Our editorial personas synthesise the top stories on this topic into a daily audio brief — curated, not aggregated.
… Trump held an event with kids in the Oval Office to announce he was relaunching the presidential physical fitness program.
__DEGRADED__ Traditional "marketing" is now only a sliver of the CMO job. The top marketers of 2026 are part brand-builder, part data scientist, part cultural weathervane, and part AI wrangler. "It used to be one, two, or three-dimensional," Comcast's Jon Gieselman said of marketing. "Now, it feels like it's 20 or 25, and you increasingly have to become more of a technologist these days to really drive the business in a way that's going to keep up with everyone else." Business Insider's annual list of the most innovative CMOs spotlights marketers, including Gieselman, who are pushing their brands into new territory and delivering measurable business results. This year's 25-person class made insurance funny, fruit feel premium, "dad sneakers" cool again, and a green language-learning owl impossible to ignore. It features marketers who harnessed AI to personalize soda ads, reshape search strategies, and shrink campaign production times. AI is "empowering marketers to be more strategic, more creative, more connected to the people they serve," said Coach's Joon Silverstein, another of this year's selections. The list features some execs who don't have CMO job titles — such as chief brand officers and chief growth officers — but are the most senior marketers at their organizations. It was drawn from our reporting and more than 100 nominations from industry insiders. Scroll down to reveal Business Insider's most innovative CMOs of 2026, listed in alphabetical order by last name. Ayaz has overseen marketing for some of the world's biggest entertainment launches in the past year, helping Disney become the only studio to top $6.5 billion at the global box office. The run was fueled by blockbuster campaigns for "Lilo & Stitch," "Zootopia 2," and "Avatar: Fire and Ash." Ayaz's approach paired large-scale storytelling with fan-driven activations designed to turn movie releases into cultural moments. The "Lilo & Stitch" campaign made Stitch a viral sensation by having the mischievous character crash real-life and virtual environments. Meanwhile, "Zootopia 2" expanded the film's reach into everyday culture through brand partnerships and fan activations, especially in China, where it broke Hollywood box-office records. For "Avatar: Fire and Ash," immersive experiences — including a 27-foot installation of the Nightwraith predator creature at the film's premieres and major sports broadcasts — brought Pandora to life for audiences worldwide. Ayaz also led the global campaign for Disneyland Resort's 70th anniversary, using immersive experiences and cross-platform storytelling to celebrate Disney's legacy across generations. In January, Ayaz was named Disney's first chief marketing and brand officer to unify its messaging across Disney Entertainment, Disney Experiences, and ESPN, the first time the company's marketing across film, streaming, parks, sports, consumer products, and global brand initiatives had been led by a single person. It was another first for Ayaz, who had become the company's first chief brand officer in 2023, and signaled continuity as the company transitioned in March to a new CEO, Josh D'Amaro. Shortly after that promotion, Ayaz presided over a marketing restructuring and layoffs, part of companywide cuts, that he said would let the company better serve customers. Ayaz is also guiding Disney's upcoming participation in the America 250 campaign and the ongoing expansion of the D23 fan community. Beech's role, as chief growth officer, combines marketing, e-commerce, and the wellness brand's international expansion. After experiencing a heart attack at 34, Beech redefined her relationship with her health — an experience that informs her strategic lens and leadership philosophy. Beech's marketing strategy builds on the insight that while consumers are more invested in their health than ever, they are increasingly overwhelmed by — and often distrustful of — the information available to them. She saw this gap as an opportunity to reposition Thorne from simply a supplements brand to a health and wellness resource for younger consumers. Under her leadership, the company has expanded into new partnerships, including with the Miami Open and Unrivaled, the three-on-three women's professional basketball league. Recent brand ambassadors have included the NBA player Jrue Holiday, tennis player Ben Shelton, and singer-songwriter Ciara. In April, Thorne launched a campaign featuring ballet dancer Misty Copeland and actor Lana Condor to spotlight two of the most-searched areas of women's health: libido and perimenopause. It honed in on their own realities with both, while leaning on Thorne's scientific expertise, to help women feel supported — and to promote its Perimenopause Complete and Women's Libido Boost formulations. Thorne surpassed $1 billion in retail sales in 2025.
