News and analysis

Maker (MKR), also known as Sky, is rising by 1.3% to $1,901 this week, outperforming the broader crypto market where Bitcoin (BTC) is up just 0.4% to $118,120. MKR is once again approaching the key resistance level at $2,000 — its fifth attempt in the past three weeks. The repeated tests indicate growing pressure, but so far the token has struggled to decisively break through.

While the broader crypto environment is bullish, MKR continues to lag behind BTC's pace, reflecting its close correlation with general market sentiment rather than leading it. Speculation around Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's possible resignation had briefly supported crypto assets, as markets anticipated a more dovish successor who might cut interest rates. However, U.S. President Donald Trump ultimately decided against removing Powell due to fears of a negative stock market reaction.

Without fresh, token-specific catalysts, MKR may find it difficult to sustain momentum beyond the $2,000 mark.

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) stock, which has been mostly consolidating for a little less than two years, all of a sudden got a rather promising future. The company substantially raised its annual sales guidance despite all those tariff-driven headwinds for the industry. The firm announced on July 16 that it now expects to post its revenue number within the higher range of $93.2 billion to $93.6 billion, up from its own previous estimate of $91 billion to $91.8 billion. So, even the conservative projection is higher than the previous optimistic one. This sounds amazing for the company, which is well known as a specialist in such a conservative segment as daily consumer healthcare goods, with also a diversified portfolio in pharmaceuticals and medical devices.

As to the quarterly routine, Johnson & Johnson also said its Q2 sales rose by 5.8% versus the same three-month period a year before to reach $23.74 billion vs analyst consensus of $22.84 billion, finding out an almost extra one billion of US Dollars somewhere, with Q2 EPS (earnings per share) of $2.77 to top forecast estimates of $2.68 as well. It now expects to add another billion or two in the remaining six months of the year. A much bigger lead in the score than I personally would have expected to see! Given that J&J shares have only gained about 2% to the $158+ area so far in pre-market trading today, I'm looking to grab them right now, expecting a retest of the $170 to $180 range over time, perhaps with such good inputs.

What's the way they do it, right? Its CEO Joseph Wolk cited demand fuelled by Darzalex blood cancer therapy, which showed better-than-projected sales of $3.54 billion. J&J also gave hope for some "game-changing approvals and submissions anticipated in areas like lung and bladder cancer, major depressive disorder, psoriasis, surgery and cardiovascular". Joseph Wolk also gave a comment on the tariff issue. Compared to his previous saying, based on the information available at the launch of Trump's tariff threats, that he anticipated a $400 million impact, now in the wake of a framework trade truce between the US and China, the hit is "probably" down to $200 million. Sounds like nothing more painful than a mosquito bite to such a giant seller. President Trump is going to unveil levies on pharmaceuticals likely by the end of July or early August, beginning with what he has once described as a "low tariff rate" to give businesses enough time to shift their manufacturing operations to the US territory. But he added that a "very high tariff" will then be into effect "in a year or so". That's why it's surely too early to forecast the company's prospect concerning 2026 results, but it's going to be fine for the rest of 2025.

They claim that they have calculated everything properly, even despite Stelara biosimilar competition. Stelara is a biologic medication designed for moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, active psoriatic arthritis, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. It basically works by targeting proteins in the immune system that cause inflammation. But what's important from the financial point of view that Stelara was made by Janssen Biotech, Inc., a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, so that Johnson & Johnson is the original manufacturer and marketer of Stelara, but there are now rather newly baked biosimilar versions available, made by Teva, Alvotech and Amgen. Those versions have also received US regulatory approval, clearly competing in sales with J&J's original medication.

While all this is happening, the company's inner forecasts have increased, and they also promised nice dividend numbers of $1.30 per share each quarter. Next time when the dividend will be payable is on September 9, 2025, to all stockholders of record on August 26. Those dividends are based on a 3.4% annual rate, and of course are far from the major argument when buying an asset or not, but I would not mind receiving them for a couple of quarters, if the asset itself also grows in price by some digits. This can't be compared with my return from AI investment, of course, but could be very interesting for the conservative part of my portfolio, instead of just cash or low-yield public bonds which I consider as a waste of money. Back to JNJ, monthly charts show that a multi-year support around $140 has been tested quickly but properly in early April during the overall tariff correction of Wall Street, the risk of losing something does not look significant, but a repeat of the 2020-2021 mini-rally for J&J looks like the baseline scenario.

