⭐️ The S&P 500 Hits All-Time Highs, One Analyst Says 'Sell'

Plus, Tesla reports record sales plunge, Robinhood soars after announcing tokenized stocks, and more...

MARKET RECAP
⭐️ The S&P Continues Record-Setting Recovery After Strong June Jobs Report

😍 The bull market continues!

👷 After a better-than-expected jobs report (with unemployment falling to 4.1% when economists had expected an increase), investors are optimistic, with the S&P 500 flying up to all-time highs just in time for the 4th of July 🇺🇸

  • The S&P 500 is up +1.7%

  • The Nasdaq-100 is up +1.5%

  • Bitcoin is up +2%

🇻🇳 Trump also announced a US-Vietnam trade agreement on Wednesday, as the President’s 90-day tariff pause comes to an end on July 9th.

😰 Despite the optimism, many commentators are nervous about July 9th, with fears that a ‘tariff war flare-up’ may be just around the corner.

👀 The Bank of America’s Michael Hartnett even came out and said the S&P 500 is close to a ‘sell signal’, pointing out that the US % of the global equity market has also soared to all-time-highs and saying:

“The world is still massively over-invested in US assets”

Michael Hartnett, Securities Analyst

🎯 Now Hartnett is known as a contrarian, and there are many other analysts pointing out that the market hitting all-time highs doesn’t mean a good reason to sell (or not to buy).

One interesting study showed that waiting for a 10% pullback in the markets resulted in a lower average return than investing at the high, as ‘time in the markets’ tends to beat ‘timing the markets’.

🤷‍♂️ Personally, I think there are nuggets of truth in both perspectives, and last week I increased my International exposure, picking up some $ZEA, but over 40% of my portfolio is still comfortably in the S&P 500, and trying to swing trade the S&P 500 has historically proved to be a poor strategy.

✍️ Also this week, Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” passed the House and the Senate, with multi-trillion dollar implications for Healthcare, Student Aid, and EVs - and speaking about EVs, we have to talk about Tesla and their record EV sales plunge.

😎 Since we already covered Tesla and the Robotaxi launch last week, I’ll keep this part short so we have time to talk about Robinhood ($HOOD)'s meteoric +900% stock rise since 2024 and the launch of ‘tokenized stocks’, but first, here’s the quick Tesla rundown:

QUICK TESLA UPDATE
📉 Tesla Reports Another Record Sales Plunge

  • 📉 This week Tesla ($TSLA) reported only selling 384,122 cars over Q2, down -13.5% the year before, another record sales plunge from last year.

  • 📈 Despite this, the stock actually jumped 4% after the sales announcement on Wednesday, as analysts expected a much larger drop.

  • 😰 EV sales across other car-makers are up overall, with many attributing Tesla’s drop to the political controversy that has surrounded the brand.

  • 📝 Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ (that passed this week) is bad news for Tesla as the EV credits are set to go away, which last year accounted for 39% of Tesla’s annual net income.

  • Musk and Trump beefed online again this week with Musk calling Trump’s bill a ‘disgusting abomination’ in one last attempt to get it killed. Trump of course snapped back saying:

“Without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa”

Donald Trump

Of course, Elon has said repeatedly that the real value of Tesla is in the Robotaxi and the Optimus robot, so Tesla investors were largely unphased with the stock only falling -3% this week.

Ok - enough about Tesla, before we turn attention to Robinhood a quick word from today’s sponsor Purpose Investments!

PRESENTED BY PURPOSE INVESTMENTS
💰 Turn Your MAG7 Exposure Into a Monthly Income Strategy

First, there was FAANG – the tech titans that defined a decade. Then came the Magnificent Seven, supercharged by AI and semiconductors.

Now? Say hello to BATMMAAN 🦇💸

This isn’t a comic book crossover. It’s the next evolution of the MAG7: the eight biggest names in tech – from Apple to NVIDIA, Broadcom to Meta – in one passive income ETF.

The Tech Innovators Yield Shares Purpose ETF (Cboe Canada: YMAG) is built for monthly income, designed for the long run.

📈 Tech’s Biggest Names, Now With an Income Strategy

YMAG is a one-ticket solution for monthly income from the BATMMAAN stocks: Broadcom, Alphabet (Google), Tesla, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, and NVIDIA - leaders in AI, cloud, and next-gen tech.

🎓 Looking to Learn More?

*See Purpose Footnotes and Disclaimer at the end of the newsletter

TOP STORY
🚀 Robinhood Is Up 10x Over the Past Year and a Half - What’s Behind the Rise?

🎯 For our top story today I want to take a bit of a mini deep dive into a stock that’s had an insane bounce back over the past 1.5 years - Robinhood.