__DEGRADED__ A crypto analyst has projected just how low Bitcoin (BTC) could fall during this market cycle, sharing a timeline for a potential price bottom. The expert has based his bearish outlook on the Bitcoin 400-day cycle, a recurring pattern that has consistently appeared across multiple market phases. Drawing from this historical trend, he suggested that BTC could still face further downside in its current bear market before any long-term recovery stage begins. Crypto market analyst Bee has provided a definitive timeline for the end of the current Bitcoin bear market based on strict historical market trends. His analysis, shared on X, relies on a specific 400-day cycle pattern that has successfully guided market tops and bottoms across 13 years of BTC’s trading history. Based on this framework, Bitcoin is now 252 days into its cyclical bear phase that historically lasts between 364 and 400 days. This suggests that the leading cryptocurrency market still faces an extra 112 to 148 days of severe downward pressure before a true recovery can begin. Based on the timeline of this historical setup, Bee estimates that BTC’s absolute price bottom for this cycle could be in October 2026. His calculations, highlighted on his accompanying chart, suggest that Bitcoin could decline as low as $30,000 by the first week of the month. This would represent a more than 75% decline from current all-time highs near $126,000, marking the likely floor before the next recovery. Notably, Bee mentioned that the historical 400-day bear market typically follows a bull run lasting about 1,064 days. This suggests that once a final cycle bottom is reached, the market could reset, potentially paving the way for a fresh bull market. The analyst also warned that many investors may argue that the current market is different from past market trends due to Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs), institutional involvement, or large players like BlackRock, the world’s largest Bitcoin ETF provider. However, Bee countered, noting that each past cycle had its own reasons for being “different,” yet the historical 400-day pattern persisted. He emphasized that this recurring structure has played out without a single deviation for over a decade. The analyst also pointed out that the structure has consistently held through changing narratives and broader market developments, so there is no reason to believe the current cycle will be any different. In a separate but similarly bearish post, crypto analyst Ted Pillows has forecasted the timeline for Bitcoin’s bear market bottom. Pillows noted that Bitcoin took about 10 months to bottom after the monthly Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) bearish cross emerged in 2022. He noted that if a similar trend occurs again, then he expects BTC to reach its final price floor either by the end of the third quarter (Q3) of 2026 or the beginning of the fourth quarter (Q4). His chart pointed toward a likely bottom target between $30,000 and $40,000. Meanwhile, the analyst has crushed hopes for a long-term rebound this year, projecting that a bullish run back toward $100,000 is highly unlikely in 2026.
__DEGRADED__ Bitcoin is still trading above $60,000, but there are questions as to whether that area has already become the macro bottom for this correction or whether another crash could still drag the price back into that zone. Technical analysis using Bitcoin’s weekly RSI, prior cycle support, and the 21-week and 50-week EMA trend presents the bullish side of that trend, but bears can still argue that confirmation has not arrived until Bitcoin breaks above the weekly EMA structure. The strongest argument that Bitcoin may have already bottomed is from the weekly RSI indicator. According to the thesis shared by Cryptoposeidon on X, Bitcoin’s weekly RSI has fallen below 30 only four times in history. The first three came around the January 2015, December 2018, and June 2022 lows, all of which later became macro bottom zones. Back in January 2015, Bitcoin’s RSI fell to about 28 when the price fell to $200. A similar pattern played out in December 2018, when RSI dipped below 30 around $3,500, followed by about three months of sideways accumulation before Bitcoin broke higher. The third instance was June 2022, in the depths of the bear market that followed the Luna collapse. The fourth reading came in early February 2026, shortly after Bitcoin’s crash into a bottom around $63,000, and this supports the proposal that Bitcoin may have already gone through its major capitulation phase. The weekly candlestick timeframe chart below also shows the RSI recovering from a low band similar to the previous bear-market bottom zones, with the projected path suggesting that momentum could spend more time rebuilding before a stronger move returns in 2027. Bitcoin Price Chart. Source: @CryptoPoseidonn On X The last two bear markets both took 364 days to move from peak to trough. The current correction is now 236 days old, which leaves a 128-day window for Bitcoin to make another low if it follows the same timing pattern. However, looking at November 2022, Bitcoin broke below the prior cycle’s $19,900 peak and collapsed to $15,500, spending a brief period under $16,000. That breakdown was forced by the FTX implosion, a black swan event that liquidated billions in assets and obliterated confidence simultaneously. Without a comparable catalytic shock, current crypto market dynamics lack the mechanism to sustain prices below $60,000 within the remaining 128-day window for a bottom. Bitcoin’s long-term support band is between $58,000 and $66,000, and the February 2026 low is inside that range. Bitcoin can still wick to $55,000 or even $50,000 in a liquidation event, but spending a long period below $60,000 would require a very strong bearish catalyst. On the other hand, a reclaim and monthly close above the weekly EMA and $80,000 in June 2026 would change the conversation from “Is $60,000 the bottom?” to “How fast can Bitcoin rebuild toward $100,000?” At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $72,860, down by 1.2% in the past 24 hours.
