Market Insights: S&P 500’s Record Highs and Crypto’s Surge

US markets are kicking off the trading week in positive territory after the S&P and Nasdaq hit record highs last week.

Meanwhile, in crypto Bitcoin is trading above $118,000 while we're seeing a rally in all coins.

The law is spiking to over $190 while it has ripped past $3800.

Joining me live here at the York Stock Exchange is Steve Elaine Lawrence, CIO of Balford Group.

Steve, good morning.

Happy Monday.

Happy Monday to you.

Well, thank you so much for joining me.

There's a lot going on when we take a look at markets, not just here in the US but also across the world as well.

So let's start out by looking at Japan and the election results on Sunday.

So we saw the rally, but we've been keeping a close eye on the X market.

So what do you make of what we saw this weekend?

One thing that you're going to understand with Japan Japan moves at its own pace, just generally.

They're, they're in a land of their own, but a land that's completely connected, and historically they've been very big savers.

And what you're going to see with Japan over the long term is that they are getting squeezed by other Asian countries.

I think the public doesn't realize how powerful that can be, but the flip side of that is that they've always been extremely consistent in their thought process.

So I could see the end easily go, you know, trade it down to like 144.

You know, and I can also see the new normal of how everything is connected, yeah, especially with tariffs right now.

Yeah, and there is the August 1st tariff deadline that all of us are counting down to.

It does seem as though the goalpost continues to move forward, but that is the nature of negotiations.

But at the same time, another area we're paying attention to is the crypto market.

We saw Bitcoin hit record highs earlier.

Last week and right now we are below the all-time highs, but a key piece of legislation was signed last week and signed on Trump's desk last Friday.

So what do you make of what we're seeing across the crypto landscape?

Remember the crypto asset and the alternatives, OK, are now becoming a true asset class, right, in processing money globally.

And what you're seeing with the bigger banks, the bigger banks are actually getting involved, all right.

And they walk at a very slow pace, but when they decide to move, they move back quick.

All right, so they're there already.

The big banks are there and we're seeing it.

Yeah, and here at the New York Stock Exchange with Circle going public, Americans were introduced to the concept that they hadn't known what stablecoins are.

So that is the space we'll all continue to monitor for sure.

Absolutely.

OK, I think it goes higher.

I mean.

You're going to see extreme volatility when something's new, OK, you're going to see, you're going to see the volatility.

I think over the next 120 days, and I've been saying this, there is no question that these next 120 days are that critical for the next 3 to 4 years.

Yeah, and speaking of which, we're halfway through 2025.

Hard to believe, but we are counting down to the July Fed Reserve meeting.

And next week's Fed meeting may not draw as much attention to all of us as the rest of the meetings, well, what do you expect to hear from the FOMC and also Powell?

I will say this Powell realizes that there's inflation and the world realizes that there's inflation and He's caught between a rock and a hard place, but the saving grace to it is that the market is already anticipating it.

I believe he will hold them steady.

Not do anything.

It takes time for markets to get out of an inflation cycle.

It can't happen in a quarter.

Yeah, and Americans are going to be paying attention to inflation, especially as when we go shopping, we notice the increase in prices from housing to what ends up in our shopping carts.

But finally, I do want to get your take on earnings season.

So so far.

We've heard from about 65 of the S&P 500 companies and 85% of them have beat on earnings, but we hear from some of the Mag 7 names this week, Google as well as Tesla.

What are your expectations?

First of all, the financials did very well.

They really did, OK, even though you know sometimes earnings could come out great and the stock could get hit, all right, they came out very strong.

When you're looking at the Teslas and you know the Googles of the world.

I expect for myself personally Tesla could go a lot lower and I adore Elon Musk and his thought process of how brilliant it is, and Google is Google.

I mean they are, you know, the biggest, you know, one of the biggest guys on the block, and they're good at it, and they have really developed a lot of patience and growing businesses.

People don't realize that that they're constantly growing their business in various ways globally.

That's what the public needs to realize.

And Steve, you're joining me on this Monday morning, and we're looking at the S&P holding above that 6300 level, and that is key.

We're hearing from all sorts of organizations, whether they're research firms or financial firms, and they continue to raise their price target for the S&P 500 heading into the year end.

So do you have a specific level that you're paying attention to?

Yeah, I'm looking, I'm looking over the next 60 to 90 days, OK.

We could retrace like 2%, but by the end of the year I think we take out the highs.

OK, you know, heard it here.

I mean that's what I believe.

OK Steve, well, we will see where the S&P 500 ends up your end.

I'm sure we'll talk before then.

So thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you.