Binance Coin (BNB) is up 0.4% this week to $695.20, moving in lockstep with Bitcoin (BTC), which is also gaining 0.4% to $119,063, fully recovering its earlier losses. With momentum building across the crypto market, BNB is emerging as a top contender for further upside.

A key catalyst is the announcement of a new partnership between BNB Chain and Ondo Finance to integrate tokenized real-world assets (RWAs). This move aims to bridge traditional finance and decentralised platforms, potentially drawing institutional capital onto the Binance ecosystem, a major positive for the token and the exchange.

Technically, BNB briefly touched the $700 resistance level on Monday before pulling back slightly. However, the retreat was shallow, suggesting underlying strength and setting the stage for a potential breakout. A clean move above $700 would open the door toward the $800 level, with bullish momentum accelerating alongside Bitcoin’s rally.

U.S. banks are opening the season of 2025 second-quarter corporate earnings. The four banking giants, including JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Citigroup (C), Wells Fargo (WFC) and BlackRock (BLK), remarkably beat analyst consensus estimates on both revenue and profit lines on July 15. Oddly enough, the Wall St crowd has not succeeded in finding faults only with Citigroup, which allowed its market value to climb 3.6% above $90 per share to reach the highest mark since the 2008 financial crisis.

Citi performed at 21.7% above the average expert forecast in terms of EPS (equity per share) and 3.5% higher on revenue, with both numbers being historically high, after rising by nearly 29% and 8% YoY, respectively. The third largest U.S. lender also announced its digital asset services like issuing its own stablecoin to create a safer tokenized deposit space in order to facilitate digital payments. Citi management is planning to buy back at least $4 billion in stock. The combo of nice fundamentals along with an upward breakout in the technical pattern allows to bet on touching a range between $100 and $110 at least before the end of 2025.

The other three banking groups also reported better than expected Q2 numbers, but were less fortunate when talking about immediate market reaction to the releases. JPMorgan Chase initially tried to gain intraday but fell by 0.85% before the closing bell, despite its Q2 EPS was 10.7% and revenue was 2.4% above consensus numbers. Some investment houses cited chances that investors may hedge risks of shifting U.S. tariff policies. Besides, shares of JP Morgan are at nearly 3.5% of their fresh all-time highs that were achieved in early July, being stopped only $3.5 away from the psychological barrier of $300 per share. In short, everything seems O.K. with JPMorgan, which will probably continue the rally soon.

Wells Fargo stock surprisingly dropped by 5.5% after the lender simply cut its inner projection for annual interest income, despite publishing its ever-best EPS of $1.6 vs $1.4 of expert consensus estimates on revenue just slightly beating expectations. Some overshot pace of WFC's price rally, which have exceeded 12% since the beginning of the summer until recently, could have an impact.

Meanwhile, BlackRock plunged 5.88% the same day, despite this global leader in total assets under management achieved another record $12.5 trillion and generated its ever-highest EPS above $12 per share to beat forecasts by 13.7%. Only its CEO emphasized "early days in the next phase of growth", which could be negatively perceived by some worried investing minds. Blackrock plans to launch more activity in private markets, targeting $400 billion in fundraising by 2030. BlackRock is going to become a good pick up from temporary dips.

All in all, first banking quarterly reports provided a sweet glimpse into how the other segments of U.S. economy may get their proper returns despite rising cross-border trade uncertainty. The Bank of America (BAC), Goldman Sachs (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS) will report later today, on Wednesday. While some banks may have fallen in market value, they all sent a positive signal about the lively beat of the economy and therefore the overall market trend. As a result, the S&P 500 broad market index fell only 0.5% on the day, and that was after hitting an all-time high of 6,300 milestone during the same trading session.

Besides, Nvidia developments were in the spotlight again after the AI flagship's statement on resuming sales of its H20 chip in China. Its CEO Jensen Huang visited Beijing and said the U.S. government has also assured Nvidia that licenses will be granted. Another reason to be optimistic about the Wall Street prospect, including AI and US-China trade relations' drivers.