Jay Jacobs

Great to be back on The Bid Podcast with Oscar Pulido discussing how the AI economy is evolving. AI is no longer just a tech story. The opportunity is broadening from the companies building and adopting AI to the power, materials and infrastructure supporting it — and increasingly, the physical world. Listen here: youtube.com/watch?v=FsIXwtwJ…

Physical gold has been a headline-grabbing investment over the last year as investors look for potential portfolio hedges and ways to navigate geopolitical uncertainty. And now companies that mine gold may be starting to gain more attention. Why? Operating leverage- or how sensitive operating income is to changes in price. Most investors likely understand that as price of gold goes up, gold miners can make more money. But it can happen faster than one might think because of operating leverage. Consider this hypothetical: if it costs a gold miner $2,000 to produce 1oz of gold, and gold’s price is $2,500, it could leave the miner with $500 of profit. If the price of gold doubles to $5,000/oz- the miner’s profits could add up to $3,000/oz (increasing profits 6x) because mining costs are often fixed. In other words, when gold prices go up - a higher portion of increased revenue from those price increases can flow directly to miner’s bottom lines.  Meaning investing in gold miners has the potential to amplify gold miners’ gains. The opposite is true too: when gold prices fall, miners can see profitability fall faster than the rate of physical gold due to this operating leverage dynamic. The iShares Global Gold Miners ETF (RING) provides exposure to companies that derive the majority of their revenues from gold mining. Learn more about RING: ishares.com/us/products/2396…

The only two candies you need.

Looking forward to hearing from Gargi Chaudhuri, Kristy Akullian, CFA, and Mark Peterson on what’s happening in the market and what investment strategies make sense in this environment. To join the conversation, register for our free webinar on April 9th at 1pm ET here: ishars.com/3E2KXCW

On the first episode of “The Ask” – my colleague Anna answers the question: What are digital assets? As Anna explains, digital assets is an umbrella term covering anything in the digital world that has monetary value, including data, intellectual property, and cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and ether. Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency by market value and an emerging global monetary alternative.* Ether is the cryptocurrency used on the Ethereum blockchain, a platform built to enable the next generation of decentralized applications such as peer-to-peer financial networks. To learn more about digital assets: ishars.com/4bYX8gp *Source: CoinGecko, as of Feb. 12, 2025. Based on bitcoin’s market cap of $1.9 trillion, which accounts for greater than 50% of the total market cap of all cryptoassets, excluding stablecoins.

Vibes after being home for the weekend with 2 under 2

Thoroughly enjoyed my segment last week on @FintechTvGlobal, discussing why investors may want to get more targeted within tech to get exposure to AI infrastructure and technological advancements. Check out the interview below and learn more about our AI insights in our 2025 Thematic Outlook here: ishars.com/4gI83vz ishars.com/419WHvP

Hot take: winter is the Long Island Sound’s best season

Great start to the year sitting back down with Oscar Pulido on this week’s episode of The Bid #podcast. We chatted about themes that may drive markets in 2025, including a rebuilding of the U.S. physical economy from the housing market, to the reshoring of manufacturing and an update on efforts around potential bipartisan support for these drivers. Listen here to learn more: bit.ly/4fXiH1e

Launched in January, IBIT has now topped $50 Billion in assets as investors are increasingly using the ETP to get efficient exposure to bitcoin’s price. Yet many investors are still relatively new to the digital assets space. For those looking to learn more about what bitcoin is and how it can be used, watch our latest explainer. To learn more about IBIT, you can check out our bitcoin investing page here: blackrock.com/us/financial-p… To view a prospectus, click here: ishares.com/us/strategies/ib…