NOTABLE MOVES 

As of Wed, Jan 30, 08:00 Singapore Time zone UTC+8

USDJPY, +0.07%, $109.43
EURUSD, -0.01%, $1.1433
GBPUSD, -0.71%, $1.3070
USDCAD, +0.03%, $1.3268
AUDUSD, -0.16%, $0.7154
NZDUSD, -0.04%, $0.6827

S&P500, -0.15%, 2,640.00
Nasdaq, -0.81%, 7,028.29
Nikkei Futures, +0.21%, 20,682.5

CURRENCY MARKET WRAP 

• The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index dropped to 120.2 in January (consensus 125) from a downwardly revised 126.6 (from 128.1) in December. The key takeaway from the report is that it showed that the outlook among consumers was dampened by the volatility in financial markets and the government shutdown, which threatens to register in consumer spending data that would be a drag on first quarter GDP.
• U.S. Treasuries edged higher, pushing yields lower across the curve. The 2-yr yield decreased one basis point to 2.57%, and the 10-yr yield decreased three basis points to 2.71%. The U.S. Dollar Index gained 0.1% to 95.82. WTI crude rose 2.4% to $53.22/bbl.
• UK Parliament backed an amendment to renegotiate a Brexit deal, according to Bloomberg. The outcome produced little effect on U.S. markets, but the voting was seen as a victory for UK Prime Minister Theresa May. The offset to the news is that the EU has said the Brexit deal is not renegotiable, particularly with respect to the Irish backstop worked out previously in the Withdrawal Agreement.

STOCK MARKET WRAP 

• Wall Street closed on a mixed note on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 losing -0.15%, ahead of a big batch of earnings reports. The S&P 500 communication services (-1.1%), information technology (-1.0%), and consumer discretionary (-0.8%) sectors underperformed the broader market. Conversely, the industrials (+1.4%), materials (+1.1%), and real estate (+0.8%) sectors outperformed.
• Dow component 3M (MMM 196.95, +3.75, +1.9%) for its part lowered its fiscal 2019 guidance, in part due to slowing segments in China. The stock outperformed, though, helped by an earnings beat and by the view that its guidance cut was better than feared. Fellow Dow components Pfizer(PFE 40.77, +1.24, +3.1%) and Verizon (VZ 53.28, -1.79, -3.3%) also reported better-than-expected profit estimates and issued underwhelming guidance. Pfizer guided fiscal 2019 earnings and revenue below consensus, and Verizon issued mixed guidance for fiscal 2019. In other earnings news, Xerox (XRX 27.07, +2.77, +11.4%), Corning (GLW 33.72, +3.36, +11.1%), andWhirlpool (WHR 136.49, +12.03, +9.7%) all climbed after impressing investors with their corporate results.
• Apple shares jump after barely beating on earnings. Earnings per share for the December quarter came in at $4.18, slightly above a $4.17 consensus. Revenue came in at $84.3 billion, above an $83.97 billion consensus after the tech giant forecast on Jan. 2 that it expected revenue of about $84 billion, roughly $7 billion less than expected, largely due to disappointing sales in China. For the March quarter, Apple said it expects revenue of $55 billion to $59 billion, slightly less than a $58.98 billion consensus.
• Revenue for the company’s services segment — that includes Apple Pay, Apple Music and iCloud storage — topped $10.9 billion. Marking a 19% YoY increase. Apple reported a gross margin in its services segment of 62.8%. A growth rate of 19% for the category is at the lower end of recent growth rate. Apple grew services revenue year over year by 17% last quarter, and 18% in the year-ago quarter, but has seen growth rates as high as 34% within the last year and a half. Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri said on the company’s earnings call that Apple now has 900 million installed iPhones in use around the world, and 1.4 billion total installed devices. Apple indicated it will start reporting installed device numbers on a more regular basis. Shares were rose 5.3% to $163.27 after-hours on Tuesday.

