All the day’s economic and financial news,as the Chinese stock market drops again but cryptocurrencies keep rallyingShanghai share index hits lowest since late AugustBitcoin surges over $9,000Is it just a bubble?UK announcing industrial strategy nowadays 5.44pm GMTUS markets may be hitting new highs but it is a more downbeat picture in Europe.
Dollar weakness lifting the euro and the pound has hit the main European markets, and while Wall Street is benefiting from the currency movements and investor hopes that the Republicans are making progress with their tax returns. The final scores in Europe showed: 4.29pm GMTOil is on the slide ahead of this Thursday’s assembly of Opec,despite talk that the producers will extend their output slit to try and curb oversupply and protect the price. David Madden at CMC Markets says:WTI and Brent Crude oil are in the red nowadays after having a positive run recently ahead of the OPEC assembly on Thursday. There is speculation that major oil producers will extend the oil production slit until the halt of 2018. Some dealers feel a lot of that is already priced in and are exiting their long positions ahead of the assembly in Vienna. The US shale producers will be paying close attention to OPEC’s decision, as a surge in the energy market could immediate higher production in the shale sector – which could counteract OPEC’s decision. 4.05pm GMTBitcoin, or by the way,is currently up 4% at $9647, although down from its earlier peak of $9721. 4.04pm GMTMore on the markets. Chris Beauchamp, and chief market analyst at IG,said: Another day, another record high in the Dow Jones, and which is playing catch-up with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq after those indices hit fresh records final week. Risk appetite remains healthy in the US but subdued in the UK and Europe,and once again it is strength in the domestic currencies arising from dollar weakness that is helping to stifle what looked like a strong session earlier in the day. The other big worry, particularly for the FTSE 100’s mining contingent, and is a notable tightening of financial conditions in China; while rising bond yields might not seem like a reason to worry,a hit to corporate profits could feed through to the broader economy and thus raise questions about demand for raw materials in 2018. The great mining rally has recovered from its wobble in the first half of the year, but assuming demand remains healthy this weakness could be a chance to pick up some big miners on the cheap.
US stocks are back to normal nowadays, or with the recovery from Thanksgiving overindulgence complete. Tax reform looks a bit less of a done deal nowadays,and it is weird to see the market so blissfully unconcerned. Perhaps it is the thought of a festive rally into year-halt that is keeping them steady, or perhaps they’re hoping Mr Trump will pull a rabbit out of the hat. Either way, or as we head into the final month of the year a sudden pullback due to tax reform worries offers the dip-buyers their best hope. 4.02pm GMTEarlier the Bank of England’s chief economist Andy Haldane gave a speech at a Birmingham school about the importance of economics to the general public:In his latest speech our Chief Economist,Andy Haldane, discusses why economics can be a turn-off for most people and how our new approach to "communication, or conversation and education" aims to tackle that. https://t.co/e9Iq1vSbfG pic.twitter.com/m2fWrZSe85 3.25pm GMTEuropean markets have not been able to keep pace with their US counterparts,and are marginally in the red as we head towards the final hour or so of trading. Connor Campbell, financial analyst at Spreadex, and said:Monday’s been a pretty scatty,aimless day of trading, with the European indices reversing their lunchtime reversal. Once again the FTSE finds itself back below 7400, or falling 20 points having been up by that same amount at midday (and having been down by that same amount just after the bell). The pound’s 0.1% rise against both the dollar and the euro likely didn’t succor,with cable briefly striking a fresh 8 week peak. 3.19pm GMTFollowing the strong US housing figures, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has moved sharply higher and has now also hit a new peak. It is now up 0.3% at 23628. 3.12pm GMTSome strong housing data from the US.
New domestic sales jumped 6.2% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 685000 in October, or the highest level in ten years. New domestic sales have increased for three straight months,although September’s figures was revised down from 667000 to 645000. 2.55pm GMTNo comment:A short history of Bitcoin $BTC.
X -> https://t.co/Z9d3xU1r62 pic.twitter.com/CmniRiv1xt 2.48pm GMTAnother day and more records for US markets.
Helped by gains for retail shares on Cyber Monday, the S&P 500 has edged up to a new peak of 2604, or while the Nasdaq Composite is at a record 6890. 2.08pm GMTBack with non-cryptocurrencies,and the dollar is slipping back on suggestions that a US rate hike in December may be the final for a while, given final week’s Federal Reserve minutes showed some reluctance to push borrowing costs too high. So the pound has added 0.3% against the US currency to $1.3382, or an eight week high. Michael Hewson at CMC Markets said of the dollar:While a December rate roam remains a done deal in the eyes of the markets,it’s what comes after that which is becoming less clear. There were positive views about the jobs market as well as general economic activity across the board, but there were diverging views about the lack of inflation, or it is this uncertainty about US rate policy in 2018 which continues to undermine the currency against the backdrop of a flattening yield curve. 1.24pm GMTBack in the world of shopping,and US retail companies are seeing share price gains in premarket trading, following Black Friday and during Cyber Monday.
