The surface still looks active, but underneath, relationships are doing more work than momentum. Control, access, and dependency are quietly deciding outcomes before price even gets a say.
MARKET PULSE
Relief Opens The Door But Oil Keeps It Narrow
It felt steadier at the open. Not easy. Just lighter.
Yesterday’s rally carried in, but didn’t stick. Futures eased, and the open followed. Oil turned back up right as things tried to settle. That changed the mood fast.
Buyers showed up, but they didn’t follow through.
The setup flipped again. Lower oil gave room yesterday. Higher oil took it back today.
Yields didn’t fall enough to help. Gold stayed quiet. The usual cushions didn’t step in. Nothing confirmed the bounce.
So the tape slowed. Not selling hard. Just losing push.
The Oil Toggle
This is a two-variable market now.
If oil rises, upside gets capped. If oil cools, risk opens up again.
If both stay elevated, margins compress and positioning stays defensive.
Nothing builds until one side breaks.
PREMIER FEATURE
The #1 Stock to Buy BEFORE the SpaceX IPO
Bloomberg is calling Elon Musk's upcoming SpaceX IPO "the biggest listing of ALL TIME."
But here's the thing - most investors will be locked out until AFTER it goes public.
Not you.
I've found a 'backdoor' that lets everyday Americans grab a pre-IPO stake in SpaceX right now.
TECH WATCH
Nvidia Isn't Just Selling Chips. It's Buying Loyalty.
Nvidia is flush with cash.
Instead of sitting on it, it invests directly into the companies that buy its chips. Startups get funding. In return, they build on Nvidia hardware. It's a clean loop.
Here's how it works in practice. One startup picked Nvidia over AMD because Nvidia offered twice the money. CoreWeave, a major cloud provider, has quietly told rivals it won't use non-Nvidia chips. It can't afford to upset the company bankrolling it.
Even OpenAI, which tried to diversify, came back to Nvidia for its latest round.
The Lock-In
Rivals get outbid before they can compete
Cloud providers tied in through funding, not just product
Switching costs too high for most customers to consider
This is how a supplier becomes the default. The ecosystem depends on Nvidia's money and chips. Changing that costs more than it saves.
The Grip
Nvidia earns a 75% gross margin. That funds the investments. The investments lock in demand. The demand funds the next margin. That loop is what keeps competitors on the outside, not just the technology.
AI WATCH
OpenAI Just Told Investors Its Biggest Partner Is Also Its Biggest Risk.
OpenAI is getting ready to go public. Before it does, it shared a risk document with investors. The biggest risk it flagged wasn't Anthropic. It wasn't regulation. It was Microsoft.
Microsoft supplies a large chunk of OpenAI's compute and financing. If that relationship changes, OpenAI's whole operation gets complicated fast.
TSMC makes the chips that run everything. A conflict near Taiwan would cut off the supply chain. OpenAI named both as serious risks to investors.
The Exposure
Microsoft controls most of OpenAI's cloud and funding
TSMC disruption would cause "severe" supply chain damage
$665 billion in compute commitments locked in through 2030
OpenAI has 900 million weekly users and $13 billion in revenue. That sounds powerful. But almost everything it runs on is controlled by someone else.
The Rented Foundation
The most valuable AI company in the world doesn't own its infrastructure. It rents it. That's fine until one of those relationships gets complicated. The IPO document just told you exactly which ones to watch.
FROM OUR PARTNERS
AI CEO Issues Code Red: Prepare for Meltdown
The CEO of this AI company (click here to get the name, 100% free) just issued a CODE RED in an internal memo…
Warning his employees that they’re dealing with a critical situation.
Another company executive even implied they might need a government bailout.
And now Jim Rickards is predicting this company is about to go bust, in a full-blown AI meltdown that could be 10 times bigger than Lehman Brothers.
PRIVATE CREDIT WATCH
Investors Want Their Money Back. The Funds Can't Keep Up.
