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Market Overview
Read time 1.6 minutes

Year To Date Performances:

1. Bitcoin has reached a new milestone, surpassing the $57,000 level for the first time since late 2021, driven by increasing investor interest in newly launched spot ETFs. The cryptocurrency has experienced a significant surge, with a 32% increase since the beginning of the year, thanks to an influx of $6.1 billion into Bitcoin ETFs. This surge reflects a growing investor enthusiasm in Bitcoin, especially in anticipation of the upcoming halving event. The total market value of digital currencies has now rebounded to around $2.2 trillion, as per CoinGecko, recovering from a low of $820 billion in 2022. Additionally, $162 million in shorts against Bitcoin were liquidated over two days, marking one of the largest such occurrences since November 30. Bitcoin's performance this year has notably outpaced traditional investments like stocks and gold.

2. Apple is reportedly winding down its Special Projects Group, the team working on electric cars, marking an end to the tech giant's secretive efforts to create a vehicle that could compete with Tesla. This move suggests Apple's car project, which employed thousands and was shrouded in secrecy, did not align well with its main business areas of electronics and online services. Despite recruiting automotive experts and testing autonomous cars in the San Francisco Bay Area, Apple faced challenges, including reorganizations and layoffs within the car division. Some employees from this project might be redirected to Apple's generative AI team. Although Apple has not publicly acknowledged the car project, it has explored other markets, including health technologies and recently, the Vision Pro VR headset. The wind-down of the car project comes as some of Apple's competitors in the smartphone market, like Xiaomi, have announced ventures into electric vehicles. Apple, which invested approximately $30 billion in R&D in 2023, has not disclosed how much was spent on the car project specifically. Apple declined to comment on the report.

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4. Headlines

   1. Sony has announced that it will lay off 900 employees.

   2. Macy’s is closing over 150 stores.

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