The Dow set a record. The Nasdaq logged its first 4-day losing streak since February.

Stock Market Edge

Apple raised prices 20 percent. The stock paid back 6. The Dow set a record. The Nasdaq logged its first 4-day losing streak since February.

The premarket carries the rotation:
ES1! 7,412.75 (-0.14%), NQ1! 29,558.25 (-0.56%), YM1! 52,438 (+0.19%), RTY1! 3,035.5 (+0.16%) at 08:30 UK. VIX 19.53 (+3.44%) suggests no one is selling the rotation, only the leadership.

The sectors marked the page:
Caterpillar 6 percent, J&J 1, McCormick on a beat, Bayer ADR 16 percent on SCOTUS preempting state Roundup claims. The Mag7 funded it: Apple -6, Microsoft -3.78, Nvidia and Amazon -2 each, Meta and Alphabet -1. Equal-weight held, cap-weight wobbled.

Earnings: Micron’s record became Apple’s bill:
Micron’s 41.46B revenue, 84.9 gross margin and 100B contracted memory book printed Wednesday after the close. Twelve hours later Apple raised prices 20 percent and lost 6. The transmission has rarely been this neat.

Cross-asset confirms the bond market did not engage:
Core PCE landed 3.4 year-on-year. 2-year sat near 4.18. Dollar barely budged. Crude broke 70 Wednesday and shed another 2.4 in Friday premarket. Bonds read Apple’s price card as a margin transfer, not new inflation. The equity tape took the other side.

📊 There’s a level on SPX I’m watching closely this morning. My full analysis briefing has it – plus what happens if we hold it, and what happens if we don’t. [Read it here →]

Crypto Market Edge

Saylor’s latest dip-buy is 3,000 dollars underwater. The preferred slipped below par. Never sell, sold once, bought the dip, bought another dip, and the preferred slipped under par. The stock went up anyway.

Spot wicked, bounced without the buyer:
BTC traded into the high 59,000s overnight, then recovered 1.48 percent to 60,587 by 08:30 UK. Around 1B in liquidations flushed the longs. A bounce after the leverage is gone is not the same as a bounce because the buyer came back.

The flow data still points one way:
US spot bitcoin ETFs marked a fifth straight day of net outflows through Wednesday, cumulative ~584M. Fear and Greed at 24. The mechanical seller has not flipped; the spot price has, briefly.

Strategy’s accumulation is visibly offside:
Strategy disclosed a 520-BTC buy at 67,300 per coin, currently 3,000 dollars per coin offside, holdings 847,362. MSTR preferred STRC slipped below par overnight, the cleanest funding-strain tell yet. Sale count holds at ONE.

Catalysts: Michigan, then the next 8-K:
Michigan sentiment at 10:00 ET the only US data today. Next BTC ETF flow data lands later. Strategy’s 8-K window stays live for further accumulation or, if STRC will not climb back above par, the second sale on record.

TL;DR – The Bottom Line

• Apple raised iPad and MacBook prices 20 percent and the stock paid back 6 percent. Microsoft cut 150 dollars off the Xbox sticker and lost 3.78. Memory was Thursday’s macro.
• The Dow set an intraday record at 52,655.66 on Caterpillar, J&J and Bayer. The Nasdaq closed its first 4-day losing streak since February. Equal-weight held; cap-weight wobbled.
• Core PCE printed 3.4 percent year-on-year, the highest since October 2023. The 2-year did not blink. The bond market voted “not yet”; the equity tape took the other side.
• Bitcoin wicked into the high 59,000s overnight, bounced 1.5 to 60,587 by 08:30 UK. Strategy’s fresh 520-BTC accumulation sits 3,000 dollars underwater; STRC slipped below par.
• Friday delivers Michigan sentiment at 10:00 ET. KOSPI took 8 on the OpenAI 2027 IPO leak; SoftBank 12. The IPO meant to validate the AI capex story has discovered it cannot.

📌 Fun Fact

Memory chips just made an iPad more expensive than the laptop it was meant to replace for many users. A 20 percent hike on a 1TB iPad Pro pushes its US sticker above the entry MacBook Air by more than 200 dollars. Apple’s hardware ladder has held the same relative pricing for years. A single memory cycle, upstream of every device on it, has just reordered the rungs.