It was a happy week on Wall Street, with major indexes setting fresh records and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) closing above 34,000 for the first time. All major indexes are due to finish the week with gains. Cryptocurrencies rallied, with several setting all-time highs as well on the back of the Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN) listing.
Positive economic news buoyed markets, with the inflation report for March coming in largely in line with expectations early in the week. Retail sales and initial jobless claims also led to investors bidding risk assets higher.
Earnings season kicked off with positive reports from the financial sector.
Winners & Losers
The Coinbase listing attracted much attention, with the stock jumping over 70% on its first day of trading. Ethereum (ETH-USD) and Dogecoin (DOGE-USD) were among crypto names to rally on the news, reaching all-time highs. Bitcoin (BTC-USD) crossed 64,000 for the first time before withdrawing a bit.
News of Johnson & Johnson's (NYSE:JNJ) coronavirus vaccine withdrawal briefly spooked markets on Tuesday morning. JNJ shares initially sold off on the news before rebounding and were down only about 1.5% for the week at the time of this writing on Friday afternoon.
Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) shares rallied on JNJ's poor fortune, with PFE gaining close to 5% this week though most of those gains came late in the week.
"Reopening trade" names performed poorly on the back of this news. Shares of American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL), Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) and Royal Caribbean (NYSE:RCL) were all down about 6%. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NYSE:NCLH) performed even worse, dropping almost 8% for the week.
The Archegos Capital blowup continued to roil Discovery (NASDAQ:DISCA) and Viacom (NASDAQ:VIACA), which were down 10% and 7%, respectively.
What Caught Our Attention This Week
Kim: Roaring Kitty's winning option trades and David Einhorn's statements on short-selling, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), regulation, and other topics;
Brad: Coinbase. All about Coinbase. And Robinhood (RBNHD);
Stephen: The Cathie Wood v Elon Musk Twitter exchange;
Nat: Larry Fink says he's not seeing "broad-based" institutional interest in bitcoin.
About This Podcast
Alpha TALKS Wall Street Breakfast is a weekly podcast covering what moved markets this week (WMMTW), featuring a panel of Seeking Alpha editors.
Hosted by Nathaniel E. Baker, Senior Editor, Strategic Contributors, and featuring:

Bradley Olesen, VP News (off this week);

Kim Khan, Senior News Editor;

Stephen Alpher, Managing Editor News, co-host of Seeking Alpha's Alpha Trader podcast.

A slightly shorter video publishes every Friday by close of trading on the SeekingAlpha.com website. Watch this week's video here.
The video can also be seen on the Seeking Alpha YouTube account.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices