Cover:
-Kentucky's legal sports betting trend has been a significant one, with the state spending $2.4B on sports in the 12 months following Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear's first legal sports bet. The trend has continued across the US, where Americans now spend around $150B a year on sports. 48% of American men under 50 have an account on digital sportsbooks at sites like DraftKings, FanDuel, ESPNBet, and BetMGM. This has generated new interest in professional sports leagues, with state coffers filled with new tax receipts and struggling media companies filling commercial breaks with ads for betting apps. However, addiction experts warn that gambling on smartphone apps carries higher addiction risks than traditional wagers. Internet search queries related to gambling addiction have consistently increased since 2021. It takes around seven years for someone with a gambling problem to first present for treatment, meaning a wave of problem gamblers have yet to identify themselves. Kentucky has five counselors certified to treat an estimated 60,000 problem gamblers, but there is no accurate count of gambling counselors nationwide.
Interview:
-IonQ, a company aiming to become the industry leader in quantum computing, is aiming to follow in the footsteps of major semiconductor companies like Nvidia and Broadcom. CEO Niccolo de Masi told Barron’s believes IonQ will be the Nvidia player, with other companies following suit. The company aims to build the world's best quantum computers to solve complex problems. It offers a full stack of software, hardware, and applications, including quantum-computing power accessible over the cloud. IonQ is the largest publicly traded quantum-computing company by market capitalization, at around $8.75B. Its next-largest peer, D-Wave Quantum, has a market cap of $4.84B. Shares of IonQ surged 29% to $43.36 on Thursday, while the benchmark S&P 500 was up 0.1%. IonQ was one of the first quantum pure plays to go public, founded by Duke professors Christopher Monroe and Jungsang Kim. The company began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in September 2021, with De Masi heading the special purpose acquisition company that took IonQ public. Since its inception, IonQ has worked to build a presence outside the U.S. by snapping up start-ups and private companies around the globe. De Masi points to IonQ's acquisition of a controlling stake in ID Quantique, a Swiss quantum-cryptography company, among other deals.
Tech Trader:
-The rapid advancements in artificial intelligence have led to a significant challenge for large technology companies, with Google being the most prominent. The debate on Wall Street is whether Alphabet's Google search is being disrupted by AI-driven chatbots, and whether the company is capable of reversing this. Google has introduced a major change to its search engine, but the technology is not enough to overcome the "innovator's dilemma" of moving quickly to the next paradigm. Last year, Alphabet generated $100B in net profit, with the majority coming from its search engine. However, as information-related searches increasingly rely on AI apps, Alphabet investors have been cautious, with the company's stock down 10% this year. Google's I/O developers conference recently featured a new AI video-generation model called Veo 3, which impressed experts with features such as data visualization, better personalization, and AI agent capabilities that can book restaurants or sporting events for users.
The Trader:
-Despite the Trump administration's threats of more tariffs on the European Union and Apple, long-term bond yields rose, pressuring stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was on track to fall 2.6% this week, while the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 index were sliding 2.7% and 2.9%, respectively. Despite this, stocks are still trading higher than before the president's flurry of tariff announcements on April 2. The speed of the bounce has been alarmed by strategists, who note that when the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) closes above 50, the S&P 500 tends to have a median gain above 20% over the next 12 months. The market also looks vulnerable to more macro shocks, including deficit concerns after the House of Representatives passed Trump's "big, beautiful bill" and tariffs. The stock market could be stuck in place until these worries dissipate enough to get investors buying again. Anthony Saglimbene, chief market strategist at Ameriprise, says that positive trade developments are needed to get to new all-time highs in the near term. A prolonged period of trading sideways could take some of the froth out of the market.
-IBM stock has seen a nearly 20% increase in 2025, making it the best performer in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is now recognized as an emerging leader in cloud computing and artificial intelligence technology, thanks to products and services like Granite and Watsonx. This has fueled growth in its software and consulting services businesses, and excitement for the stock. However, investors may have unreasonable expectations, as IBM is no longer being valued like a slow-growth old tech stock that often relied heavily on stock buybacks to boost earnings per share. Analysts are forecasting annual earnings-per-share increases of about 6% for this year and 2026, and about 7% for the next few years after that. This means that IBM is trading at 3.5 times its projected long-term growth rate, a richer price-to-earnings-growth ratio than Nvidia and Alphabet, and even slightly higher than Amazon.com.
