10 things before the opening bell

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1. Elon Musk’s stock-selling spree likely isn’t over. The self-appointed Technoking shed another $900 million of Tesla shares this week, according to new filings. Musk sold the shares after exercising 2.1 million options at $6.24 per share.

But Musk still has 8 million stock options to exercise before August, even after his most recent spate of sales. At the current share price, Musk’s Tesla holdings would be worth about $7.2 billion before taxes.

In total, Musk has exercised almost 15 million of the 22.9 million Tesla stock options he was granted in 2012. 

The steady pace of share sales isn’t the only thing Musk is in the headlines for this week. In his latest viral tweet, Musk said Tesla will start accepting dogecoin for some products, sending the meme token soaring as much as 30%. He also praised investor Warren Buffett and defended his $100 billion fortune — but in the same breath slammed the legend’s job as “super boring.”

Earlier this week, Senator Elizabeth Warren put Musk in the crosshairs with some tweets of her own, accusing the billionaire of “freeloading” and refusing to pay his fair share of taxes as the world’s richest person. 

Tesla stock has dropped more than 10% in the past five days.

2. It’s the countdown to the Fed decision, and US stocks are marking time. Even surging Omicron cases aren’t enough right now to drag focus off whether the Fed will double its taper or move on rate hikes. Check out what’s happening in markets.

3. BlackRock is preparing for inflation going into the new year. The firm shared steps investors can take to position themselves for higher prices — and explained why a bet on emerging-market stocks could backfire.

4. Earnings on deck: Lennar Corp, HEICO, and ABM Industries, all reporting.

5. Warren Buffett has grown Berkshire Hathaway’s Apple stake to 50% of its entire equity portfolio. Buffett first started building Berkshire’s position in Apple in 2016. Its $159 billion of Apple holdings  is equal to nearly 25% of the firm’s $649 billion market capitalization. 

6. The founder of The Sandbox said Big Tech poses a threat to a decentralized metaverse. Sebastien Borget told the SCMP that the metaverse is about leaving the internet’s old guard behind — and he thinks Big Tech may be too focused on satisfying shareholders to allow that to happen.

 7. Potential rate hikes are pushing investors to hoard cash. That’s according to Bank of America, which says worries over a hawkish Fed have created a contrarian buy signal for stocks — “Investors [are] very cautious but few [are] outright bearish,” BofA said.

8. Nike buys virtual shoe studio RTFKT in a high-profile metaverse push. Nike’s new acquisition is known for creating virtual sneakers, collectibles, and avatars. The new deal adds to Nike’s growing digital footprint.

9. A day trader explained a simple strategy for compounding gains in either a bull or bear market. As long as you don’t panic sell, Rick Rahim said his low-risk strategy has an accelerated growth curve. Plus, he explained how to trade litecoin, and why he likes it so much.

10. A crypto CEO who just spent $2.6 million on digital real estate shared his approach to metaverse investing. He’s also highly bullish on both bitcoin and ether ahead of year-end. Here’s what keeps him so enthusiastic about the potential of the metaverse.

Compiled by Phil Rosen. Feedback? Email prosen@insider.com or tweet @philrosenn.

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