NOTABLE MOVES
USDJPY, +0.23%, $113.03
EURUSD, +0.16%, $1.1389
GBPUSD, -0.09%, $1.2776
USDCAD, -0.59%, $1.3228
AUDUSD, +0.67%, $0.7262
S&P500, +0.30%, 2,649.93
Nasdaq, +0.92%, 6,972.25
Nikkei, -0.35%, 21,507.54
CURRENCY MARKET WRAP
- U.S. Core Durable Goods Orders m/m at 0.1% vs expected 0.4%. Durable Goods Orders m/m -4.4% vs expected -2.2%. Revised UoM Consumer Sentiment at 97.5 vs expected 98.4. U.S. Treasuries edged lower, pushing yields higher across the curve. The 2-yr yield increased three basis points to 2.82%, and the 10-yr yield added one basis point to 3.06%. In trade, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer released a report on China’s intellectual property practices, alleging that China has not altered its “unfair, unreasonable, and market-distorting practices” that led to the imposition of tariffs.
- U.K. Public Sector Net Borrowing at 8.0B vs expected 5.6B. In Brexit, Sterling remained under pressure because there’s a risk that the EU will cancel their special Brexit summit at the end of the month if a deal isn’t reached. German Chancellor Angela Merkel wants a deal finalized in the next 24 to 48 hours. Her EU counterparts want to add additional terms to the agreement. Spain is one of the primary concerns because they said they won’t support a Brexit deal with future trade agreements that include Gibraltar. PM May feels that Gibraltar must be included, which could be another serious political challenge to Brexit negotiations.
- No specific data was released but Aussie and Kiwi followed the Yuan higher on reports that the PBoC may be less accommodative next year unless there is a significant slowdown in growth. The Loonie recovered as oil prices stabilized. WTI Crude rebounded 1.8% to $54.38/bbl. Crude shrugged off ongoing supply concerns that have recently pressured oil prices; on Wednesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a ninth consecutive weekly build in crude with a higher-than-expected build of 4.9 million barrels last week. Crude cut its weekly losses to -3.7% but is still roughly 30.0% lower from last month’s four-year high.
STOCK MARKET WRAP
- The S&P 500 found some reprieve on Wednesday with a slim gain of 0.3%, with cyclical sectors mounting a rebound effort. The benchmark index was up as much as 1.1%, but gave up most of its gains in the last hour of trading. Wednesday’s session did feature some lower-than-usual volume with U.S. markets closed on Thursday for Thanksgiving Day.
- The battered FAANG group traded on a mixed note on Wednesday in what has been a woeful quarter for the bunch. Facebook (FB 134.82, +2.39, +1.8%), Alphabet (GOOG 1037.61, +11.85, +1.2%), and Amazon (AMZN 1516.73, +21.27, +1.4%) finished with comfortable gains, while Apple (AAPL 176.78, -0.20, -0.1%) and Netflix (NFLX 262.13, -4.85, -1.8%) finished lower.
- Earnings were mostly positive with retailers Foot Locker (FL 52.96, +6.87, +14.91) and Gap (GPS 25.81, +1.15, +4.7%) reporting above-consensus bottom lines. Conversely, Deere (DE 141.88, +3.36, +2.4%) missed both top and bottom line expectations, but still traded higher amid an upside outlook. Deere’s worldwide sales of agriculture and turf equipment are forecast to be up about 3.0% in 2019. In other corporate news, Dow component Johnson & Johnson (JNJ 141.99, -4.46) fell -3.1% after a U.S. appeals court refused to stop generic versions of its prostate-cancer drug Zytiga from entering the market, according to Bloomberg. Of note, the company did hit an all-time high in the previous session.
BLOCKCHAIN & CRYPTOCURRENCY NEWS
SWIFT India Partners With Fintech Firm for Blockchain Pilot
SWIFT India has partnered with fintech firm MonetaGo to pilot a distributed ledger (DLT) network designed to improve the efficiency and security of financial products. Per the announcement, the new program based on MonetaGo’s financial services network technology will be integrated through standardized SWIFT financial messages. The banks will deploy a shared distributed ledger network, that complies with industry-level governance, security and data privacy requirements in order to improve the efficiency and security of their financial products and procedures. SWIFT will digitize trade processes, while MonetaGo will provide “fraud mitigation solutions to avoid double-financing and check authenticity of e-way Bill – an electronically generated bill for the specific movement of goods with a value more than 50,000 rupees ($700).
Indian Government Expects to Finalize Crypto Bill Next Month
The Indian government has reportedly filed an affidavit with the country’s supreme court detailing its progress on cryptocurrency regulations. It is expected that the draft report will be placed before the IMC (inter-ministerial committee) by next month. Both the draft report and the bill will be circulated to IMC members and discussed at the next IMC meeting. The Indian supreme court scheduled to hear all the petitions against the ban which went into effect in July, on Sept. 11, but the hearing has been postponed to Oct. 25, when the court directed the government to submit the counter-affidavit before the next hearing is scheduled. Meanwhile, banks have closed accounts of crypto exchanges, forcing them to come up with their own solutions to provide fiat support to their customers such as through peer-to-peer systems.
Italian Securities Watchdog Orders Unauthorized Crypto Companies to Cease and Desist
The Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (CONSOB) has ordered three crypto-related companies providing unauthorized investment services to cease and desist. The first company, a trading platform called Richmond Investing, has purportedly violated the Consolidated Law on Finance (TUF), a fundamental law governing Italian financial markets, by failing to register as a financial intermediary in the country. CryptoForce, a company specializing in Proof-of-Stake (PoS) mining, promoted a cryptocurrency dubbed “Crypton.” Brizzi was advertising CryptoForce on Facebook, while the third company, Eagle Bit Trade offered ostensibly unauthorized “trading packages” to Italian investors. In March, the Italian Ministry of Economics announced the creation of a decree that would classify the use of cryptocurrencies in the country and list service providers related to digital currencies.