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Be sure to tune in tomorrow Friday, August 1st to the Rich Habits Radar — our new weekly podcast episodes covering the biggest headlines and happenings impacting you and your money!

So now you can expect Rich Habits Podcast episodes on Mondays, Thursdays, AND Fridays!

We’re excited to begin reporting on the most consequential market-moving news on a weekly basis to you all. Make sure you’re following the Rich Habits Podcast on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.

See you tomorrow!

A quick breakdown — in case you don’t have the time.

Microsoft added $4.3 billion in net new cloud revenue in Q2.

For those of you keeping score, this is what an AI boom looks like. As you can see above, Microsoft added $4.3 billion in net new cloud revenue to their top line as countless companies are now going all-in on AI. That’s more than double any other quarter throughout the company’s history.

Remember, Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing platform that provides businesses of all shapes and sizes with tools for building, deploying, and managing applications — with a strong focus on AI. Azure provides high-performance computing resources for running AI workloads — like training and running AI models. These models are trained on data, and Azure also provides scalable storage solutions no matter the size of the model.

The above chart illustrates Microsoft Azure’s year-over-year revenue growth rate. It started as high as 46% at the beginning of 2021. Throughout the 2022 recession, growth slowed materially, down -22% from peak to trough. OpenAI introduced ChatGPT to the world during Q4 of 2022, catalyzing the AI revolution we’re seeing right now. That revolution is reflected above — Azure’s revenue growth accelerated dramatically from +27% to +39% reported yesterday.

Microsoft Azure surpassed $75 billion in annual revenue driven by growth across all workloads. According to their earnings call, Microsoft opened new data centers across 6 continents and now have over 400 data centers across 70 regions of the world — more than any other cloud provider.

"Cloud and AI is the driving force of business transformation across every industry and sector." — Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft

Today’s Rich Habits Newsletter is brought to you by Public, the investing platform that combines a broad range of asset classes with the tools you need to build and manage your wealth. 

From stocks to bonds, options, crypto, and more—it’s all here. You can even generate fixed income with a suite of yield accounts. If you’re looking for more than just a place to trade, discover the investing platform that’s as serious about your money as you are. 

👉 Episode 128: How to Build a 9-Figure Brand

In this week’s Monday-morning episode of the Rich Habits Podcast (linked here) — Robert broke down his framework for launching online brands — the exact playbook he used to turn Sillybandz into a cultural phenomenon and build a $300M+ career in product-based businesses.

Here’s what Robert and Austin covered this week…

Click here to listen to the full episode — and learn how to go from idea to income with less friction, less capital, and way more upside.

👉 Q&A: YieldMax ETFs, When To Invest For Your Children, & A Special Guest!

Here’s a link to the Q&A episode that was posted this morning.

We answered questions from: Jeff M., Emil J., Jacob B., Dave N., Christina L., and Jared H.

You can submit questions for these episodes by asking them inside of the Rich Habits Network, replying to this email, or sending us a DM on Instagram.

The Rich Habits Podcast is available on Spotify, Apple, iHeart, YouTube, and wherever else you get your content!

Low volatility streaks matter for the S&P 500.

Over the last several weeks, the S&P 500 has experienced exceptionally low volatility — defined as trading days with less than 1% moves to the upside or downside. This has been a very welcomed reality, as the index is now trading +28% above its April lows. Slowly but surely, the S&P 500 continued to trend higher throughout the months of June and July.

With that being said, something to keep an eye on is the direction (red or green) of the first "1% or higher” trading day. As you can see from the chart below, if the first “1% or higher” trading day is a green day in the markets — the median forward 1-year return is +14.8%. If the first “1% or higher” trading day is a red day in the markets — the median forward 1-year return is +4.5%, with an increased amount of red days over the subsequent month.

Of course historical averages can not predict future returns, but it’s really fun to look back throughout history to get a better understanding of where the markets might end up in the coming months and quarters.

Rolex prices remain -31% below their 2022 peak.

Despite the price of Bitcoin rising a few hundred percentage points and AI stocks trading multiples higher than they were in 2022 — we’ve yet to see the price of Rolex watches return to their recent all-time highs. Historically speaking, when the average Rolex watch quickly rises in price (like what happened in 2021) market turmoil tends to follow.

Investors would make money on their crypto or meme stocks, then foolishly use that money to buy Rolex watches and supercars. We experienced this throughout 2021 and 2022 as everyone flocked to Robinhood to trade Gamestop stock and YOLO into their favorite cryptocurrencies. Heck, even DOGE coin was featured on Saturday Night Live!

Now this chart remains -31% below its 2022 peak. With that being said, it seems to me the “falling” has stabilized over the last several months. Remember, every “boom” turns into a “bubble” eventually — that’s just human nature. This is a wonderful chart to keep an eye on to see where we might be in the “boom and bust” cycle.

For now, we seem to be in the clear with more upside to be had in the markets. Of course, the price of Rolex watches alone should never be the basis of an investment thesis — but it’s definitely fun and interesting!

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It just takes a few moments — enjoy the resources!

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Disclaimer: This is not financial advice or a recommendation for any investment. The content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Public Disclosures: All investing involves the risk of loss, including loss of principal. Brokerage services for US-listed, registered securities, options and bonds in a self-directed account are offered by Public Investing, Inc., member FINRA & SIPC. Cryptocurrency trading services are offered by Bakkt Crypto Solutions (NMLS ID 1890144), which is licensed to engage in virtual currency business activity by the NYSDFS. Cryptocurrency is highly speculative and involves a high degree of risk. Cryptocurrency holdings are not protected by the FDIC or SIPC.

As part of the IRA Match Program, Public Investing will fund a 1% match of: (a) all eligible IRA transfers and 401(k) rollovers made to a Public IRA; and (b) all eligible contributions made to a Public IRA up to the account’s annual contribution limit. The matched funds must be kept in the account for at least 5 years to avoid an early removal fee. Match rate and other terms of the Match Program are subject to change at any time. See full terms here.