BLOCKCHAIN & CRYPTOCURRENCY NEWS 

Nvidia Decreases Q4 Revenue Estimates Citing Crypto Mining Decline, Conditions in China

Taiwan-based computer hardware producer Nvidia updated its financial estimates for Q4 for the fiscal year of 2019. The company is reflecting weaker forecasted sales in its gaming and data center platforms, which comes from excess mid-range channel inventory following the slump in cryptocurrency markets. Q4 revenue is expected to be at $ 2.20 billion, opposed to the previous projection of $2.70 billion according to a statement released by Nvidia on Jan 28. Jensen Huang, Nvidia founder and CEO, said in the press release, “Q4 was an extraordinary, unusually turbulent, and disappointing quarter.” In addition to a lack of crypto-related business, Nvidia also cites “deteriorating conditions” in China as a indicator of lower-than-expected revenue from gaming GPU sales in Q4. The company had experienced a massive sell-off of stocks at the end of 2018, which sank the company’s stock price by 54 percent.

Desktop Crypto Asset Manager Ledger Live Launches Mobile App Version

French cryptocurrency hardware wallet manufacturer Ledger has released a dedicated mobile app for some of its products. Dubbed Ledger Live, the app previously available for desktop is now available for Android and iOS mobile devices, the company reports. The app allows users of Ledger Nano X wallets to use their wallet without the need for a cable via their mobile device and a Bluetooth connection. The company promised full functionality would roll out to all users at a later date, but in the case of Nano S, they would have to use an Android phone to communicate with their wallet. In the future, Ledger Nano S users (Android smartphones only) will be able to transact as well through the use of an OTG cable. Ledger’s app shares some similarities with competitor offerings such as Trezor’s Bridge interface, which the company rolled out across its wallet family last year.

BitTorrent Tokens Sold Out in Under 15 Minutes, Netting Over $7 Mln

The BitTorrent token (BTT) sale on the Binance Launchpad platform concluded, netting $7.1 million dollars with the sale of 50 billion tokens in under 15 minutes. Binance announced the conclusion of the sale in an official blog post. BitTorrent is a protocol for peer-to-peer file sharing, allowing users to distribute files such as music or videos over the internet.BTT is based on a Tron TRC-10 token, and will be used on the platform to “transact in computing resources shared between BitTorrent clients and any other participating service requesters and service providers.“The BitTorrent tokens were sold in two simultaneous sessions on Binance Launchpad, one for buyers using Binance’s native token, Binance Coin (BNB), and the other for buyers using Tron (TRX). Each token was priced at $0.00012. Binance CEO and founder Changpeng Zhao said that the sale would have ended much sooner, had technical issues not surfaced on the Launchpad website.

NOTABLE MOVES 

As of Tue, Jan 29, 08:00 Singapore Time zone UTC+8

USDJPY, -0.14%, $109.26
EURUSD, +0.15%, $1.1430
GBPUSD, -0.39%, $1.3156
USDCAD, +0.30%, $1.3262
AUDUSD, -0.19%, $0.7165
NZDUSD, -0.10%, $0.6832

S&P500, -0.78%, 2,643.85
Nasdaq, -1.11%, 7,085.69
Nikkei Futures, -1.04%, 20,525.0        

CURRENCY MARKET WRAP 

• There were no notable prints on Monday. This week however, is shaping up to be a busy week of big happenings that will include a swarm of earnings reports, U.S-China trade talks, another vote on the Brexit plan in the UK Parliament, an FOMC meeting and press conference, and the January employment report.
• U.S. Treasuries did not stray too far from their unchanged marks throughout the day despite the slide in equities. The lack of a flight-to-safety bid was indicative of a stock market succumbing to profit taking rather than panic selling. The 2-yr yield decreased two basis points to 2.58%, and the 10-yr yield decreased one basis point to 2.74%. The U.S. Dollar Index lost -0.10% to 95.75.

