Bitcoin, Venture Profits, & Holiday Spending

This week, we’re looking at the surge of Bitcoin, venture firms’ tech profits, Americans’ cash heading into the Holidays, and more!

Each week, the Stokes Family Office staff puts together a list of our favorite news and updates on all things wealth management. From financial planning, portfolio construction, tax and estate planning, retirement plan services to anything we found interesting.  Enjoy this week’s curated list for your weekend reading!

ECONOMY NEWS

• Americans Have Money, and They Plan to Spend it During the Holidays
  • Sam Ro breaks down why “pretty much every consumer survey conducted over the past several weeks shows consumers will spend more on holiday shopping this year than they did last year.”

• Bitcoin, Bitcoin, Bitcoin
  • In his weekly column, Cullen Roche looks at money supply as the cost of capital, TradFi’s inability to adopt Bitcoin, and Microstrategy selling bonds to fund purchases of Bitcoin.

• What to Look For if Housing Construction Does Forecast a Recession
  • The Bonddad Blog: with permits, starts, and housing units under construction all down from their peaks, at levels at least close to consistent with an oncoming recession, the big item to look for is employment in residential construction, and construction generally.

MARKETS NEWS

• AI Investments Are Booming, but Venture-Firm Profits Are at a Historic Low
  • WSJ: Silicon Valley’s venture-capital firms are having an easy time finding promising startups to back. The hard part is cashing out.

• Carson Group: Why We Aren’t Permabulls
  • Ryan Detrick explains why his firm is not permanently bullish, but they do remain bullish in the here and now.

• Are U.S. Stocks Overvalued?
  • After a market surge in the days following the election, Ben Carlson looks back at forward P/E ratios on election day for each of the past six elections.
  • He notes that while stock prices have surged, earnings growth has largely kept pace, making valuations appear stable. The high valuations of mega-cap stocks, like those in the S&P 500, dominate averages, though small and mid-cap stocks remain relatively undervalued.

Stokes Family Office is 100% Family Owned, and has been continually operating in the New Orleans Area for over 35 years.  As a family office, we are focused on family wealth, financial planning, and tax planning. We are your local experts for Gulf South wealth management. Want to hear more from our team? Check out the Lagniappe Podcast.