‘Odd Lots’ Meets ‘The China Show’: Stock Rout Hits Asia

Asks about the market's current state and the disconnect between rising inflationary pressures and the market's indifference until the payrolls report.

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Joe Weisenthal

The market's extreme volatility (big up days, big down days) is a natural consequence of the surreal rally where entire markets move like penny stocks. Inflationary pressures were ignored until the payrolls report confirmed labor market strength, which is good news as it avoids stagflation.

We can come up with stories about Broadcom earnings, but the bigger truth is that when you have unbelievably surreal moves like we've seen through 2026, it's not weird to get an 8% down day or 4% move.

Joe Weisenthal

The rally is truly global, with the same names being chased everywhere. The SpaceX IPO is historic and will bring a massive name public without prior retail run-up, which is different and could fuel further momentum.

I walked through Kowloon and saw a retail brokerage advertising the same stocks and ETFs, including a big sign about the SpaceX IPO and the Ark Space ETF. This drove home how global the rally is.

SpaceX IPO is this week, with Elon Musk wanting one of the biggest retail allocations ever. Chinese and Hong Kong investors cannot participate due to national security issues, highlighting the bifurcation between China and the US.

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Joe Weisenthal

The SpaceX IPO is historic from a numbers standpoint. We'll have a handful of IPOs in 2026 coming in as some of the biggest names ever, without public investors having gotten any prior run-up. This is different and worth thinking through.

Even someone who never allocated directly to Nvidia would have caught the run from when it was one of the smallest stocks in the S&P 500 to the biggest. Now these names come in near the biggest.

The S&P 500 backed down from bending its rules, highlighting differences between index providers. The market is momentum-driven, attracting more capital regardless of valuations. SpaceX coming into the market could build on that momentum.

We'll see it in this part of the world too, with big chipmakers coming in. We don't know what these companies do, only the stocks. People buy them because they're memory chip related.

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