Twenty-five-year-old pro video gamer Jacob "Fancy" Worthington made $250,000 after winning this year's Madden Bowl, which is almost $80,000 more than what individual players took home after winning this year's actual Super Bowl.

Momentum stocks have fallen and they can't get up. A virtual train wreck in momentum stocks dragged the S&P 500 sharply lower, ending yesterday down 1.8%. The Nasdaq 100 gave back 2.7%, and the Russell 2000 dropped 1.6%.

Temporary tariff relief, with President Trump delaying levies on most Canadian and Mexican imports until April 2, was no panacea for the stock market. 

❓ Have you been paying attention? Test your knowledge of this week's newsletters with our quiz. 

While much of the market has looked to the likes of Nvidia for guidance on where things are going, lately the smart money has been looking to another American staple: Walmart. The biggest of the big-box stores has been a unique bellwether for some of the most important macroeconomic trends fueling market moves, from expectations about consumer spending for 2025 to the tariff questions that have roiled markets. 

Tariffs have been big this week. While the economic warfare against Canada and Mexico has been mostly delayed another month, those China levies are going nowhere, and it's sent Walmart to the negotiating table with its suppliers in the Middle Kingdom.

Now, let's be clear, negotiating with suppliers is Walmart's forte; it's been doing it successfully for a generation. The company's ability to leverage its massive scale to squeeze suppliers as much as possible to guarantee the lowest prices has been its fundamental business strategy since the days when this was Sam Walton's shop in Arkansas. Bentonville can get prices from people that absolutely nobody else can — which is why it was a revelation yesterday that Walmart's attempt to get those prices down in light of the tariffs has hit a wall, with suppliers saying anything more than a 2% cut would put them in the red. If Walmart can't do better than that, every other retailer in the country is about to have a pretty rough negotiation.

This is far from the first time Walmart has been our canary in the coal mine. Remember, much of the recent market rout followed Walmart reporting solid earnings but pretty dismal guidance for 2025, raising red flags about the overall health of the consumer.

Yes, keep your eyes on the chips on the table, by all means, but the largest brick-and-mortar retailer in America is a crucial weather vane to monitor.

7 billion. That's how many smartphones are used worldwide. But this $500 billion industry is changing... 

In 2024, shipments of phones priced under $150 grew to 120M – 33% higher than 2023. No wonder over 45M users across 170+ countries use Mode Mobile.

Mode's signature EarnPhone starts at just $99. But that's just the beginning. The company pays customers to use their phones – earning and saving those customers $325M+ already. It's a disruption that led Mode to 32,481% 3-year revenue growth and the title of #1 fastest growing software company in 2023 per Deloitte.1

They've turned phones into an income-producing asset like Uber did with cars and Airbnb did with second homes. But instead of sitting on the sidelines, you have the chance to become a pre-IPO2 investor at just $0.26/share.3 

Don't wait, invest in Mode today4 and get up to 2X bonus shares.5

In a market that's enthusiastically embraced and rewarded dip buying, investors' fear of missing out on the next big push higher has routinely outstripped their fear of losses. That's particularly true of the tech companies that make up the Magnificent 7, which have been critical to the bull market's advance.

Now, however, good old fear is exceeding the fear of missing out, as a peek into the options on those stocks plainly shows. One marker of the market's sentiment is implied volatility — the options market's expectation of how a stock will move and by how much. A stock with a low implied volatility in either direction basically tells you that nothing much is expected to move the stock; high implied volatility, the opposite. 

Back to the Mag 7. The gap between the implied volatility of options 20% below the Magnificent 7's current prices and options that are 20% above where they're trading has soared in recent sessions. In other words, it's much much more expensive to protect against more downside than to chase upside. This gulf in the cost of the options premiums that investors must pay to hedge against the downside versus those who have some hope for the upside is at levels surpassed only once before in this bull market, as this chart shows. 

While retail investors still seem to be excitedly buying Tesla and Nvidia, this pricing implies that larger institutional players are growing concerned about the potential for losing the massive gains they've accrued on these stocks over the years. 

One potential silver lining: the appearance of fear is often a prerequisite for finding a tradable bottom in many asset classes.

Grindr's CEO, George Arison, often describes his vision for the company not as a dating or hook-up app but as a social network, or "Global Gayborhood in Your Pocket." (Yes, that is trademarked.)

Apple's latest iOS update supports the T-Mobile network's Starlink satellite coverage, but it's Mode Mobile that's gearing up for global expansion.

Mode Mobile's EarnPhone already reaches 45M+ users — and that's before global satellite coverage. With SpaceX eliminating "dead zones", Mode's technology has the potential to reach a larger audience.

Their pre-IPO raise2 has already attracted over $23,000,000 in investments in this round, and you can still invest4 at just $0.26/share.3

Ad

Michael Bloomberg is America's top philanthropist.

Advertiser's disclosures:

1 The rankings are based on submitted applications and public company database research, with winners selected based on their fiscal-year revenue growth percentage over a three-year period.

2 Mode Mobile recently received their ticker reservation with Nasdaq ($MODE), indicating an intent to IPO in the next 24 months. An intent to IPO is no guarantee that an actual IPO will occur.

3 The minimum investment is $999.96.

4 Please read the offering circular and related risks at invest.modemobile.com. This is a paid advertisement for Mode Mobile's Regulation A+ Offering.

Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Investing in private company securities is not suitable for all investors because it is highly speculative and involves a high degree of risk. It should only be considered a long-term investment. You must be prepared to withstand a total loss of your investment. Private company securities are also highly illiquid, and there is no guarantee that a market will develop for such securities.

DealMaker Securities LLC, a registered broker-dealer, and member of FINRA | SIPC, located at 105 Maxess Road, Suite 124, Melville, NY 11747, is the Intermediary for this offering and is not an affiliate of or connected with the Issuer. Please check our background on FINRA's BrokerCheck.

5 A minimum investment of $1,000 is required to receive bonus shares.