting Chinese products rerouted to avoid US tariffs. This move has been met with criticism, with economist <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/news/politics/25/07/46239985/peter-schiff-warns-americans-will-suffer-and-vietnamese-will-enjoy-after-trumps-trade-deal-with-hanoi">Peter Schiff warning</a> that American consumers are likely to bear the brunt of the agreement.
Amid ongoing <a href="https://www.benzinga.com/markets/macro-economic-events/25/06/46163141/trump-says-hell-skip-trade-deals-set-global-tariffs-with-a-letter-pay-a-25-tariff-or-20-or-40-or-50">trade negotiations</a> between the U.S. and China, the recent trade policy shifts by the U.S. are expected to have an impact on global trade dynamics and the performance of key industries.
Read Next:
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<li><a href="https://benzinga.com/news/politics/25/07/46244280/elon-musks-dad-supports-trumps-bill-advises-musk-trump-to-talk-it-out-united-states-needs-lot-of-re">Elon Musk&#8217;s Dad Supports Trump&#8217;s Bill, Advises Musk-Trump To &#8216;Talk It Out&#8217;: &#8216;United States Needs Lot Of Rebuilding&#8230;They Need To Spend Money&#8217;</a></li>
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
Photo courtesy: miss.cabul / Shutterstock.com

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