Weekly Bitpanda Market Recap #5 - Insights from the world of investing

News from the crypto world

Polkadot is on a roll

Polkadot (DOT) saw massive gains last week: the multi-blockchain ecosystem’s highly-anticipated parachain auctions are here, driving investors into the project. The first major event was actually a €390M crowdloan obtained by the decentralised finance (DeFi) project, Acala. Essentially, more than 50,000 users loaned around 8.5M DOT to kickstart the project, an amount that is set to be paid back in two years' time.

Litecoin finally joins the party

Bitcoin wasn’t the only one registering an outstanding performance last month: most of the major altcoins followed suit. Not all of them. To everyone’s surprise, Litecoin (LTC), one of the oldest altcoins in existence, the “silver to Bitcoin’s gold”, was not picking up the pace of the market; until now. Litecoin’s price skyrocketed last week, catapulting it to the top movers’ league. The only question left is, how long will this momentum last?

Tim Cook’s having it, but not really

Apple’s iconic CEO, Tim Cook, just revealed in an interview that he personally holds crypto. According to him, “it’s reasonable to own it as part of a diversified portfolio.” Although this was not financial advice, he did say that after some time spent researching, the whole thing seems very interesting. On the flipside, it was also stated that plans for Apple accepting crypto as payment is off the table for the foreseeable future.

News from the stock market

This week’s earnings reports:

• The Walt Disney Company (DIS): 10th of November

• NIO (NIO): 10th of November

• Nvidia (NVDA): 17th of November

Stock market performance

The stock market had a solid week, with healthy percentage points in the green. Some stocks experienced increased price volatility after the quarterly earnings reports, some sparked controversies surrounding recently-revealed strategic decisions. On a macro level, major U.S indices slightly outperformed those in Europe, while the Asian ones also performed really well. 

Moderna’s price is hot

The COVID-19 vaccine producer giant needs little introduction: during the pandemic, Moderna was one of the few who greatly benefitted from the virus, sending its stock price sky high, from a mere $20 to a whopping $497 seen in August this year. This momentum seems to be losing effect as the stock took another hit, dipping by almost 30%, likely in light of increased competition within the vaccine industry combined with good news regarding a coronavirus treatment pill from their major opponent, Pfizer.

Facebook to Meta, not so fast

It was not long ago when Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, announced that the social media and technology conglomerate will be changing its name. Unfortunately for Mark, somebody else already thought about the word Meta. Meta PC (selling laptops, tablets, and software), has been using this name since August last year, even trademarking it to secure it for themselves. Luckily though, they are open to letting go of their identity for as little as $20M, we’ll just have to wait and see what Mr. Zuckerberg’s Meta thinks about this. 

Disclaimer

This article does not constitute investment advice, nor is it an offer or invitation to purchase any digital assets. This article is for general purposes of information only and no representation or warranty, either expressed or implied, is made as to, and no reliance should be placed on, the fairness, accuracy, completeness or correctness of this article or opinions contained herein.