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The US economy is about to take a hit.

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Booking for containers shipped from China to the US has fallen 45% year over year as of mid-April.

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And the Port of Los Angeles expects a 36% decline in vessels scheduled to arrive from China beginning tomorrow (May 4).

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Layoffs in trucking, logistics, and retail are coming.

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What we've got in this edition:

• Earnings report. See which tech companies beat or missed expectations + investor insights included.
• New kid on the block. Tesla gains new competitor.
• Weekly stock picks. Stock pick #1 had growth across all business sectors. Stock pick #2 is going to ride the AI wave all the way to the bank.

DISCLAIMER: The content in this newsletter is not monetary advice; it is for educational and informational purposes only. Stocks can be risky and speculative. Please do your own research before investing.

Week of April 28, 2025

*Stock data as of market close on May 2, 2025. Cryptocurrency data as of 3:00pm PT.

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🚨 Markets

• The S&P 500 and Nasdaq have recouped all of their losses since "Liberation Day" on April 2 (reciprocal tariffs announcement).
• After dropping to $75k on Apr 9, Bitcoin is gradually getting closer to its ATH of $106k from Dec 2024. Here's the bullish case for why Bitcoin could hit $1.5M by 2030.
• Market sentiment has shifted closer to NEUTRAL -- more people are buying/selling and stock returns are outperforming bonds by 14%.

💰 Earnings

(See full earnings calendar here.)
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📢 Economic Reports

The US economy added 177,000 jobs last month, well above expectations of 133,000. Unemployment rate remains at 4.2%.
​Market Impact: ↗️ Bullish

More Americans are filing for earlier Social Security benefits this year than last year.
​Market Impact: ↘️ Bearish

GDP for Q1 2025 contracted by 0.3%.
​Market Impact: ↘️ Bearish

📊 CHART

🙌 Megacap: Microsoft (MSFT)​
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📆 Publicly traded since 1986
💰 Specializes in cloud computing, AI, and software
📍 Headquarters in Redmond, Washington​
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Financial Green Flags:

✅ Net income is up 18% Year-over-Year

✅ Diluted EPS are up 18% Year-over-Year

✅ Operating income is up 16% Year-over-Year

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Risk/Opportunity Radar:

⚡️ In its latest earnings report, Microsoft saw growth in every part of its business.

⚡️ Microsoft projects revenue between $73.15 billion and $74.25 billion for the current quarter, well above expectations of $72.26 billion.

⚡️ The company plans an increase in capital expenditures for AI, but say it’s being careful not to overshoot on demand.

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Investor Lens:

Microsoft has been around for a while and isn't going away anytime soon. It probably won't 10x your investment at its current market cap, but it's a solid company to include in any portfolio.

⚡️ Medium Cap: Innodata Inc (INOD)​
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📆 Publicly traded since 1993
💰 Specializes in data collection and AI model training
📍 Headquarters in Hackensack, New Jersey

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Financial Green Flags:

✅ Net income is up 523% Year-over-Year

✅ Diluted EPS are up 520% Year-over-Year

✅ Operating income is up 343% Year-over-Year​
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Risk/Opportunity Radar:

⚡️ By virtue of specializing in high-quality training data for AI models, Innodata has a strategic advantage in the current AI revolution.

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Investor Lens:

Strategically positioned to benefit from the AI craze, Innodata is a medium-risk, high-reward play.

🚀 High Impact | Epic Games Launches Its Own Webshops

• What happened: Epic Games Store adds new feature that allows developers to open webshops to offer players out-of-app purchases to circumvent fees from Apple and Google.
• Investor Impact:
  • Bearish for Apple and Alphabet -- Direct revenue reduction from app store commissions.
  • If gamers adopt Epic’s webshop to save money, it might encourage other publishers (think Roblox or Riot) to build their own webstores.
  • 🔑 Key Point: Epic's move could shake the foundation of the app store economy and force Apple/Google to lower fees, loosen rules, or risk losing developer loyalty.

📈 Moderate Impact | Slate Auto Emerges as Competitor to Tesla

• What happened: Bezos-backed Slate Auto revealed its analog EV Pickup truck that will cost less than $20,000.
• Investor Impact:
  • Bearish for Tesla (and Ford, Rivian, GM) -- signals a race to the bottom in EV pickup pricing.
  • Damages Tesla's narrative around cost leadership.
  • 🔑 Key Point: Potential downward pressure on TSLA stock if investors fear growing competition and margin erosion.

👀 Watchlist | China's Huawei Develops New AI Chip (Ascend 910D)

• What happened: Huawei came out with its new Ascend 910D AI chip, seeking to surpass Nvidia's H100.
• Investor Impact:
  • Bearish for Nvidia -- Still early in development but could cause revenue headwinds for Nvidia.
  • Nvidia's pricing power and market share at risk in the medium-to-long term.
  • 🔑 Key Point: The AI Arms Race will likely boost demand for Nvidia's chips in the short-term but will force re-pricing in the long-term due to increased competition.

Equity Crowdfunding

​Invest in Olympian Motors, the car manufacturer that is building modular electric vehicles for the U.S. light-passenger vehicle market.

Highlights:
1️⃣ ✚ $47M revenue pipeline. Booked 590+ orders for Olympian Model O1 and Model 84. (As of Mar 2025)
2️⃣ ⚙️ Engineered a Fully-Modular Vehicle/Drivetrain (eMVDS). Reduced tooling/machinery costs by ~80%.
3️⃣ Current Investors: Y-Combinator, Climate Capital, Mobility Vision, Reunited, Soma & Collaborative.

Note: If you're serious about investing in any of these startups, do a Porter's Five Forces Analysis first.​
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Venture Capital

🛡️ Chaos Industries, a defense tech startup, raised $275M at a valuation of $2B.

🪪 Persona, an identity verification and management platform, raised $200M at a valuation of $2B.

🔐 Veza, a data security platform, raised $108M at a valuation of $808M.

💡 Top Google Searches:

• "ups layoffs amazon" (🚀 Spiked on Apr 29)
  • More layoffs likely coming to logistics sector. The Port of Los Angeles expects a 36% decline in vessels scheduled to arrive from China beginning May 4.
• "gdp" (🚀 Spiked on Apr 30)
  • US economy shrunk by 0.3% from January to March 2025 due to trade deficit caused by tariffs.
• "apple earnings" (📈 Moderate rise on May 1)
  • AAPL beat EPS and revenue expectations but its stock still went down due to lowered forecast and expected $900M extra costs from tariffs.
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🧠 Twitter Social Sentiment Scorecard (Apr 28 - May 2):

Vibe Check

Thoughts on this week's newsletter?

​ 🤑🤑🤑 Keep 'em coming! ​
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​ 🤑🤑 Not great, not terrible ​
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​ 🤑 Weak sauce ​

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Thanks for reading and stay tuned for next week's edition!

- Tech Fizz Team

DISCLAIMER: The content in this newsletter is not monetary advice; it is for educational and informational purposes only. Stocks can be risky and speculative. Please do your own research before investing.