Want to Get Rich? 3 Game-Changing Cryptos to Buy Right Now

The top cryptos to buy continually capture the discerning investor’s gaze. Though the market paused recently, its decentralized promise, a counter to rising inflation, remains magnetic. Investors aren’t merely hunting traditional returns; they’re seeking cryptos that echo their vision for an innovative financial future.

Amidst the digital asset crescendo, cryptocurrency investment becomes an enticing proposition. But the sheer volatility and vast array make it a tricky venture. However, considering that the cryptocurrency market boasts a staggering valuation of more than $1 trillion, it’s undeniable that this financial frontier, despite its challenges, offers opportunities too tempting to ignore.

However, it’s not all smooth sailing. Regulatory bodies persistently challenge the crypto realm, and wild price oscillations remain a staple. Yet, undeterred enthusiasm for digital tokens and coins prevails. The hunger only intensifies with whispers of potential cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs) making their U.S. debut.

Bitcoin (BTC)

In the crypto world, Bitcoin (BTC-USD) reigns supreme. Its trajectory has fascinated many, from its humble beginnings to a jaw-dropping high of $68,789. Recent events accentuate this allure. Grayscale’s milestone in securing a Bitcoin ETF spot and the SEC’s 2021 shifting stance underscores a vibrant regulatory panorama, laying a foundation for digital currencies’ mainstream integration.

Moreover, Bitcoin flaunted its mettle with a stellar 58% year-to-date bump. As investors’ enthusiasm peaks, the stage is set with prospects of monumental returns. Past federal rate hikes, now receding in the rearview, combined with the buoyancy from 2022’s storms, only intensify the optimism around Bitcoin’s trajectory.

Furthermore, financial streets buzz with chatter centered around the pivotal $30,000 mark. Breaching this benchmark with unmistakable vigor could set Bitcoin on a firm path to eclipse its current highs. If this digital giant maintains such formidable momentum, it stands poised to redefine and potentially dominate the market with a bullish pattern.

Ethereum (ETH)

While Bitcoin often steals the limelight, Ethereum (ETH-USD) presents an equally captivating tale.

Beyond transactions, Ethereum offers a platform teeming with swift payments and groundbreaking smart contracts. Its shift to an eco-friendly proof-of-stake system subtly crowns it an environmental torchbearer. Moreover, with Vitalik Buterin revealing 55% progress on Ethereum’s anticipated merge, the company has plenty of room to grow at a robust pace.

Moreover, Ethereum’s clout isn’t just hearsay. It’s anchored in tangible achievements. The crypto’s stronghold, bolstered by a vast developer community and unique offerings, has competitors favoring collaboration over rivalry. Its inherent advantages, combined with innovations such as token burning and the widely adopted ERC-20 standard with over 280,000 tokens built on top of its network, position Ethereum as the blockchain investment to watch.

Furthermore, ETH stands as a beacon of innovation, from smart contracts to the realms of Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and Decentralized finance (DeFi). Its diverse ecosystem, championed by a vast developer community, magnifies Ethereum’s unmatched versatility and promise.

Solana (SOL)

Solana (SOL-USD), with its staggering ascent in 2021, reached an unprecedented $260 pinnacle by November, drawing attention from all sides.

Yet, recent SOL updates paint an even brighter picture. Anatoly Yakovenko, Solana’s co-creator, advocates for a bold redistribution of seven million SOL tokens. Intended to invigorate Solana’s decentralized vigor, this reallocation targets both former FTX customers and potential new enthusiasts, adding fresh dynamism to its trajectory.

Touting a revolutionary proof of history, Solana boasts the capability to whisk through 65,000 transactions a second under optimal conditions. Although it struggled with market instability, losing about 90% of its value compared to highs achieved in 2022, it remains unfazed.

Its transformation into the “Visa of digital assets” exemplifies its tenacity and untapped potential. Moreover, July heralded a surge in Solana’s DeFi activity, underscored by a formidable rise in Total Value Locked (TVL). Coupled with its burgeoning NFT ecosystem, it emerges as a promising contender in the crypto coliseum.

On the date of publication, Muslim Farooque did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.

Muslim Farooque is a keen investor and an optimist at heart. A life-long gamer and tech enthusiast, he has a particular affinity for analyzing technology stocks. Muslim holds a bachelor’s of science degree in applied accounting from Oxford Brookes University.

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3 Stocks to Sell Before They Get Hit by the September Slump

stocks to sell - 3 Stocks to Sell Before They Get Hit by the September Slump

Source: chanpipat / Shutterstock.com

The stock market has been on a roller coaster ride in 2023, with the S&P 500 experiencing several sharp swings in both directions. As of early this week, the benchmark index was up 16.9% year-to-date (YTD) but down 2.6% from its annual high in July. The main drivers of the market volatility have been inflation, interest rates and the labor market. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates four times this year, reaching a target range of 5.25% to 5.5%, the highest level in 22 years. The Fed also signaled it is prepared to raise rates further if inflation remains too high. However, some economists believe the Fed is close to being done with its tightening cycle, as inflation has decelerated in the past two months. The consumer price index (CPI) rose 3.2% year-over-year (YoY) in July, down from a peak of 9.1% in June 2022.