__DEGRADED__ The former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s new essay on the Labour Party asks the right question. Britain is drifting. The Labour Government has no governing project. Something fundamental has to change. Then Blair hands the reader the wrong map. The pushback has been swift and, in its way, telling. The Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, has attacked Blair for not mentioning inequality once in 5,700 words. The Treasury minister Torsten Bell has defended the Government’s net zero plans – but defended them as a cost the country can bear, rather than as the cheapest energy strategy on offer. Senior Labour figures have dismissed the essay as “reheated Blairism with no answers”. Each lands a punch. None lands the one that matters. The whole argument is being fought on a 1990s map of Britain that no longer resembles the reality of the country. Blair’s essay is fluent, articulate and internally coherent. It is also a Victorian document, built around a view of how technological civilisation works that belongs to the age of steam, coal and empire. A clever Victorian reformer in 1888 might have looked around and declared the railway to be the thing. He would have been right – and he would have missed that the railway was one component of a far wider transformation, and that the next century would belong to whoever understood the whole. Blair has done the same with artificial intelligence (AI). He calls it “the thing” and says it will change everything. He is right that it will – and he has missed that AI is one of five interlocking technological revolutions reshaping the entire economy of every country on Earth. Because he cannot see the whole, his prescriptions for the parts do not add up. His “Radical Centre” turns out to be the most conservative political settlement on the table – the late reflex of an old order trying to manage a transformation it cannot perceive. Britain cannot afford to take Blair’s path. Burnham’s offer – a redistributive 1980s Labourism – cannot get there either. The argument requires a new horizon. I set out this framework in detail in my 2024 Foresight paper ‘Planetary Phase Shift’. The argument, in plain English: civilisations behave like other living systems. They grow, mature, break down, and either reorganise into a new form or collapse. We are in the breakdown stage – a moment when the way societies generate energy, move people and goods, feed themselves and process information is coming apart, even as a new way of doing all of that is being born in its shadow. Five sectors of the global economy are crossing into new configurations at the same time. Each on its own would be a generational story. Together, they reshape everything. Energy – Solar panels, wind turbines and batteries are now the cheapest source of electricity on the planet, on a cost curve that has been stable for two decades. Since 2011, onshore wind costs have fallen 59%, offshore wind 61%, solar 89% and batteries 83%. Some 84% of new global power generation in 2023 was renewable. Two trillion dollars a year now flows into clean technology investment – double the amount going into fossil fuels. Transport – Electric vehicles, and behind them autonomous vehicles, are following the same cost curve. The internal combustion engine is heading the way of the horse and cart. Food – Precision fermentation and cellular agriculture – using engineered microbes to produce proteins and fats at scale – are projected to make protein production five to 10 times cheaper than industrial animal agriculture by 2035. As the think tank RethinkX has documented, industrial livestock is heading for the same collapse that wiped out the kerosene-lamp industry in a decade. Up to 2.7 billion hectares of freed land could become available for rewilding, regenerative farming and carbon drawdown. Information – This is the part Blair has noticed. AI is following a much steeper cost curve. The cost to train a model such as GPT-3 fell from $4.6 million in 2020 to a projected $30 by 2030. What Blair has missed is what AI is connected to. Materials – Advanced materials, 3D printing, robotics and circular-economy chemistry are converging into a different industrial base that uses far less mining, land and brute-force extraction. The Congolese cobalt mine belongs to a world on its way out. These are five threads of a single story. Cheap clean electrons make precision fermentation viable. AI optimises the grid that carries those electrons. The grid powers the AI. Autonomous electric vehicles become moving batteries that stabilise the grid. New materials make the batteries lighter, cheaper and recyclable. The loop closes. Together, these revolutions amount to what physicists call a phase transition – a system flipping from one form into a fundamentally different one, the way water flips into steam.
