Three Things (9/13)

Gold hits all time highs

Yesterday gold prices hit all time highs after increasing over a percentage point during intraday trading. The price surge comes just before the Fed’s FOMC meeting next week during which we expect it to cut rates by at least 25 basis points. Two economic data points also dropped this week, CPI and PPI, which both indicated a slight pick up in inflation during August.

Gold is typically seen as a hedge against inflation and a store of value in good and bad times. Many investors buy gold in periods of uncertainty, which explains recent price action especially following higher inflation prints. The market still has questions about the magnitude (25 or 50 basis points) of the first rate cut, as well as what’s to follow. So we aren’t surprised to see that gold is up, as the market is equating it with safety regardless of the Fed’s landing being soft or hard.

Strawberry

OpenAI announced the release of Strawberry, a new model that is said to “think before it responds.” Strawberry is better at math and coding, as it scored higher than ChatGPT on a PhD-level Physics exam and can code an entire video game from a simple prompt. It’s a significant advancement for LLMs across complex reasoning skills and will create better solutions for users looking to solve multi-step problems.

Users’ first impressions were that it wasn’t as slow as expected and still feels faster than competitor, Perplexity; plus, it used less filler words and is more direct in written responses. To us, it’s a sign that LLMs are becoming more human-like given Strawberry now “thinks before it responds” just like a person would. It’s also a reminder that speed is valuable but not at the expense of accuracy, a key difference between ChatGPT-4o and Strawberry.

AirPod hearing aids

Palantir and Dell joined the S&P 500 this week, as Palantir replaced American Airlines and Apple announced that its AirPods Pro 2 headphones were approved as hearing aids by the FDA and will be available through a software update in the coming weeks. Americans with mild to moderate hearing loss will be able to take a hearing test using their Airpods, which will then transform into “a personalized hearing aid” that amplifies the sounds one needs, according to Apple’s VP of health.

The news underscores Apple’s intentions to dive further into the health industry, and the recent FDA approval of hearing aids as an over-the-counter product helped clear the way for Apple to enter the market. We don’t expect that Apple will take material market share away from traditional hearing aid providers given the AirPod isn’t a solution for those with full hearing loss, their battery life is 6 hours, and the cost is not covered by insurance. However, it’s an interesting foray into health and reflects positively for Apple’s brand, as they seek to innovate in ways that are positive for humanity.

What do you think? Share your thoughts with us here.

Disclosures:

As of writing, AAPL is a holding in Titan's Flagship strategy. OpenAI is a 1.55% holding in the ARK Venture Fund.

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