Given this uncertain and challenging environment, investors may want to consider selling some of their stocks facing headwinds or that have become overvalued. Below are three good stocks to sell in September.

GoDaddy (GDDY)

GoDaddy (NYSE:GGDY) is a leading provider of domain names, web hosting and online marketing services for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Although the company grew its revenue and earnings steadily in the past, top-line growth has sputtered in 2022 and 2023. The slowing global economy is most likely to blame. GoDaddy specializes in servicing small businesses, and high inflation has taken a toll on both consumers and businesses. However, in times of economic uncertainty, larger enterprises tend to be more resilient than smaller ones. Thus, if you’re a tech company like GoDaddy whose customer base primarily consists of SMBs, the selling environment will be difficult.

In its second-quarter earnings report released in early August, GoDaddy reaffirmed this year’s lackluster annual revenue growth guidance. The company expects total revenue to grow 5.0% year-over-year (YoY), a few points down from last year’s 7.2% YoY topline growth. GoDaddy’s stock stayed relatively flat year-to-date. Without meaningful improvements in the selling environment, investors should consider selling GoDaddy.

Target (TGT)

Target (NYSE:TGT) has been in the news lately — and not for good reason. Thefts and culture wars have put Target, its employees and its shares in a tough spot in 2023. The value of shares fell 19% since the start of the year and could go down even further.

For those unfamiliar, Target is one of the largest retailers in the United States, offering a wide range of products, including apparel, home, beauty, groceries and electronics. The company was performing well during the pandemic, as it benefited from its omnichannel capabilities, loyal customer base and strong merchandising strategy. However, inflation and controversy plagued Target recently.

In its second-quarter earnings report, Target reported its first decline in sales in six years, after inflation-weary consumers slowed their spending significantly and partially after a backlash against the company’s support of Pride Month.

As inflation remains elevated and some consumers turn away from Target’s brand, it is difficult to see how the company can recover in the short term. Before the situation worsens, investors should dump the stock while they still can.

PowerSchool Holdings (PWSC)

PowerSchool Holdings (NYSE:PWSC) is a leading provider of cloud-based software solutions for the K-12 education sector. The educational technology (edtech) platform offers a variety of products, such as student information systems, learning management systems, assessment platforms and special education solutions.

The company went public in July 2021 at $18 per share, raising $711 million in its initial public offering (IPO), but shares plummeted 40% from their $35.88 high in 2021. The reason is twofold. The macroeconomic environment chipped away at demand for PowerSchool’s products. The analyst consensus is that PowerSchool will grow revenues by 9.6% YoY, a decline from last year’s 12.9% annualized growth.

The other threat to PowerSchool’s future growth is generative AI. In fact, the edtech industry, in general, is under threat from the rise of AI that could assist students with learning. That could eventually make some PowerSchool products obsolete. Investors should definitely use caution when holding PowerSchool’s shares as other technologies around AI develop.

On the date of publication, Tyrik Torres did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.

Tyrik Torres has been studying and participating in financial markets since he was in college, and he has particular passion for helping people understand complex systems. His areas of expertise are semiconductor and enterprise software equities. He has work experience in both investing (public and private markets) and investment banking.

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Homebuilder Lennar beats estimates, says market remains ‘constructive’

Homebuilder Lennar Corp. Inc.
LEN,
+1.49%
on Thursday reported third-quarter results that beat estimates, as the market “remained constructive for new homebuilders,” the company said. Lennar reported third-quarter net income of $1.11 billion, or $3.87 a share, compared with $1.47 billion, or $5.03 a share, in the same quarter last year. Revenue of $8.73 billion was down from $8.93 billion in the prior-year quarter, amid a drop in prices for home deliveries. Analysts polled by FactSet expected earnings of $3.52 a share, on sales of $8.49 billion. Chief Executive Stuart Miller said that market conditions for homebuilders “remained constructive,” as the Fed tried to balance its fight against inflation with growing the economy. “At the same time, short housing supply, absorbed by strong primary and pent-up demand, continued to define a strong sales environment,” he said. “Homebuilders continued to use incentives, including buy-downs, to offset rising interest rates and tighter capital, which limit affordability.” Shares were unchanged after hours.

