Investor attention will likely focus on Federal Reserve Chairman Powell’s testimony to the Senate Banking Committee given concerns over inflation and interest rates.

After Tesla’s (TSLA) much-publicized investment in the world’s number-one decentralized cryptocurrency, BlackRock Capital (BLK), the world’s largest asset manager, revealed its own investment into bitcoin (BTC).

Prior to the 2020 pandemic and subsequent economic disruptions, assets invested in private markets (including private equity, venture capital, hedge funds, and credit funds) had tripled from $2.5 trillion to $7.7 trillion since the previous Global Financial Crisis.

After impressive growth in 2020, ETFs continue to reach record highs with $7.8 Trillion in Assets Under Management (AuM) for January 2021 according to TrackInsight, a global Exchange-Traded Funds analysis platform and Nasdaq partner.

This week we have the final push for the December quarter earnings season, with more than 1,000 companies reporting this week.

Home Depot (HD) is set to report fourth quarter fiscal 2020 earnings results before the opening bell Tuesday

This week, earnings from notable retail and tech companies come into focus. These reports, as well as their outlooks for 2021, will be closely watched as their revenue and earnings growth are less dependent on fiscal stimulus

The pandemic accelerated the shift away from the physical world and into the digital world, and that digital world is rather poorly served by traditional payment systems like cash and checks, opening the door for digital payment solutions and digital currency alternatives

In hindsight, GameStop’s (GME) unthinkable January price runup was always going to end in a government response, and that’s precisely what occurred on Thursday.

There seemed there to be an expectation by some committee members that retail investors were entitled to free, unfettered access to markets. That has never been the case and never will be, but it isn’t just true for little guys like you and me.