Trump's crypto push fuels fresh all-time high for Bitcoin
The world's largest cryptocurrency was last trading around $122,000 on Monday, extending its year-to-date gains by over 25 percent.
The rally comes as President Donald Trump continues to embrace digital assets. In March, he signed an executive order to create a strategic cryptocurrency reserve. He has also appointed crypto-friendly figures to key roles, including Paul Atkins at the Securities and Exchange Commission and David Sacks as the White House AI czar.
Trump's own business interests are deepening their crypto involvement. Trump Media & Technology Group is planning to launch an exchange-traded fund that would invest in multiple crypto tokens, including bitcoin, according to a SEC filing at the beginning of this week.
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Winnipeg Free Press
27 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Trump says Japan will invest $550 billion in US at his direction. It may not be a sure thing
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is bragging that Japan has given him, as part of a new trade framework, $550 billion to invest in the United States. It's an astonishing figure, but still subject to negotiation and perhaps not the sure thing he's portraying. 'Japan is putting up $550 billion in order to lower their tariffs a little bit,' Trump said Thursday. 'They put up, as you could call it, seed money. Let's call it seed money.' He said 90% of any profits from the money invested would go to the U.S. even if Japan had put up the funds. 'It's not a loan or anything, it's a signing bonus,' the Republican president said, on the trade framework that lowered his threatened tariff from 25% to 15%, including on autos. A White House official said the terms are being negotiated and nothing has been formalized in writing. The official, who insisted on anonymity to detail the terms of the talks, suggested the goal was for the $550 billion fund to make investments at Trump's direction. The sum is significant: It would represent more than 10% of Japan's entire gross domestic product. The Japan External Trade Organization estimates that direct investment into the U.S. economy topped $780 billion in 2023. It is unclear the degree to which the $550 billion could represent new investment or flow into existing investment plans. What the trade framework announced Tuesday has achieved is a major talking point for the Trump administration. The president has claimed to have brought trillions of dollars in new investment into the U.S., though the impact of those commitments have yet to appear in the economic data for jobs, construction spending or manufacturing output. The framework also enabled Trump to say other countries are agreeing to have their goods taxed, even if some of the cost of those taxes are ultimately passed along to U.S. consumers. On the $550 billion, Japan's Cabinet Office said it involves the credit facility of state-affiliated financial institutions, such as Japan Bank for International Cooperation. Further details would be decided based on the progress of the investment deals. Japanese trade negotiator Ryosei Akazawa, upon returning to Japan, did not discuss the terms of the $550 billion investment. Akazawa said he believes a written joint statement is necessary, at least on working levels, to avoid differences. He is not thinking about a legally binding trade pact. The U.S. apparently released its version of the deal while Japanese officials were on their return flight home. 'If we find differences of understanding, we may have to point them out and say 'that's not what we discussed,'' Akazawa said. The U.S. administration said the fund would be invested in critical minerals, pharmaceuticals, computer chips and shipbuilding, among other industries. It has said Japan will also buy 100 airplanes from Boeing and rice from U.S. farmers as part of the framework, which Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said would be evaluated every three months. 'And if the president is unhappy, then they will boomerang back to the 25% tariff rates, both on cars and the rest of their products. And I can tell you that I think at 25, especially in cars, the Japanese economy doesn't work,' Bessent told Fox News' 'The Ingraham Angle.' Akazawa denied that Bessent's quarterly review was part of the negotiations. 'In my past eight trips to the United States during which I held talks with the president and the ministers,' Akazawa said. 'I have no recollection of discussing how we ensure the implementation of the latest agreement between Japan and the United States.' He said it would cause major disruptions to the economy and administrative processes if the rates first rise to 25% as scheduled on Aug. 1 and then drop to 15%. 'We definitely want to avoid that and I believe that is the understanding shared by the U.S. side,' he said. Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. On buying U.S. rice, Japanese officials have said they have no plans to raise the current 770,000-ton 'minimum access' cap to import more from America. Agricultural Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said Japan will decide whether to increase U.S. rice imports and that Japan is not committed to a fixed quota. Trump's commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, has suggested that the Japanese agreement is putting pressure on other countries such as South Korea to strike deals with the U.S. Trump, who is traveling in Scotland, plans to meet on Sundayv with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to discuss trade. 'Whatever Donald Trump wants to build, the Japanese will finance it for him,' Lutnick said Thursday on CNBC. 'Pretty amazing.' ___ Yamaguchi reported from Tokyo.