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Dow industrials on pace for best day in 5 weeks as stocks rally on economic data, Arm’s IPO

U.S. stocks were higher in the final hour of trading on Thursday with the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
+0.96%
on track for its best day since August 7, as investors digested the latest data on retail sales and producer prices, while cheering Arm Holdings’
ARM,
+24.69%
initial public offering which boosted the broader market confidence. The Dow industrials were rising 368 points, or 1.1%, to 34,942, while the S&P 500
SPX,
+0.84%
was gaining 0.9% and the Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
+0.81%
was up nearly 1%, according to FactSet data. Arm Holdings, the British chip-design company controlled by SoftBank, was jumping over 15% in the final hour of trading Thursday after selling shares at $51 a piece in its initial public offering.

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Dow posts biggest gain in 5 weeks, stocks end higher

The Dow finished more than 300 points higher on Thursday to claim its biggest one-day gain in more than five weeks as retail sales data showed a resilient consumer despite the Federal Reserve’s rate-hiking. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
+0.96%
rose about 331 points, or 1%, ending near 34,907, according to preliminary FactSet data. That was its biggest daily percentage gain since August 7, according to FactSet. The S&P 500 index
SPX,
+0.84%
closed 0.8% higher and the Nasdaq Composite Index
COMP,
+0.81%
gained 0.8%. U.S. retail sales rose for a fifth straight month in August, climbing 0.6%, despite the Federal Reserve’s policy rate sitting at a 22-year high and worries about fizzling sales after Amazon’s Prime Day sales event in July.

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U.S. oil futures settle above $90 a barrel

Oil prices climbed Thursday, with U.S. benchmark crude ending above $90 a barrel for the first time this year. “Oil is so bullish that even a strong dollar can’t derail the rally,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA. The “risks of a significant supply shortfall should have many traders eyeing the $100 level over the next couple of months.” October West Texas Intermediate crude
CLV23,
+2.16%
rose $1.64, or nearly 1.9%, to settle at $90.16 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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Here’s the ‘triple power play’ that may rule stock-market returns, other assets for next 5 years

Three powerful dynamics unfolding in the global economy are expected to play a significant role in investors’ multi-asset allocations over the next five years, according to a 132-page report from Rotterdam-based asset manager Robeco.

The first is labor’s likely increased bargaining power, with the outcome of any tussle between businesses and their workers probably being determined by wages in a sticky inflation environment, based on the report compiled by strategists Laurens Swinkels and Peter van der Welle on behalf of the multi-asset team at Robeco, which manages $194 billion in assets. The second is the end of monetary-policy leniency and the potential for central banks to lock “horns” with governments over the appropriate level of borrowing costs. The third is the dawn of “multipolarity” as the U.S. and China struggle for power.

Taken together, this “triple power play” is already starting to unfold, shifting investors into a world of higher risk-free rates and lower expected equity risk premiums, according to the asset manager. Risk premium is a gauge of relative value for stocks, helping investors understand what their short-term gain might be when taking on the additional risk of buying equities or investing in stock funds.

Robeco provided its forecasts for five-year annualized, projected returns on a range of assets held by euro- and dollar-based investors — including developed- and emerging-market equities, bonds, and cash.

The firm’s base-case scenario, which Robeco’s team refers to as a “stalemate,” calls for a mild recession in 2024, consumer-price inflation in developed economies to remain around 2.5% on average heading toward 2029, and real GDP in the U.S. to average 2.3% or below what the S&P 500 index
SPX
currently implies.

That benign growth outlook is expected to be accompanied by macroeconomic volatility, plus a “tug of war” between central bankers reluctant to lower interest rates and governments in need of low borrowing costs — which “means there is not enough monetary policy tightening to remove demand-pull inflation.” Under such a scenario, developed-market equities are likely to underperform their emerging market counterparts and domestic bonds should offer a higher return than cash for dollar-based investors, according to Robeco.


Source: Robeco. Returns shown are annualized.

“Looking ahead, a key question is: are we eyeing the start of a new bull market that will broaden and pave the way for another streak of above-historical excess equity return?” the Robeco team wrote in the report released on Tuesday. “In our base case, we expect developed markets’ earnings growth to end up below current 5Y forward consensus projections, which are high single-digit or even still low double-digit for the U.S. and eurozone.

“The reason we foresee a decline in profitability is linked to our overarching macro theme, the triple power play. Equities will likely bear the brunt of the power play in geopolitics,” according to the report. In addition, efforts by global corporations to shift production toward geopolitically-friendly powers or closer regions “will prove more costly and lower efficiency.” Plus, “further pressure from margins will come from a lagged response from past policy rate hikes.”

Under Robeco’s bull-case scenario, early and rapid adoption of artificial intelligence across sectors and industries would likely spawn above-trend growth and push inflation back to central banks’ targets. The result is “an almost Goldilocks scenario in which things are running neither too hot nor too cold,” central banks could take a break from tightening policy, and developed- and emerging-market equities may both be able to come out with double-digit annualized returns from 2024 to 2028.