STOCK MARKET WRAP 

• The S&P 500 declined as much as 1.5% on Monday, as warnings from Caterpillar (CAT 124.37, -12.49, -9.1%) and NVIDIA (NVDA 138.01, -22.14, -13.8%) catalyzed early selling efforts.  The benchmark index, however, ended the day down -0.78% and finished near its best levels of the session. The S&P 500 information technology (-1.4%), communication services (-1.2%), and health care (-1.1%) sectors underperformed the broader market. Conversely, the real estate (+1.0%) and consumer staples (+0.5%) sectors were the lone groups to finish in the green. Specifically, Caterpillar came up well short of Q4 earnings estimates and issued fiscal 2019 earnings guidance below expectations. NVIDIA lowered its fiscal Q4 revenue guidance below consensus, citing weaker-than-expected sales in segments like gaming and datacenter.
• While buyers were largely absent during the morning trade, they returned in the afternoon session and helped the major indices pare their losses in what has become a familiar buy-the-dip trade.

BLOCKCHAIN & CRYPTOCURRENCY NEWS

NYSE Operator Partners With Blockstream to Launch Crypto Tracking Tool for Investors

The Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) has partnered with major global blockchain firm Blockstream to launch its Cryptocurrency Data Feed product. Founded in 2000 in the United States, the Intercontinental Exchange is a global company that owns exchanges for financial commodity markets and operates 23 global exchanges, including the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). According to the announcement, ICE’s new crypto data service enables real-time and historical data for more than 60 cryptocurrencies from major trading markets and exchanges worldwide. The new partnership intends to provide global investors with a comprehensive tool to monitor data for the most actively and widely traded cryptocurrencies. The new service is backed by ICE’s Secure Financial Transaction Infrastructure (SFTI) tool, which claims to eliminate downtime for investors and enable immediate notifications in case of an emergency.

Belarus’ Largest Bank Considers Setting up Crypto Exchange, Says Chairman of Board

Belarusbank, the largest bank in Belarus, is considering setting up a crypto exchange. According to the bank’s chairman of the board Viktor Ananich, efforts are now being made to explore the possibility of setting up a cryptocurrency exchange. Ananich claimed that digitization is one of the most important focuses of Belarusbank in 2019, noting that the bank is also working with mobile carriers, aiming to expand its services. The chairman emphasized that the banking sector should keep up with the digital industry, as the space is evolving very fast. Owned by the State Property Committee of Belarus, Belarusbank is the leading banking institution in the country, according to its volume of equity, assets, loans and deposits. Belarusbank was reportedly estimated to have $13.51 billion in operating assets in 2017. On Jan. 15, reportedly the first crypto trading platform that allows users to purchase tokenized traditional assets such as shares and gold with cryptocurrencies was launched in Belarus. The project is backed by two firms, Larnabel Ventures and VP Capital. By Jan. 16, the platform reportedly issued 150 various types of tokens, while the company expects to eventually list 10,000 types of assets.

South Korea Report: Major Exchanges Join Forces to Combat Money Laundering

Four major South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges have reportedly joined their forces in order to combat money laundering. Bithumb, Upbit, Korbit and Coinone have established a hotline where users can share information on any unusual trading or payments that could possibly be related to crimes, such as pyramid schemes. According to an anonymous representative of one of the operators, the exchanges will thereby be able to instantly check any suspicious transactions and immediately block the related accounts.

NOTABLE MOVES  

As of Sat, Jan 26, 08:00 Singapore Time zone UTC+8

USDJPY, -0.08%, $109.55.
EURUSD, +0.96%, $1.1415    
GBPUSD, +1.05%, $1.3203
USDCAD, -0.97%, $1.3219
AUDUSD, +1.24%, $0.7183
NZDUSD, +1.12%, $0.6839    

S&P500, +0.85%, 2,664.76    
Nasdaq, +1.29%, 7,164.86                     
Nikkei Futures, +1.07%, 20,780.0  

CURRENCY MARKET WRAP  

• After being shutdown for 35 days, Trump announced on Friday that a deal has been reached to reopen the government for 3 weeks until February 15th. In this time, he expects both Democrats and Republicans to work together on a Homeland Security package that will include funding for border walls. The agreement will include back pay for furloughed workers, which is good news but the debate on the wall will resume in a few weeks and having gotten what they wanted with very little concessions, the Democrats won’t turn around and support border funding easily. Risk currencies rallied after Trump’s announcement but the Dollar pulled back as investors will look forward to a barrage of economic releases that should confirm the slowing economy.
  