Apollo's private credit fund got withdrawal requests for 11% of its assets in one quarter. It could only return 5%. Investors who wanted out got less than half of what they asked for.
It's not just Apollo. Blackrock, Blackstone, and FS KKR are all facing the same pressure. FS KKR just got downgraded to junk by Moody's. Its soured loan rate is at 5.5%, one of the highest in the industry. JPMorgan is now building tools to help clients bet against private credit assets. The same assets it helped finance.
The Stress
Apollo returned only 45% of withdrawal requests
FS KKR cut to junk, loan quality deteriorating
Banks quietly creating ways to short private credit
When the banks that built this market start betting against it, the signal is clear.
The Withdrawal Gap
Private credit was sold as stable and safe. These funds hold long-term loans but promise quarterly withdrawals. When too many investors ask at once, the gap between those two things gets very hard to hide.
BATTERY WATCH
Ford And GM Still Can't Build Cheap EVs Without China.
Washington has spent years trying to keep CATL out of the U.S. market. Tariffs, restrictions, national security flags. None of it is working.
Ford is paying CATL to license its battery technology. GM is importing CATL batteries directly from China, paying a 60% tariff to do it. Tesla is using CATL tech in Nevada.
The reason is simple. CATL spent 15 years perfecting a cheaper battery called LFP. It costs up to 30% less than what U.S. and Korean companies mostly build. Ford's own battery executive said it would have taken a decade to develop that technology independently.
CATL earns over $10 billion in profit annually
LFP batteries cost up to 30% less than rival technology
Two GM battery plants sit idle, built for the wrong chemistry
Tariffs raise the cost of using CATL. They don't create a domestic alternative. That's the problem.
The Chemistry Gap
Affordable EVs need cheap batteries. Cheap batteries come from one place right now. Until the U.S. builds a real alternative, the politics and the economics keep pointing in opposite directions.
PARTNER SPOTLIGHT
Two Crypto Markets. One Smart Choice.
Retail is panic-selling. Fear is extreme.
Meanwhile, major institutions are quietly building on one specific blockchain, preparing to route trillions through it while accumulating the coin under $1.
Supply was just cut in half. Every transaction burns more.
By the time retail catches on, the window may be gone.
© 2026 Boardwalk Flock LLC. All Rights Reserved. 2382 Camino Vida Roble, Suite I Carlsbad, CA 92011, United States. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Readers acknowledge that the authors are not engaging in the rendering of legal, financial, medical, or professional advice. The reader agrees that under no circumstances Boardwalk Flock, LLC is responsible for any losses, direct or indirect, which are incurred as a result of the use of the information contained within this, including, but not limited to, errors, omissions, or inaccuracies. Results may not be typical and may vary from person to person. Making money trading digital currencies takes time and hard work. There are inherent risks involved with investing, including the loss of your investment. Past performance in the market is not indicative of future results. Any investment is at your own risk.
FUNDING WATCH
U.S. Startup Funding Fell Off A Cliff In March. Here's Why.
The headline number is misleading.
February looked like a record month, but most of it came from two deals.
March has no equivalent deals. So March looks terrible. Funding is tracking at a fraction of the prior two months. The slowdown is almost entirely at the late stage, where the giant AI rounds happen.
Early-stage investing is actually holding steady. European startup funding hit its highest point of the year this month. The drop is a U.S. late-stage problem, not a global one.
The Picture
March on track for a fraction of February's total
Early-stage dealmaking close to normal
European funding at its highest point this year
The Iran conflict started February 28th. Markets have been falling since. Investors writing nine and ten-figure checks need stability. They're not finding it.
The Dependency
The funding cycle now depends on a handful of massive AI rounds closing on time. When those pause, the whole headline number collapses.
CLOSING LENS
The market didn’t stall. It slowed down. That’s the difference. Buyers still show up. They just don’t press as hard.
When support fades, even a little, momentum disappears first. That’s what we saw today.
The system still works. But it relies on conditions holding in place.
Until then, strength shows up in bursts, not trends.