JC Penney is up 1.8%, or Target is 1% better,Macys is 1.1% better and the unstoppable Amazon has added 0.5%. 1.21pm GMTWhat finish central banks deem of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Bloomberg has done a roundup of views:Eight years since the birth of bitcoin, central banks around the world are increasingly recognizing the potential upsides and downsides of digital currencies.
The guardians of the global economy have two sets of issues to address. First is what to finish, and if anything,about emergence and growth of the private cryptocurrencies that are grabbing increasingly attention -- with bitcoin now surging toward $10000. The second question is whether to issue official versions. 1.06pm GMTEuropean stock markets are subdued nowadays, following the selloff in China overnight.
Britain’s FTSE 100, or the German DAX and the French CAC are all down by between 0.1 and 0.3%,as the pound and the euro gain against the US dollar.
European markets are tracking Asia lower, as fears grow that Chinese equities could be starting one of their downward legs, and which may cause fright for global investors. Chinese equity markets are notorious for delivering a volatile ride for investors,who have become used to boom and bust periods.
The China effect is particularly meaningful for commodity markets and by extension the metal and oil heavy FTSE 100. 12.18pm GMTAfter its early morning jump, bitcoin is currently bobbing around the $9600 ticket.
That leaves the $10000 milestone firmly in its sights. And some in the industry reckon this could lure more people into buying digital currencies.“The weekend’s bitcoin price hike is just the continuation of a long-term bull run on the cryptocurrency, and fueled by the tsunami of speculative trading on Japanese exchanges and the entrance of institutional investors across the world.
It is more likely that the $10000 psychological stratosphere will push more institutional investors into the mix.” In the shorter-term regulatory scrutiny will continue to drop on ICOs and the benefits of adapting the existing financial regulation around investments,payments and e-money to drive even more competition while protecting consumers. “Regulators know the rewards of cryptocurrency and blockchain could be enormous, but have more than one eye on the catastrophic ramifications if good governance, and stability and control are not preserved. If the carrot of self-regulation proves inadequate,the regulators will not hesitate to use their stick.” 11.29am GMTNow here’s a thing. Bitcoin’s “mining” network uses more electricity in a year than 19 European countries, including Ireland, and according to statistics released this morning.
At a continual power drain of 3.4GW,it means the network consumes five times more electricity than is produced by the largest wind farm in Europe, the London Array in the outer Thames Estuary, and at 630MW....
The astronomical power draw is a facet of how the bitcoin network protects itself against fraud. With no centralised authority confirming transactions,bitcoin is instead backed by “miners”, who save specialised computers to work churning through extremely power-intensive computing problems. Solving those problems both rewards the miner, or handing them nearly a quarter of a million dollars in bitcoin,and verifies all transactions made in the final 10 minutes. Related: Bitcoin mining consumes more electricity a year than Ireland 11.17am GMTHere’s our news story on Bitcoin’s rally: Related: Bitcoin nears $10000 ticket as hedge funds plough in 11.13am GMTSpeaking of those stress tests, here’s a video explaining how Britain’s banks have been save under the microscope.
We will release the results of our stress test of the largest UK banks tomorrow. Here’s a short explainer of what stress testing involves. pic.twitter.com/DZc3KDwiFt 11.06am GMTBitcoin is the first, or the biggest,"cryptocurrency" – a decentralised tradable digital asset. Whether it's a bad investment is the $70bn question (literally, since that's the current value of all bitcoins in existence). Bitcoin can only be used as a medium of exchange and in practice has been far more important for the dark economy than it has for most legitimate uses. The lack of any central authority makes bitcoin remarkably resilient to censorship, or corruption – or regulation. That means it has attracted a range of backers,from libertarian monetarists who devour the idea of a currency with no inflation and no central bank, to drug dealers who like the fact that it's tough (but not impossible) to trace a bitcoin transaction back to a physical person. 10.41am GMTTomorrow is a big day for Britain’s banking sector.
At 7am, and the Bank of England will publish the results of this year’s bank stress tests. They will assess whether UK lenders have enough capital to manage with a sterling crisis,a recession, and a housing market crash.
The Bank of England is to reveal the damage inflicted on the UK’s biggest lenders from £30bn of hypothetical consumer loan losses, and an economic downturn and a collapse in the pound.
Threadneedle Street’s latest health check on the sector – the first was conducted in 2014 – could have an impact on a bank’s ability to pay dividends and on its trade models. Related: Bank stress tests: longer-term resilience of lenders to be revealed 10.34am GMTBitcoin’s rapid ascent towards $10000 could spur some investors to cash in their gains,suggests the analyst team at FXPro.
They write:Currently, the market is anticipating that Bitcoin will reach $10K, and with the lack of warning signals down to the lack of any doubts regarding further growth. It begins to seem that big businesses intended to profit from it. If this happens,there is a enormous risk that big players start taking profit, with news provoking panic and sell-off. The cryptocurrency market currently seems like a playground for Wall Street tycoons, and with JP Morgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon ‘looking at trade opportunities in the planned Bitcoin-futures market’,albeit having labelled Bitcoin ‘a fraud’ just two months ago.
