Alternative Investing Report - June 12, 2026

*as of 6/11; Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, 30YM

Gold prices hit a peak of almost $5,600 per ounce in late January, and remained over $5,000 through March, before slowly falling in value and nearly dropping below $4,000 earlier this week to a six-month low. The price of gold has fallen by 22% since the beginning of the Iran War, with the price of silver dropping 50%. Citigroup has cut its 3-month price target from $4,300 to $4,000, which is more bearish than other Wall Street projections, but an instructive data point.

➨ TAKEAWAY: Gold has a reputation as an inflation hedge and a safe harbor asset during times of geopolitical tension, but its recent performance flies in the face of those assertions. The main reason for the counter-intuitive performance seems to be the growing possibility of interest rate hikes, making a non-yielding asset less attractive. Investors should take this trend as a reminder that no matter how “safe” an asset may be, there is still short-term volatility and price movement.

SpaceX is going public today, so prepare by watching Slava Rubin and Jan-Erik Asplund’s in-depth analysis of the upcoming IPO. They look into SpaceX's business segments, valuation, market potential, and everything else investors need to know before making an investment decision.

🚀 SpaceX IPO: The long awaited day is here, with the most valuable private company in the world going public in the largest IPO of all-time. The company is raising $75 billion at a $1.75 trillion valuation with a $135 share price. Prediction markets and perpetual futures exchanges are pegging the valuation at the end of the day to be around $2.2 trillion - keep an eye on how accurate that forecast turns out to be.

🏡 Luxury market update: The average luxury U.S. home price - defined as those in the 90th percentile or higher in a given market - is down 1.4% year-over-year, and 13.7% from the peak value in May 2023. The most resilient markets have been Minneapolis, Boise, and Boston, while the Bay Area has seen the biggest drops from peak values, though the current AI boom could reverse that.

🤖 Databricks’ new funding: The data analytics and AI software company is seeking new capital at a $175 billion valuation, a 30% gain from its last round in December. CEO Ali Ghodsi has publicly said that the company will not go public this year, but reportedly has told people in private that a 2027 IPO is on the table.

🏢 Mega warehouse demand: The vacancy rate for warehouses with more than 750,000 square feet dropped to 7.3%, down 100 basis points year-over-year, while buildings with 200,000 to 500,000 square feet have a higher vacancy rate of 10.9%. Tenants are increasingly looking for buildings with bigger footprints, while construction of those buildings has ground to a halt.

🎨 A pair of Monets: Two prominent paintings by Claude Monet are being auctioned later this month at Sotheby’s in London, and are expected to sell for up to $67 million in total.

🦖 T-Rex leather bag auction: Yes, you read that right, leather from a T-Rex has been grown in a lab using fossil DNA and then was fashioned into a handbag, which was being offered for sale in Paris. Expected to sell for as much as $500,000, the bag ended up only reaching $150,000 in bids and went unsold.

Monday: 📊 Hot jobs report, 🚀 Quantinuum IPO
Tuesday: 🚀 Fusion power startups, 🏢 CRE steady returns
Wednesday: 🤖 OpenAI IPO, 🏡 Existing home sales rise
Thursday: 🪙 Trump and crypto, 📊 Inflation hits 3-year high

Have a great weekend!