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Breakfast News: Bitcoin Tops $100,000

December 5, 2024

Wednesday's Markets
S&P 500
6,086 (+0.61%)
Nasdaq
19,735 (+1.3%)
Dow
45,014 (+0.69%)
Bitcoin
$98,357 (+2.3%)
Illustration of a bitcoin with $100,000 written below it.

Source: Image created by Jester AI.

1. Bitcoin Passes Psychological Milestone

The announcement of more crypto-friendly Paul Atkins as the new SEC Chair by President-elect Trump helped to push Bitcoin (BTC -1.59%) above $100,000 for the first time ever. Bulls say this establishes its ‘digital gold’ role as a store of value.

  • “A huge milestone for the token”: Caroline Mauron, co-founder of Orbit Markets, expects momentum to continue in the coming days. CCData showed in excess of $10 trillion of trading volume on digital assets in November.
  • A Superscore of 93: Bitcoin remains top of TMF’s Cryptoball rankings. Of the 840 cryptoassets, two others have a 90+ overall strength rating.

2. What to Watch on Thursday

DocuSign (DOCU 1.42%) is due to release quarterly earnings after the closing bell. It’ll be the first full quarter where the hyped Intelligence Agreement Management (IAM) AI-powered cloud software was available to all clients. The Rule Breakers company has been treading water over the last 5 years, up just 6%.

  • Targeting a sticky client base: Stock Advisor recommendation Ulta Beauty (ULTA -3.07%) will also report Q3 earnings, with a focus on progress on enhancing digital capabilities and on take-up of the loyalty program. Sales growth figures will highlight how the business is coping with the tough competitive landscape in the beauty space.
  • Foolish conviction: Ulta Beauty is currently inside the top 50 in our Quant Rankings for its ability to beat the market over the next half-decade.

3. Lululemon Looks to Impress

Hidden Gems rec Lululemon (LULU -0.14%) reports third-quarter results later as well. Analysts expect growth in both revenue and earnings from the same period last year.

  • Split of regional growth in focus: Investors will be watching to see if U.S. sales growth picks up, after Q2 results showed a 29% growth in international sales but flat U.S. numbers. Keep an eye out for the possible reintroduction of its ‘hot yoga’-specific Breeze Through fabric, which initially received positive feedback before being withdrawn in July due to design issues.
  • A portfolio diversifier: Some Foolish investors might like Lululemon as a way to gain more exposure to international apparel and retail growth. However, growing market share in emerging markets is not an easy feat, so the stock might not be for those uncomfortable with the size of that task.

4. AI Capability Race Continues

ChatGPT owner OpenAI is starting a 12-day stream where it’ll be releasing groundbreaking new tools and features, as consumers try to see where the direction of travel for the sector is.

  • A glimpse of the future: Advancements in reasoning models and AI agents are expected, alongside the much-anticipated debut of a text-to-video tool, dubbed Sora AI. This would allow a user to generate video content from textual descriptions.
  • Large investments: xAI, Elon Musk’s AI start-up, announced it’ll be expanding its supercomputer power tenfold, speeding up the training of chatbot Grok. It already operates on a cluster of over 100,000 connected Nvidia (NVDA -0.02%) chips. Such a move could leap-frog the start-up’s capabilities beyond rivals including OpenAI, Alphabet (GOOG -0.67%), and Anthropic.

5. Foolish Fun

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