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Happy Friday, and great respect to our nation on the 25th anniversary of September 11th. Marques Colston gives us an investing pick, the PPI report met expectations, existing home sales are down and Harvey AI has nearly doubled its valuation in nine months. Let’s dive in!
🎤 Listen: To the latest episode of Smart Humans, where Slava Rubin talks with Super Bowl champion Marques Colston about his journey from NFL star to fund manager.
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📈 DAILY MARKETS
✅ PICK OF THE WEEK
Oklo (NYSE: OKLO)
Current Share Price: $39.90 ($7.42 billion market cap)
For the last 6-9 months I’ve been hot on the value chain of AI
Nuclear companies could become the power source because AI is tough on existing power grids
There is pushback we’re seeing against data centers from cities and jurisdictions not wanting them there
I’ll stick to the picks and shovels of AI, so I’m interested in nuclear
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👨🏫 TODAY'S EXPERT
Marques Colston is the Founder and Portfolio Manager of The Champion Fund. Operator and executive with more than a decade of leadership across the NFL, emerging sports leagues, and private capital. Co-owner of three Arena Football League franchises. Advised Arena Football League on strategic partnerships with DraftKings, CBS, William Hill, and Facebook. Strategic Advisor to NFLPA One Team Collective and NFL Players Inc. Advised on $350M+ in client assets as a financial advisor at Janney Montgomery Scott (Series 7 and Series 66 securities licenses). Co-Founder of Venture Playbook at Columbia Business School.
🎤 PODCAST
"You run into a lot of traditional asset classes just kind of tucked and folded into sports." - Marques Colston
In the newest episode of Smart Humans, Slava Rubin talks with Marques Colston about his journey from NFL star to fund manager, and investment opportunities across the sports ecosystem. Marques shares the story of The Champion Fund and its current portfolio, including Premier League club Ipswich Town FC.
📰 NOTABLE NEWS
📊 PPI report: The Producer Price Index (PPI) for August showed a 0.4% monthly gain and a 5.4% annual gain, slightly higher than expected and clearly well above the Fed’s 2% target. Core PPI, which strips out food and energy costs, was up 0.2% monthly and 4.6% annually. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is due out today and will give the Fed more data to consider when it meets next week.
🏡 Existing home sales decrease: U.S. existing-home sales fell by 2.0% monthly and are down 1.2% year-over-year, as rising mortgage rates affected buyer demand. Though the market remains slow, the national median home price still rose 1.6% year-over-year to $429,100.
🤖 Harvey AI fundraise: The leading legal AI startup raised $550 million at a $15.5 billion valuation, a 40% gain over its last funding round in March and nearly double its valuation from last December.
🚀 Covenant emerges from stealth: A new defense tech missile startup, Covenant, came out of stealth with a $250 million funding round led by powerhouse VC firm Andreessen Horowitz. The company is reportedly valued at more than $1 billion and already has $150 million in existing orders.
🏈 Most valuable teams: The Dallas Cowboys remains the world’s most valuable franchise, with an estimated value of $17 billion, a 31% gain over the last year. And the NFL as a whole is the most desirable league for investors. Its least valuable team, the Cincinnati Bengals, are still worth $8 billion, more than all but five other teams in all of sports.
💵 SEC wants to allow pay-to-play: The SEC is evaluating whether to rescind a rule that restricts "pay-to-play" dealings and limits political contributions from private equity fund managers seeking state and local pension fund investments. The rule was put into place to essentially stop funds from bribing public officials, and if it is rescinded, it will change the PE landscape.
📝 IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Monday: Labor Day, no issue.
Tuesday: ❗ Linqto Indictments, 📈 Strong jobs report
Wednesday: 🏡 Hottest markets, 🤖 Anthropic IPO update
Thursday: 🏢 Office market recovery, 🤖 Mistral doubles valuation
Have a great weekend!