🗑️ The stock was once in the absolute dump. From its IPO in July 2021 to the end of 2023, the stock tumbled, falling a massive -80%. But since all-time lows, Robinhood has over 10x’ed, recovering all its losses and surging to new all-time-highs.

🤔 So what’s driven this insane growth? Crypto.

🚀 In Q4 2023, Crypto transaction revenue was a measly $43M (9% of total revenues). But in Q1 2025, it’s grown to $252M (27% of revenue), accounting for nearly half of Robinhood’s total revenue growth.

Options revenue has also doubled, from $121M to $240M.

💰 Analysts at JPMorgan point to the ‘maturing nature of Robinhood’s platform’ and note how ‘products can be rolled out with little incremental expenses’ and cross-sold to Robinhood’s growing customer base. In addition to growing the number of users, Robinhood has nearly doubled its average revenue per user as the company evolves from a meme-stock trading app to a fintech giant.

🪙 The Launch of Tokenized Stocks (including OpenAI and SpaceX)

As crypto has become more and more important to Robinhood, it has been leaning in more heavily into that side of the business, with the May acquisition of Canadian crypto company WonderFi, the June acquisition of Bitstamp, and most recently, the rollout of ‘Stock Tokens’ in the EU.

🔗 Robinhood’s Stock Tokens are ‘token wrappers’ linked to real stocks, enabling near-instant settlement and 24/7 trading. This move positions Robinhood as a competitor to major exchanges like the NYSE and the NASDAQ and opens up a large new revenue opportunity for Robinhood.

🚪 Potentially even more interesting, Robinhood says the Stock Tokens open the door for retail investors to get exposure to private companies, offering OpenAI and SpaceX stock tokens as part of a giveaway. While this has led to a lot of controversy (with Sam Altman from OpenAI issuing a warning and saying they were ‘not involved in this, and do not endorse it’), Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev says they’ve been ‘hearing from many private companies eager to join in the tokenization revolution’.

🔮 The Future of Robinhood

Analysts are overall optimistic about the future for Robinhood, with many increasing price targets after the recent announcements, excited by Robinhood’s moves to double down on crypto.

This is a clear signal to the world about where we’re going. I will say that it makes me very bullish on Robinhood. I think they see where the puck is going. They’re skating in that direction.”

Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan

👀 Personally, I’ll definitely be keeping a closer eye on Robinhood (and on the roll-out of the ‘Stock Tokens’) and will be sure to keep you all updated on this incredible comeback story! I’m not a shareholder yet, but will certainly be adding $HOOD to my watchlist and researching the stock more over the next few weeks.

PRESENTED BY CIBC CDRS
🌞 Euro Summer FOMO?

🌸 This summer, let your investments take a European vacation with CIBC’s Canadian Depositary Receipts (CDRs). Gain exposure to leading European and global companies—like ASML and BMW—while trading in Canadian dollars on a Canadian exchange. No currency conversion, no hassle.

🔍 Why Choose CIBC’s CDRs?

Affordable Access: Own fractional shares of the world’s largest companies at a fraction of the cost.

Currency Risk Mitigation: The built-in notional currency hedge protects your returns from exchange rate fluctuations.

Ease of Trading: Buy and sell CDRs just like any stock or ETF.

💵 Liquidity You Can Rely On

CDRs pull liquidity from their underlying global stocks, similar to ETFs. With market makers ensuring efficient trading, you can confidently execute trades—even for large orders—at fair prices.

With over $10 billion in assets and over $110 billion traded, CIBC’s CDRs are proving to be a popular way for Canadians to diversify their portfolio.

Investing globally has never been easier, or more Canadian.

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH CBOE CANADA
🚨 New ETF Alert! Fidelity Canada Launches 2 Income ETFs

📣 In other news, this week two new income ETFs hit the market from Fidelity Investments Canada!

🥳 Congrats to Fidelity on the launch!

FROM THE BLOSSOM COMMUNITY
⭐️ Featured Discussions this Week

👇 Click to see the full post!

Purpose Investments Disclosure:

Commissions, trailing commissions, management fees and expenses may all be associated with investment fund investments. Please read the prospectus and other disclosure documents before investing. Investment funds are not covered by the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government deposit insurer. There can be no assurance that the full amount of your investment in a fund will be returned to you. If the securities are purchased or sold on a stock exchange, you may pay more or receive less than the current net asset value. Investment funds are not guaranteed; their values change frequently, and past performance may not be repeated. Fund distribution levels and frequencies are not guaranteed and may vary at the Purpose Investment’s sole discretion.