Features:
-The House of Representatives' tax and spending bill, passed by President Donald Trump, is expected to negatively impact clean energy projects, such as solar and wind farms. However, the bill's impact is worse than expected, as it repeals tax credits that have been in place for decades and were expanded by the Inflation Reduction Act. This would result in a significant loss of incentives for projects, potentially jeopardizing over $500B of clean energy manufacturing projects. Heather Cooper, a lawyer at McDermott Will & Emery, warns that the bill would be devastating to the industry, as it would repeal the Inflation Reduction Act. Some clean energy industries, such as rooftop solar and electric vehicles, would be hit harder, while others, such as biofuels, nuclear energy, and carbon capture, have survived with less damage.
-Heart attacks and strokes remain the world's biggest killers, 40 years after the first statin drug started lowering cholesterol levels. This year, test results on new cardiovascular drugs are expected to show their effectiveness in reducing blood levels of "bad" cholesterol, LDL, which gunks up arteries over time. A pack of new cardiovascular drugs are being tried as pills, biweekly or semiannual shots, and even once-for-a-lifetime infusions. Successful trial results in the next few years could save thousands of lives and generate billions in new annual revenue for drugmakers. Companies working on these drugs range from pharmaceutical companies like Eli Lilly, Merck, AstraZeneca, biotechs like Amgen and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, to gene-editing specialists like Crispr Therapeutics and Verve Therapeutics. Regeneron and Sanofi took the first big step beyond statins in 2015 with Praluent, a biweekly injection of antibodies that sop up the enzyme called PCSK9, which strongly effects blood levels of LDL. Amgen followed with the PCSK9 antibody Repatha, and Novartis launched Leqvio.
Europe:
-President Donald Trump has announced plans to impose a 50% tariff on the European Union starting June 1 and threatened 25% tariffs on Apple iPhones if they weren't made in the US. The move comes as the trade war continues on multiple fronts, with analysts worried that Trump could use the EU as an example to pressure other priority countries to commit to a framework agreement faster. The EU is particularly problematic for the Trump administration because they are not caving to pressure, and the two sides aren't closer to a resolution on longstanding issues, such as standards for agriculture and commodity purchases and a digital services tax. Trump's announcement on Truth Social cited the EU's "powerful Trade Barriers, Vat Taxes, ridiculous Corporate Penalties, Non-Monetary Trade Barriers, Monetary Manipulations, unfair and unjustified lawsuits against Americans Companies." The duties won't apply to any products manufactured in the US. The latest threats come as trade talks have dragged out on multiple fronts.
Emerging Markets:
-No update
Commodities:
-Platinum prices are starting to rise, and the rally could have legs. Platinum supply runs about seven million ounces annually from mining and recycling, compared with more than 100M ounces of gold. The World Platinum Investment Council estimates that the deficit will continue in 2025. More than half of mined platinum comes from South Africa, where mines are often old, deep, and expensive to operate. The WPIC sees mined supply falling 6% this year to 5.4M ounces. Unlike gold, platinum lacks central bank demand. Some 40% of demand comes from car catalytic converters, threatened by electric vehicles, which lack converters. However, EV sales have stalled, and popular hybrids use converters. Chinese buyers priced out of gold are turning to platinum. The largest platinum exchange-traded fund, Abrdn Physical Platinum Shares, hit a 52-week high this past week and is up 18% in 2025.
Streetwise:
-Big banks are mulling a joint stablecoin to increase adoption of crypto, according to The Wall Street Journal. This could justify higher Bitcoin prices due to finite supply, with 21 million Bitcoins being infinitely divisible and pegged to nothing. President Donald Trump attended a gala for big buyers of his memecoin, which has crypto bulls excited. Moody's US downgrade aligns with earlier moves from Standard & Poor's and Fitch, but it's more about repayment ability than repayment ability itself. A large deficit in the US implies greater bond supply and possibly inflation as the debt is monetized to avoid default. Bond investors have been balking in Japan, the United Kingdom, and Germany. To provide safety, investors should consider bonds, as they are supposed to provide a buffer. Russ Brownback, global head of macro positioning for fixed income at BlackRock, co-manages the $41B BlackRock Strategic Income Opportunities fund, which has made 2.5% year to date and ranks in the top quarter of nontraditional bond funds.