Welcome to Seeking Alpha's Wall Street Lunch, our afternoon update on today's market action, news, and analysis.

Good afternoon. Today is Thursday, May 22nd, and I'm your host, Kim Khan. Our top story so far.

15 years ago today, 10,000 Bitcoins bought you two Papa John's pizzas. Now that could buy you

Papa John's. Bitcoin is setting new highs on the 15th anniversary of the famous crypto

pizza transaction that started at all. On May 22nd, 2010, early adopter and miner

Lazlo Hanyets bought two large Papa John's pizzas for 10,000 Bitcoins, signaling the potential

for real-world purchases and Bitcoin as a medium of exchange. At the time, Bitcoin was only

a small development among technophiles and gamers. This morning, it rose to as high as $11,700.

So, those 10,000 bitcoins that bought two pizzas would be worth more than $1.1 billion

today, almost enough to buy the entire Papa John's company whose market cap stands at $1.34 billion.

On the economic front, U.S. existing home sales dipped 0.5% month-on-month to an annual rate of $4 million

in April compared to the 4.13 million

consensus and 4.02 million previously. The median existing home sales price increased 1.8%

year-on-year to 414,000. The Northeast and Midwest saw price increases while home prices

fell in the south and west regions.

Pantheon macroeconomist Samuel Toombs says,

housing market activity remains lethargic,

primarily due to the gulf between new mortgage rates,

nearly 7% right now, and the average 4% rate on existing mortgages.

The tariff announcements and environment of heightened economic policy uncertainty have also made people

less willing to make large financial commitments, he added. In the markets, Treasury yields are

calling the shots as concerns about U.S. fiscal direction mount. The GOP budget bill passed the

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