__DEGRADED__ The uproar over datacenters is cascading across the nation. Despite 70% of Americans being opposed to datacenters, per Gallup, our tech elite and their funders are putting all their eggs in its basket. We have often talked here about how the AI narrative arrived just in time in 2023 to work in conjunction with the Fed’s funding facility (BTFP) to “save” the stock market and restart the economy after SVB’s failure. This happened just as many of us working in tech realized that AI was not yet affordable enough to truly replace workers. Offshore developers and back-office workers became the play. How bizarre is it that what purportedly “saved” the economy is also forecasted to largely replace the worker? When almost 70% of GDP in the United States relies on consumption, how exactly is that going to work? While I disagree with the tech talking heads on timeline and scale for AI to create the efficiencies imagined, they’ve convinced quite a few that this is the case. Yes, yes, our technocracy dreams of universal basic income (UBI) and days spent painting or doing origami, but how realistic is that really? And, have you met humans? What happens to them when they don’t work? The labor force participation rate peaked in 2000. Since then, it has fallen significantly. At the same time deaths of despair have increased to the highest level since 1900. Deaths of despair are defined as “deaths by suicide, drug and alcohol poisoning, and alcoholic liver disease and cirrhosis.” What pray tell could cause such despair? When I visited San Diego’s homeless encampment, O-Lot, and talked to Anthony, he told me how grateful he was that he had a tent. However, he really wished the O-Lot operators could help him find a job. That wasn’t on the agenda. You get paid by unit in the public/private social welfare schemes here in the U S of A which means Anthony staying in that tent matters more than finding him a job so that he could actually forge a pathway out of homelessness. The perverse incentives that permeate our day-to-day existence mean that we are spinning our wheels in what feels like hell. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer and reality resembles a horror movie. While the technocracy celebrates the move to this dystopian future, our students have something else to say. At a recent commencement speech, Eric Schmidt, the former CEO from Google, got mercilessly booed when he mentioned AI. It cheers me to know that our younger generations will not sit quietly while the top 1% continues to rape and pillage the system. The more research I do into this datacenter boom the more I realize how crazy it really all is. Some newcomers may be wondering why I’m talking about AI in these pages. The datacenter story is truly a real estate story despite how it’s being peddled. A good deal of our speculation in the housing market as well is due to carpetbaggers drooling over boomtown profit possibilities. Every city surrounding these projects has seen increased speculation and building. The Midwest in particular became seriously infested between 2023-2025 as investors saw it as the last frontier for fix and flipping due to lower home prices. Today’s post will feature a look-see into New Albany where it all started for Ohio in particular. When on my last trip enroute to Nashville I happened to stop there by accident, forgetting that New Albany was the location of the Intel project I had been tracking since 2022. When I’m on these trips, I don’t plan ahead as I never know exactly where the road will lead. I’m often punching locations into my Bonvoy app while driving 70+ mph to find the nearest spot when I’m ready to stop. I prefer Courtyards because they (should) have a food option, and I’m often too tired to leave the hotel. I arrived in New Albany at dusk, following one of those dazzling orange-red Ohio sunsets, and was surprised at how many folks were hanging in the Bistro. In the spots where I stopped previously on this trip, I had been the lone customer in what felt like empty hotels. I asked the hotel manager why it was booming, and she replied, “datacenters.” She proceeded to tell me that it had been like that for three years. She pointed to a gentleman in a large cowboy hat who I had previously heard telling a fellow traveler that he was from Texas, “he’s been here every week for three years.” Seemingly, I had stopped in one of the few places in the country which was still booming. Many of us have seen the charts and figures that show the only thing holding up the economy is AI which was perfectly illustrated by the scene I encountered. Before we get to the meat and potatoes of today’s post, let’s review April existing home sales which were nothing to write home about. Side note: for those paid subscribers who filled out the form to receive breaking news alerts for existing and new-home sales, expect your first email when new home sales are published on May 28th.