Globe and Mail
an hour ago
- Globe and Mail
Alphabet Just Gave Nvidia Investors Some Great News
Key Points Alphabet now expects to lay out $85 billion in capital expenditures this year -- up from a previously planned $75 billion -- and expects to further accelerate that spending next year. Alphabet's AI capex will be allocated toward servers, accelerated data center buildouts, and cloud computing infrastructure. Rising AI infrastructure spending from hyperscalers such as Alphabet bodes well for Nvidia and its thriving GPU business. 10 stocks we like better than Nvidia › Over the next several weeks, companies will report financial and operating results for the second quarter of 2025. As usual, technology investors will be focused on one thing: artificial intelligence (AI). "Magnificent Seven" member Alphabet kicked things off earlier this week, reporting robust results across its search, advertising, and cloud computing divisions. Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue » While Alphabet shareholders should be encouraged by the internet giant's strong performance, I saw Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) as the real winner from the company's second-quarter performance. Let's dig into some of the important moves Alphabet is making and assess how Nvidia is benefiting from them. Alphabet is picking up the pace on AI infrastructure construction During the Q2 earnings call, Alphabet's management updated some details of its financial guidance. Alphabet now plans to spend around $85 billion on capital expenditures (capex) in 2025. Of note, this is a $10 billion increase over the company's prior guidance. And there's more. "Looking out to 2026, we expect a further increase in capex due to the demand we're seeing from customers as well as growth opportunities across the company," said Chief Financial Officer Anat Ashkenazi. Despite its increasingly aggressive spending on AI infrastructure over the last few years, Alphabet has stated that it doesn't plan on slowing down anytime soon. This should be music to Nvidia's ears. GOOGL Capital Expenditures (TTM) data by YCharts. Why is this good for Nvidia? Management consulting juggernaut McKinsey & Company is forecasting that AI infrastructure spending could reach $6.7 trillion by 2030. And its research suggests that almost half of that money will be allocated toward AI hardware for further data center construction. In addition, research from Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan indicates that generative AI could add between $7 trillion and $10 trillion to global gross domestic product in the long run. From a macroeconomic perspective, these secular trends bode well for Nvidia's compute and networking empire. Moreover, I think that Alphabet's decision to bump up its AI infrastructure spending again adds some credibility to those industry forecasts. Alphabet's management specified that it is raising its planned capex in order to accelerate the construction of data centers and position itself to fill the rising demand for capacity on the Google Cloud Platform. Increased spending on network equipment, servers, and cloud infrastructure should lead to rising demand for graphics processing units (GPUs). I see this as a major positive development as Nvidia is still scaling up production of chips made using its latest Blackwell architecture. Considering Nvidia holds an estimated 90% share of the data center GPU market, I see Alphabet's investments in AI infrastructure as a major tailwind for the chip king and further propels the company's momentum over competition in the chip space. Is Nvidia stock a buy right now? With a market cap north of $4.2 trillion, Nvidia is currently the most valuable company in the world. While this might lead one to assume that the stock is expensive, its underlying valuation trends tell a different story. NVDA PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts Nvidia currently trades at a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple of 40. While this isn't "cheap" by traditional benchmarks, it is notably lower than the peak levels Nvidia has witnessed during the AI revolution. What makes these dynamics interesting is that Nvidia's growth trajectory is arguably far stronger today than it was 18 months ago when its forward P/E valuation peaked. The company remains at the center of the AI revolution, providing massive amounts of fast parallel-processing power to hyperscalers and accelerating AI workloads. To me, buying Nvidia stock at its current price is a no-brainer, and I see Alphabet's rising AI infrastructure spending as a long-term catalyst that should not be overlooked by growth investors. Should you invest $1,000 in Nvidia right now? Before you buy stock in Nvidia, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Nvidia wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $636,628!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,063,471!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,041% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 183% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 21, 2025
Globe and Mail
an hour ago
- Globe and Mail
Why Is Wall Street Obsessed With AI (Artificial Intelligence) Leader Arista Networks?
Key Points Arista Networks is a leading network platform provider. Several Wall Street analysts hiked their price targets on Arista Networks stock in July. Those on Main Street should investigate the company for themselves to see if it aligns with their investing goals. 10 stocks we like better than Arista Networks › We all have preferences. From our favorite movies to favorite places to eat to favorite places to visit, people love what they love. Wall Street is no different. Currently, analysts can't get enough of artificial intelligence (AI) stocks. But of all the AI stocks on the Street's radar, Arista Networks (NYSE: ANET) is one AI name that analysts absolutely love. Let's take a look at the basis for this affection for one of the leading network platform providers. Enthusiasm for Arista Networks has heated up in July While Arista Networks' stock received some upgrades in June, it's during July that Wall Street's enthusiasm has been clearly seen. Here are some of the analysts' more recent actions. JPMorgan boosted its price target to $130 from $117 on July 17. Citigroup hiked its price target to $123 from $112 on July 11. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Arista Networks and assigned an outperform rating on July 7. According to JPMorgan predicated its new price target on the expectation that cloud spending will be strong in the second half of 2025, while Citigroup based its new price target on a growing Ethernet switching market. Besides Wall Street, Arista Networks is growing increasingly popular with customers. The company's industry-leading switches are in high demand as data centers look to shore up their computing infrastructure to support AI computing. And demand for the company's networking solutions seems unlikely to taper off anytime soon. During its first-quarter 2025 financial report, Arista Networks projected its total addressable market will rise from $41 billion in 2024 to $70 billion in 2028. Is now a good time for Main Street investors to listen to Wall Street? The enthusiasm that Wall Street has for Arista Networks is well warranted, but does that mean investors should rush to buy shares? The answer is a resounding No. Investors must -- as always -- do their own due diligence to see if Arista Networks is right for them, but for AI exposure, it certainly demands consideration. Should you invest $1,000 in Arista Networks right now? Before you buy stock in Arista Networks, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Arista Networks wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $636,628!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,063,471!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,041% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 183% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 21, 2025 Citigroup is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. JPMorgan Chase is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Scott Levine has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Arista Networks and JPMorgan Chase. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