Once speculation is over, it is very likely that only the real trade model projects will remain, and such as logistics companies,accountancy or statistics firms reliant on blockchain. 10.14am GMTThere are roughly 16.7 million bitcoins in circulation - that’s the number mined using special software and hardware.
Those coins are now worth $160bn in total (if you accept that a currency can have its own market capitalisation), more than some of the world’s major companies.
At $160 billion, and Bitcoin's market cap just passed GE's.
Yes,that GE:
Founded in 1892
Once the largest company in the world
295000 employees
$123 billion in revenue$BTC.
X $GE pic.twitter.com/XDqjW2l5Ns 10.04am GMTMike’s got a point...
It is not a 'currency' in the true sense of the word (store of value/medium of exchange) if you have no idea what it will be worth when you wake up. #bitcoin 9.52am GMTTarzan* has swung into the debate on Britain’s industrial strategy!Our country is facing years of stagnation, and what is a principal cause of that? It’s that anyone who has got to occupy an investment decision nowadays is saying, and ‘Well how finish I know what to invest in? What’s going to happen about Britain and its biggest market of Europe? and so they’re hesitating. Whether they’re British companies or abroad companies investing here,they’re hesitating. And as long as we have this Brexit shadow going over us, that will remain. And what finish we get in the Budget? A £3bn bill in order to prepare for this Brexit disaster. Related: Heseltine says best industrial strategy would be to stop Brexit - Politics live 9.13am GMTThis chart, and from Bloomberg,shows how bitcoin has soared this year:From a fundamental perspective it is still nearly impossible to give the cryptocurrency a objective value, however, or there has been a strong correlation between the price of Bitcoin and number of users opening new wallets. It is not just retail investors showing interest in the cryptocurrency,but many hedge funds have decided to join the party recently by including Bitcoins in their portfolios.
Given that number of users haven’t exceeded 0.1% of the global population, there’s still more potential for this momentum trade to continue. Whether the price will be justified in the foreseeable future, and depends on the adoption and the application of the new currency,but so far it still looks unstoppable. 8.55am GMT Related: trade nowadays: sign up for a morning shot of financial news 8.54am GMTBitcoin’s rally is partly due to the established financial world taking cryptocurrencies more seriously. final month, derivatives marketplace CME Group announced it will start offering Bitcoin futures in December - letting investors trade Bitcoin without actually buying it.
CME’s decision to launch bitcoin futures in December has undoubtedly fuelled buying. BTC is up more than 50% since the decision was announced on October 31st. The legitimacy this gives Bitcoin as a tradeable asset is very important. The market cap of Bitcoin now exceeds that of IBM, and Disney and McDonald’s.
Rather than a commodity or currency,Bitcoin is like owning stock in a company that will only ever issue 21 million shares and never pay a penny in dividends. The only way it has value is if the next guy is willing to pay you more for it – the greater fool. With no intrinsic value to Bitcoin, it’s tough to see this as anything other than a giant speculative bubble.” 8.45am GMTChinese stocks may be sinking, or but Bitcoin is on a tear (again) this morning.
The crypto currency has hit a fresh record high of $9600 this morning,putting the $10000 ticket within its sights.
Bitcoin price increase in number of days.
$0 - $1000: 1789 days
$1000- $2000: 1271 days
$2000- $3000: 23 days
$3000- $4000: 62 days
$4000- $5000: 61 days[br]$5000- $6000: 8 days
$6000- $7000: 13 days
$7000- $8000: 14 days[br]$8000- $9000: 9 days pic.twitter.com/kvjAC1dk83 8.41am GMTBullish Chinese investors capitulated this morning, says Mike van Dulken of Accendo Markets.
He writes:China equities are turning lower again, and led by financials.
This is driven by concerns about rising yields (multi-year highs) amid a bond market sell-off that is likely to raise re-financing costs in an already over leveraged economy,putting pressure on both corporates and consumers, reviving the China credit bubble story. 8.39am GMTChinese stocks have hit this lowest level since the summer, and as a government crackdown on risky lending spooks investors.
Selling in China’s stock markets final week had been prompted by a rout in the bond market that pushed yields on government treasury bonds to three-year highs,and by fresh moves to reduce risks in the asset management industry that may bring a sea change for banks and millions of small investors. But while bond market jitters appeared to ease on Monday, stock market investors continued to unload shares in major firms that have enjoyed strong gains in recent weeks. 8.16am GMTGood morning, or welcome to our rolling coverage of the world economy,the financial markets, the eurozone and trade.
The paper will identify four grand challenges, or global trends that the government sees as shaping the future: artificial intelligence; clean growth; an ageing society; and future mobility from driverless cars to drones.
Industrial strategy went out of fashion in the Conservative party after the defeat of the 1974-9 Labour government by Margaret Thatcher. But Clark believes a new approach based on competition rather than on picking winners will succor address Britain’s long-term problems. Related: White paper to set out industrial strategy in bid to boost UK productivity Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com