*as of 5/7; Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, GOLD

The Federal Reserve elected to leave its key interest rate unchanged, despite a slowing economy brought on largely by American tariff policies. There has been no movement on interest rates since December, and the next meeting in June is unlikely to produce a rate cut, with the markets now expecting between 2-4 cuts over the remainder of the year.

➨ TAKEAWAY: Asset classes that perform better in lower interest rate environments are still waiting for the cuts, and probably will be doing so until at least July. The Fed’s decision to keep rates steady was expected, and as such, the markets had a muted reaction to the news. The Fed is now worried about “stagflation,” a slowing economy with high inflation, and upcoming inflation reports and job numbers will play a large role in its decision-making going forward.

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In this conversation, crypto expert Kyle Reidhead of Milk Road and gold expert Peter Grosskopf of Argo Digital Gold talked about the competing stores of value: Bitcoin and Gold. They explore the current market context, the performance of both assets, their roles as hedges against economic uncertainty, and their short and long-term forecasts for both assets.

(Crunchbase)

Global VC funding to startups was $23 billion in April, a sharp decline from March’s $68 billion, though admittedly the March figure was boosted by OpenAI’s $40 billion raise. AI still had the biggest share of any sector, with $7 billion in funding, and the biggest fundraise of the month was AI startup Safe Superintelligence’s $2 billion round. Seed stage startups got $2.4 billion, a slight decrease from March, while early-stage startups received $8.6 billion, a 20% increase over March’s total.

➨ TAKEAWAY: This tally was the first month of data after the new tariff policy took effect, and a slowdown was expected as uncertainty gripped the global economy. This could be the start of a bigger decline in funding in the remainder of Q2. Keep an eye on earlier stage funding, which could bear the brunt of a decline as VCs move away from riskier investments.

🏢 Multifamily market surging: Investment volume grew by 33% year-over-year, hitting the highest first-quarter total since 2022, as rents grew, vacancies dropped, and rental demand continued to outpace supply.

🪙 Bitcoin reserve: New Hampshire became the first state to enact a crypto reserve law, and the state is now allowed to invest into cryptocurrency and precious metals. Its crypto purchases will be limited to tokens with market caps above $500 billion, which right now includes only Bitcoin.

🏡 Buyer sentiment ticks up: The Fannie Mae Home Purchase Sentiment Index rose slightly in April to 69.2 from 68.1, but is still down year-over-year. Seller sentiment is dragging the numbers down as more people believe now is not an ideal time to sell a home.

💵 Morningstar rating private assets: The financial services firm will start rating semi-liquid private credit and private equity funds in Q3, and will look into how those funds mark their assets and deliver value to investors.

🚀 Wonder’s big raise: The food hall company founded by Marc Lore raised a $600 million round at a valuation of more than $7 billion, and is planning to double its physical locations this year.

📈 Consumer credit beats forecasts: Consumer credit rose $10.2 billion in March, above the forecasted value of $9.5 billion, as people spent more in anticipation of the tariffs that took effect in April.

An interesting and potentially controversial use case for AI debuted this week as an AI-generated victim impact statement was delivered by a murder victim who was killed in 2021. Chris Pelkey was shot and killed in a road rage incident in 2021, but his sister generated an AI video of him addressing his killer and speaking about forgiveness. The use of AI in courtrooms is a new frontier that certainly calls for regulation and guidance, just another example of how AI will reshape society in the years to come.