The firm’s bear-case scenario envisions a world in which mutual trust between the world’s superpowers hits rock bottom, governments are “in the crosshairs” of central banks, and labor loses bargaining power in the services sector. A “stagflationary environment emerges, intensifying the policy dilemma for central bankers” as inflation stays stubbornly high at 3.5% on average and growth comes in at just 0.5% annually for developed economies. In that situation, developed-market equities would eke out an annualized return of 2.25% for dollar-based investors over the four-year period that’s below the expected return on cash.

On Thursday, all three major U.S. stock indexes
DJIA

SPX

COMP
were higher as investors digested a batch of better-than-expected U.S. data and continued to expect no action by the Federal Reserve next week. Officials are seen as likely to leave their main policy rate target at a 22-year high of 5.25%-5% on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Treasury yields were mixed and the ICE U.S. Dollar Index jumped 0.6% as investors also monitored the possibility of a strike by United Auto Workers. In a separate development earlier this week, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall warned that China is preparing for a potential war with the U.S.

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Fed funds futures traders see greater chances of no Fed action for rest of year

Fed fund futures traders boosted the likelihood of no further rate hikes by the Federal Reserve in September, November or December on Thursday, a day after a mixed consumer price index report for August was released. After factoring in a 97% probability that the Fed will leave rates unchanged at between 5.25%-5.5%, traders now see a 63.7% likelihood of no action in November and 59.9% chance of the same for December, according to the CME FedWatch Tool. That’s up from 57.4% and 53.8% respectively on Wednesday, despite Thursday’s better-than-expected producer price index and retail sales data for August. Treasury yields swung between advances and declines Thursday morning, with the policy-sensitive 2-year rate hovering at just under 5%.

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Netflix, Etsy, HP, Visa and more

Striking Writers Guild of America members walk the picket line in front of Netflix offices in Los Angeles, July 12, 2023.

Mike Blake | Reuters

Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading:

Visa — The credit card behemoth’s stock was trading more than 2% lower after announcing plans to change its share structure. Visa’s Class A shares are held by the public, its B shares are held by U.S. banks, while C shares are owned by foreign banks. The company wants shareholders to approve an exchange offer that would release transfer restrictions on portions of the Class B stock.

Semtech — The semiconductor stock rose 7% after beating earnings expectations for the second quarter. Semtech earned 11 cents per share after adjustments, exceeding the consensus estimate of 2 cents per share from analysts polled by FactSet. However, the company offered weak guidance for the third quarter.

Penn Entertainment — The sports betting company’s shares rallied 6% Thursday. Deutsche Bank initiated a short-term catalyst call to buy Penn, citing an inexpensive valuation ahead of the launch of ESPN BET, which debuts in November.

Netflix — The streaming giant’s shares slipped roughly 2% in midday trading after Chief Financial Officer Spencer Neumann said the ongoing Hollywood writers’ strike is bad for business. Speaking at a conference Wednesday, Neumann also cautioned that its ad-supported streaming option wouldn’t help move revenue forward in the short term and said operating margins would grow slower moving forward.

Yum China — The restaurant conglomerate’s shares gained nearly 6% during midday trading after it announced new financial targets and unveiled plans to expand to 20,000 locations by 2026 during an investor day.

AMC Entertainment — The meme stock darling added 3% after AMC said it had completed the equity offering it announced earlier this month. The movie theater chain said it sold 40 million shares at an average price of $8.14, raising about $325.5 million.

Etsy — The e-commerce retailer’s stock rose nearly 3% after Wolfe Research upgraded Etsy to outperform from a peer perform rating, citing improving consumer spending and margins.

HP — The PC and printer stock slipped nearly 3% on news that Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway sold about 5.5 million shares of its stock, amounting to roughly $158 million, a regulatory filing showed.

Exxon Mobil, Chevron — Shares of the oil majors were trading higher Thursday as U.S. oil prices surpassed $90 per barrel for the first time since November 2022. Exxon shares gained 1.5%, while Chevron added nearly 1%.

— CNBC’s Samantha Subin, Pia Singh and Alex Harring contributed reporting.

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Carvana, CarMax stocks rise ahead of autoworkers’ contract expiration

Shares of used-car retailers Carvana Co.
CVNA,
+12.72%
rallied more than 12%, and shares of CarMax Inc.
KMX,
+2.94%
rose around 2%, in midday trading Thursday, with just hours to go for a contract’s expiration for autoworkers at Ford Motor Co.
F,
-0.47%,
General Motors Co.
GM,
-0.43%,
and Stellantis NV
STLA,
-1.00%.
Union and companies remain far apart ahead of the 11:59 p.m. Thursday expiration, and the United Auto Workers has vowed to strike at all three companies if no deal is reached.

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