*as of 4/29; Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, GOLD

The S&P CoreLogic Case Shiller home price index posted a 0.3% monthly gain in February and a 3.9% gain year-over-year, down from the 4.1% pace in January. New York City (+7.7%), Chicago (+7.0%), and Cleveland (+6.6%) saw the biggest yearly gains, while Tampa had the biggest decline (-1.5%). The FHFA House Price Index showed an identical 3.9% year-over-year gain and a 0.1% monthly gain in February.

➨ TAKEAWAY: The FHFA index has not seen a decline since August 2022 and the Case-Shiller index has seen gains for 25 months straight, with both continuing to set record-highs each month. However, the pace of growth has been slowing, and this data comes well before the recent tariff policy has led to global economic uncertainty. Usually, housing prices rise in the spring, but it would not be a surprise to see a further slowdown or potentially a decline when future data is released.

Partner

Invest Into Legacy, Cash-Flowing Small Businesses

Boring businesses - we all know them. Think of your local HVAC company, pool cleaner, you get the picture.

While these businesses don't typically grab headlines, they do generate steady, predictable cash flow — making them perfect targets for someone to buy and operate. 

That’s where acquisition entrepreneurs known as “Sponsors” come in. 

Sponsors do the hard work of finding, negotiating, and preparing to acquire these small (profitable/steady) businesses. 

The only thing they need? Capital.

Enter CapitalPad. 

With CapitalPad, investors can passively invest in these small business acquisitions. 

No need for massive ownership checks or day to day involvement. 

CapitalPad connects you with sponsors seeking capital, so you fractionally own a “boring business” — without having to run one.

Ready to build your small business portfolio? Check out CapitalPad here.

In this episode of Smart Humans, Vincent founder Slava Rubin and Sacra co-founder Jan-Erik Asplund looked at Neuralink, the Elon Musk-founded neurotechnology company. They talked about the company’s growth, strengths, challenges, IPO prospects, and much more.

Art auction sales fell by more than 20% in 2024, but that decline was not felt equally by each category. Impressionist and Modern sales fell by the smallest amount at 19%, while Postwar and Contemporary fell by 20%. The bigger drop was felt by the Ultra-contemporary category, which saw a 38% decline that followed a 25% decline the year before. In between was the Old Masters category, which dropped by 28%.

➨ TAKEAWAY: The data mirrors what many other asset classes have seen - a flight to more stablished assets and away from riskier, higher variance assets. Collectors have been focusing on the two biggest categories and avoiding newer, less-proven artists in this turbulent economic time. With the major May auction season around the corner, it will be interesting to see if the trend holds. If it does, it could give investors the opportunity to buy low on younger artists who could become the “established” artists of tomorrow.

📉 Consumer confidence plummets: The Conference Board’s latest consumer confidence survey showed a reading of 86, a 7.9 point decline from March to the lowest level since May 2020. The survey’s Expectations Index also hit its lowest level in 13 years.

💻 Interest in Google Chrome: If Alphabet is forced to sell its browser due to the DOJ’s antitrust claims, AI startups OpenAI and Perplexity are among the suitors who have publicly expressed interest.

🤖 Nscale raise: The AI infrastructure startup is aiming to raise $2.7 billion, with $1.8 billion of that in a private credit deal, in order to build data centers around the world.

🔪 Napoleon’s sword: An 1802 sabre belonging to the legendary French emperor is being auctioned in Paris next month and carries a high estimate of $1.1 million.

💵 Private credit optimism: Despite economic uncertainty, private credit fund investors expect to allocate more money to the asset class in the coming year, as they continue to seek more liquid investments with shorter timeframes.

🚀 Amazon launches satellites: The first 27 of its Project Kuiper satellites were launched into space, as the tech giant takes on SpaceX’s Starlink service, which itself has more than 7,000 satellites currently orbiting.

Crypto had a strong week, with Bitcoin gaining more than 7% in value, and other major coins such as Ethereum, Solana, and Ripple (XRP) seeing double-digit gains. But the biggest riser among the top coins was Sui, now on the verge of breaking into the top-10. Sui is the native token of the SUI Layer-1 blockchain and is designed to allow faster transaction speeds. One catalyst for the rise could be the Grayscale SUI Trust, which opened last week to all eligible accredited investors. One thing to note, though, is that more than $300 million worth of tokens will be unlocked for trading on May 1, an event that generally creates selling pressure and short-term price declines.