Welcome to HackerPulse Dispatch!
This article is a new installment in a series of “mini reviews” of my reading.
Written by Jan Nieuwenhuijs, originally published at Money Metals.
…ures show a company using power access, data center leases, project debt, and BTC-backed liquidity to build the financing stack for that move. The company's latest disclosures put numbers around that …
Commercial Observer·7 minBrooklyn's Windsor Terrace and Kensington neighborhoods are experiencing a retail drought despite having a significant number of residents with disposable income. The median household income in Windsor Terrace is over $141,000, while Kensington's is around $83,000. Many new residents have moved in from pricier nearby neighborhoods, yet the area lacks appealing bars, restaurants, and shops. A report from CUNY highlights that while Church Avenue was once a bustling shopping destination, it now struggles to attract new businesses, with many shops closing shortly after opening due to high rents and insufficient patronage. Experts suggest that the proximity to wealthier neighborhoods like Park Slope may deter retailers from investing in Windsor Terrace and Kensington. Retailers often prefer to cluster near similar businesses, which creates a cycle where the absence of desirable retail perpetuates the lack of new stores. This phenomenon is evident in other parts of New York City, where established retail corridors dominate demand, leaving adjacent areas overlooked. Zoning regulations also play a role in retail development. In areas like Gowanus, new residential buildings are required to include ground-floor retail, which has led to a more vibrant streetscape. This contrasts with Windsor Terrace and Kensington, where few residential buildings have retail space. As new developments emerge in Gowanus, they are attracting lifestyle and food businesses, often from nearby neighborhoods, which could serve as a model for revitalizing retail in Windsor Terrace and Kensington. The challenge remains for these neighborhoods to entice retailers to take a chance on their market. While some local businesses have opened, attracting larger or more established brands continues to be a hurdle. The success of new retail in areas like Long Island City shows that familiarity with the neighborhood can lead to successful ventures, suggesting that local engagement and understanding are key to filling the retail void in Windsor Terrace and Kensington.
Nickel prices surged to between $16,500 and $18,500 per ton in early January 2026, marking the highest levels in over two years. This rally is largely attributed to Indonesia, which produces two-thirds of the world’s nickel, implementing significant supply cuts. The country is shifting its focus from maximizing output to enhancing value, evidenced by delays in mining permits and reduced output quotas. In 2025, only about 55% of Indonesia's approved nickel ore production capacity was utilized, revealing a "paper surplus." To combat this, Indonesia has revised its mining quota system, shortening the validity from three years to one year and banning new smelting plants to limit production. These measures have led to a tighter control over output, which analysts believe signals a structural shift towards active supply management. The Indonesian government has also suspended mining operations for companies that failed to secure their quotas, highlighting a stricter regulatory environment. This pivot from aggressive expansion to disciplined supply management is expected to support nickel prices, as Indonesia aims to consolidate its monopoly power in the global market. Despite a slowdown in electric vehicle sales growth, which could impact nickel demand, the long-term outlook remains positive. Indonesia's focus has shifted from attracting investment to maximizing returns on existing operations, with the country now controlling up to 70% of global nickel supply. This concentration of power alters the dynamics of the market, as flooding it with nickel no longer serves as an effective strategy for gaining market share. Instead, Indonesia is poised to leverage its position to maintain higher prices and ensure sustainable profitability in the nickel sector.
The Federal Open Market Committee voted 8-4 on April 29 to hold the federal funds rate at 3. That is the most divided the Committee has been since October 1992, and the split is not a footnote.
