The Senate will meet today to vote on the long-awaited infrastructure bill. Meanwhile, crypto begins to bounce back ahead of Jack Dorsey’s big ‘B Word’ Conference. So what will the stock market do today?
- The S&P 500 is up 1.52%
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 1.62%
- The Nasdaq Composite is up 1.57%
So what else will the stock market do today? Here are some of the top stories.
What Will the Stock Market Do Today? Watch the Senate.
President Joe Biden has his fingers crossed today, and you should, too. The president is at the will of the Senate today as it moves to vote on his long-awaited infrastructure bill. The bill will tackle a number of different facets of American life — from energy to transportation, from pollution to clean drinking water — and will be a major marker of success as we evaluate Biden’s first term as voters in 2024.
And if you’re an investor, you want to be tuned in to this vote. Shareholders in both the non-renewable and renewable sectors will see some major movement in their portfolios as the bill moves along, since these industries are hot points of the bill’s framework. Today is a catalyst for that movement, especially since we really don’t know which way things will go.
The bill is being touted by lawmakers as bipartisan. However, the closer we get to the actual Senate vote, the less apparent this bipartisanship seems. In fact, it seems like today, Republicans could very well tank the vote en masse. Republican Rob Portman of Ohio told CNBC today that GOP lawmakers don’t think the bill is at all close to ready for voting, considering the fact that it’s more of a general framework than a detailed document accounting for all the proposed changes.
While many on the conservative side of the aisle don’t want to vote ‘yes’ on the bill without seeing it, Democrats are trying to make known that passing the bill doesn’t mean finalized support for everything that will end up within. As Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says, “All a ‘yes’ vote … means is simply that the Senate is ready to begin debating a bipartisan infrastructure bill.” Hopefully, the bill passes today, and lawmakers will get the ball rolling on this package.
Bitcoin Bounces Back
Bitcoin (CCC:BTC-USD) is having a rough go of it lately. The cryptocurrency, representing the largest share of the entire asset class, erased all of its 2021 gains yesterday — something to the tune of $35,000. Since reaching its highs of nearly $65,000, the coin has tumbled and tumbled to a year-to-date low of under $29,000. But today, it’s up 7%. Cryptos have fallen out of relevancy in the last couple of weeks. However, some savvy crypto influencers and celebrity investors are bringing it back to the limelight with the B Word Conference.
Yes, the B Word Conference — ‘B’ meaning Bitcoin, of course. Jack Dorsey, of Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) and Square (NYSE:SQ) fame, is heading his own Bitcoin conference to talk about the future of the world’s biggest digital currency. Having Dorsey at the helm of a bullish convention like this is great for the coin, but he’s not alone. Rather, he’s bringing serious heavy-hitters in the space to join him in conversation, including Ark Invest captain Cathie Wood and Tesla’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) Elon Musk.
We can expect an obviously bullish day, as Dorsey is making it his life’s goal to spur widespread adoption of Bitcoin by the mainstream. In fact, his company Square has two new crypto products in the pipeline: a crypto hardware wallet and an infrastructure platform for building financial services around Bitcoin. The day will be spent talking particularly about institutional adoption of the coin. The conference is certainly a big deal; the names involved with this meeting are far too valuable within the crypto space for the event to not cause a stir. In fact, the whole crypto market is moving in anticipation of the event.
What Else We’re Watching
- Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) is announcing today its move into the mobile game space. Whispers about this shift have been discussed for some days now as the company hired EA (NASDAQ:EA) ex-pat Mike Verdu.
- Chipotle (NYSE:CMG) is gearing up for the Olympics and hoping for some gold medals from Team U.S.A. The company is selling their burritos wrapped in gold foil for the special occasion.
- The Milwaukee Bucks took home their first NBA championship in 50 years after beating the Phoenix Suns in game 6. Soon to come: lots of mispronunciations of “Giannis Antetokounmpo.”
On the date of publication, Brenden Rearick did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
