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Momentum Monday - AI Adjacent...Biotechs, Schwab and Instacart
And the big rally in Gold and Crypto
Howard Lindzon
August 25, 2026
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Good morning…
There is so much happening in the public markets. Let me start with a few ideas I have been sharing in real tiume the last month on Stocktwits (and are in my degenerate economy index), The first is a bitech ETF and the second is Instacart. Biotech has for nowbecome a huge beneficiary of the AI narrative trend. Eli Lilly crossing $1 trillion does not hurt, nor does the fact that Moderna announced a huge breakthrough in cancer. All of this is really tied to the fact that people just want to live longer. I am personally immersed in this trend and amazed at the personal results, how many videos I watch and products I have been trying Here is the chart of $XBI ( ▲ 3.42% ) :
Aniother AI adjacent trend is a single stock I have been buying…Instacart $CART ( ▼ 0.02% ) . I also added it to my degenerate economy index. The quick take is here…
One last interesting breakout is Charles Schwab ( $SCHW ( ▼ 0.88% ) ). Months back AI was a nemesis to the stock. Traders sold it off as Robinhood announced AI initiatives. Now AI is a tailwond and positive narrative for the stock even though Schwab has done little to lean into AI. They probably don’t need to do much having 12 trillion under management. They likely just need tyo say AI will help them retire 50 percent of the workforce over the next 5 years and the stock would double.
As for the markets themselves…
The US Treasury Markets and the White House are concerned about the bond market as rates continue to rise. They are calling for emergency pressers which I prefer they would not do, but nobody asks me. Mr. Trump believes yelling at it and threatening to bomb it and other nations that don’t help us lower rates is a solution. It is not.
Scott Bessent’s old trading buddy Stanley Druckenmiller took out an Op-Ed in the WSJ to text him out loud with how pathetic and dangerous this could get. In the meantime, the worry about interest rates and the $40 trillion in government debt has lit a new fire to Gold prices and Bitcoin.
The market also seems full up of ‘AI stocks’ whether it is memory or data centers or the ‘circular’ central bank type deals that $NVDA ( ▲ 1.2% ) is cutting with ‘customers’. Nvidia is an incredible company led by an incredible CEO, but the law of large numbers is a reality when it comes to great customers with the cash to back up the orders if all hell were to break loose. Jim Chanos is a legendary short seller and is doing the media circuit right now saying the accounting irregularities of the AI companies (including the data centers) is worse than the 1999 internet bubble. I think Jim is onto something, but timing when the market cares is something I don’t do well. What I have been doing if you follow me here has been selling semiconductor stocks (June) and adding small caps.
Ivanhoff did this weeks show alone as I travel and did a great job. His thoughts/summaries also below. Enjoy.
Welcome back to Momentum Monday!
In today’s episode of Momentum Monday, Ivanhoff and I discuss the following:
Dollar Weakness, Government Debt, and the Crypto Awakening
Gold and Copper Setups: Playing the Breakout via FCX
Moderna's Vaccine Trial Gap and Biotech Strength
Tempus AI ($TEM ( ▲ 3.98% ) ) Accumulation Surge
Persistent AI Stock Allergy and Citadel's Profit Taking
Semiconductor Vulnerability and Sector Rotations
In This Episode, We Cover:
Dollar Weakness, Government Debt, and the Crypto Awakening (0:00)
Gold and Copper Setups: Playing the Breakout via FCX (2:52)
Moderna's Vaccine Trial Gap and Biotech Strength (4:19)
Tempus AI ($TEM ( ▲ 3.98% ) ) Accumulation Surge (5:45)
Persistent AI Stock Allergy and Citadel's Profit Taking (6:33)
Semiconductor Vulnerability and Sector Rotations (9:08)
Here are Ivanhoff’s Thoughts
After many months of hibernation, crypto erupted and didn’t look back. Some say that the reason is the Clarity Act, which seems closer to reality. Others: the accelerated attempts of the Treasury to monetize government debt (buy long-dated Treasuries to reduce interest rates). What matters is that the narrative has changed and now anything crypto-related is likely to remain in play for the foreseeable few months. We approached via ETHU, which is 2x long Ethereum. There will be more to come.
Gold also had a sizable bounce for basically the same reasons as crypto. It already started to perk up two weeks ago. Other metals like silver and copper also rallied. We approached this theme via FCX, which broke out from a multi-month base.
In the meantime, the market remains allergic to almost anything AI-related. Semis tried to reclaim their 50-day moving average last week, only to be swiftly rejected. Some of the biggest downside movers came from the AI theme last week – NBIS, BE, AEHR, etc. The whole group has been very choppy lately. Most trending moves in the space only last a few days before a quick reversal in the other direction.
And here are the charts discussed:
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