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[Bloomberg]( Claims data due, crypto world calms down, and commodities retreat. Slowly improving Weekly initial jobless claims are expected to creep lower to 450,000, according to the median estimate by economists surveyed by Bloomberg. A small drop in continuing claims is also forecast when the data is published at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. For investors, the pace of the U.S. economic recovery remains the main focus after [yesterday’s Federal Reserve minutes]( showed that some on the committee are [starting to talk about starting to talk about tapering](. Catching breath After a wild session yesterday, the crypto world is [much calmer this morning](. Bitcoin is trading [close to $40,000](, in line with where it was 24 hours ago — before the crash that saw the digital token [drop to $30,000](. Other cryptocurrencies have not recovered so strongly and exchanges [remain under pressure](. Ark Investment Management’s Cathie Wood said she still expects Bitcoin to [reach $500,000](. Slipping   Crude is dropping, with a barrel of West Texas Intermediate for July delivery [near $62](. Investors are concerned about the possibility of [Iranian production returning to the global market]( as uncertainty about the [demand outlook]( remains. It’s not just oil slipping, with iron ore [slumping in Asia trading]( after authorities in China called for tougher oversight of commodity markets. Copper was holding [close to $10,000]( a ton after yesterday’s 3% drop. Markets mixed The possibility of stimulus being removed quicker than expected amid a rapid economic recovery has investors waiting for data to give them their cue. Overnight, the MSCI Asia Pacific Index slipped 0.2% while Japan’s Topix index closed broadly unchanged. In Europe the Stoxx 600 Index was 0.1% higher at 5:50 a.m. with traders preferring defensive names. S&P 500 futures [pointed to a move lower at the open](, the 10-year Treasury yield was at 1.659% and gold dropped. Coming up... The latest Philadelphia Fed Business Outlook accompanies claims data at 8:30 a.m. The Bank of Canada Financial System Review is published at 10:00 a.m. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo [holds a summit]( with companies impacted by the [global semiconductor shortage](. EU trade ministers are joined virtually by U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai today for talks on rolling back [Trump-era tariffs](. Kohl's Corp., Ross Stores Inc. and Applied Materials Inc. are among the companies reporting results. What we've been reading Here's what caught our eye over the last 24 hours. - Odd Lots: Aaron Lammer on [yield farming and trading]( in the world of DeFi. - Israel [presses on with Gaza assault]( as truce talks build. - Bonds have [never been so useless]( as a hedge to stocks since 1999. - Self-driving cars pose crucial question: [Who to blame in a crash](. - TikTok took on President Trump [and won big](. - Swiss trader accused of [laundering Mafia money]( with diamonds. - [How time works](. And finally, here’s what Joe's interested in this morning Back last year when Dave Portnoy [came on the stock trading scene](, he was famous for saying "stocks only go up." The line is crude, and technically it's wrong, but on the other hand it's not wildly different from what mainstream financial advisers have been saying for a long time. People go on TV and say things all the time like: "Over the long term, a diversified basket of high quality U.S. equities has shown itself to deliver solid returns across a range macro-economic cycles." And yes that seems true, but it is kind of just a fancy way of saying "stocks only go up." So the point is, one of the reasons that people like Portnoy is that like a lot of popular people these days, he seems to have this knack for saying thing that lots of people are thinking or saying, but in a clearer, cruder manner. So now here we are a year later, and financial markets have gotten way more weird, if nothing else. You should go read [Bloomberg's Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou and Charlie Wells]( on the wild world of pump and dump schemes on decentralized exchanges. In this world, coins are created overnight, and then a network of influencers on social media promote the coins and try to pump them to the moon before dumping on the plebes. So let's go back to what Portnoy is saying now, because once again, he has a pretty great knack for cutting to the quick and describing what's really going on. Check out his latest episode of his podcast, [and start listening at the 9-minute mark](, where he says the following about a new coin that he recently he bought: "...By the way, if it is a Ponzi Scheme... I have no problem, get in the bottom floor of a Ponzi Scheme. My mother, when I was a kid, my mom she openly would get involved in a pyramid scheme. You knew what a pyramid scheme was. You get in at the beginning, and you gotta keep getting new people and new people and eventually the new people get f**ked. That is the definition of a Pyramid Scheme. That's up to a person to decide 'hey do I want to go in, it's a risky game!" I'm not saying it does something magical.... everyone's trying to make money.... people are trying to make money. That's it."  Anyway, in this Wild World Of Coins, the question is whether this description is in a sense more honest than, say, the serious people who come on TV and ultimately say something similar, but in a far more dressed up, respectable manner. It's also worth asking whether the above characterization spreads well beyond the coin world these days. Speaking of coins, [check out the new Odd Lots where we talk with Aaron Lammer about yield farming on Uniswap](. Fascinating stuff! Joe Weisenthal is an editor at Bloomberg Like Bloomberg's Five Things? [Subscribe for unlimited access]( to trusted, data-based journalism in 120 countries around the world and gain expert analysis from exclusive daily newsletters, The Bloomberg Open and The Bloomberg Close. 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