• U.S. Treasuries ended the day on a lower note, pushing the 2-yr yield and the 10-yr yield up four basis points each to 2.60% and 2.75%, respectively. The U.S. Dollar Index fell -0.9% to 95.75, pulled back by a rebound in the euro. WTI crude rose 0.9% to $53.62/bbl.

STOCK MARKET WRAP 

• The S&P 500 gained 0.9% on Friday as positive-sounding headlines, which included the temporary reopening of the government, helped lift investor sentiment. Friday’s gains helped pare the benchmark index’s weekly losses to 0.2%. Nine of the 11 S&P 500 sectors closed the day in positive territory with the cyclical materials (+1.9%), information technology (+1.5%), and industrial (+1.3%) groups setting the pace. Conversely, the utilities (-1.3%) and consumer staples (-0.2%) sectors were the lone groups to finish in the red.
• Stocks jumped at the open on initial speculation that a deal to reopen the government was imminent; hope the Federal Reserve may be getting close to the end of its balance sheet normalization effort; and a contention from Treasury Secretary Mnuchin that the U.S. is making progress with China trade talks. Notably, news hit in the afternoon session that an agreement had been struck to provide funding, minus border security funding, to re-open the government through February 15.  Negotiations over border security funding will take place in the interim, and a failure to reach a compromise on that front could result in another shutdown or a declaration of a national emergency in order to secure funding. The market’s response to the news was relatively muted, partially because it had already priced in some type of an agreement, and partially because it realizes it is only a temporary solution.
• The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index was a notable area of strength on Friday, rising 2.2% after its best session in nearly 10 years the day before. A disappointing earnings report from Intel (INTC 47.04, -2.72, -5.5%) did not dampen buying interest in the group, but it did hurt the stock. In other earnings news, Western Digital (WDC 43.16, +3.02) rose 7.5% with an upbeat outlook for the second half of 2019 offsetting weaker-than-expected quarterly earnings and guidance. In addition, Starbucks (SBUX 67.09, +2.35, +3.6%) impressed investors with its fiscal first quarter report and full-year outlook.

BLOCKCHAIN & CRYPTOCURRENCY NEWS

SBI Crypto Subsidiary Supports Crypto Mobile Wallet in $15 Million Funding Round

Cryptocurrency mobile wallet BRD has raised $15 million in a Series B financing round supported by SBI Crypto Investment. SBI Crypto Investment, a subsidiary of the Tokyo-based SBI Holdings, contributed to the funding, which BRD states will help to accelerate international expansion and scale its technology platform. According to the press release BRD announced the availability of cryptocurrency purchases through the use of SEPA transfers in the European market through a partnership with crypto payment provider Coinify. SBI Group is a financial based conglomerate based out of Japan that was established in 1999 and provides a broad range of financial services from securities to banking and insurance. Last week, SBI Holdings had announced an undisclosed investment in crypto firm Breadwinner AG, which is the developer of the BRD mobile crypto wallet. The press release notes that BRD is available in over 170 countries and has 1.8 million mobile users in total, with a total of $55 million raised in funding and $6 billion in assets kept on its platform.

NYSE Arca Files Paperwork for Bitwise Bitcoin ETF Approval

Bitwise Asset Management announced its intention to launch the ETF earlier this month. If approved, it would be the first bitcoin ETF to make it to market in the U.S. At the time, the company said NYSE Arca would file the 19b-4 rule change proposal in the near future. NYSE Arca indeed filed the form the same day, but it is not listed on any SEC website, possibly due to the ongoing U.S. government shutdown. As a result, the document went largely unnoticed, despite being posted on NYSE Arca’s own website. The Exchange believes that the proposed rule change is designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices and to protect investors and the public interest. Previous bitcoin ETF proposals have been withdrawn or rejected, with Cboe most recently pulling its joint effort with VanEck and SolidX earlier this week. VanEck CEO Jan van Eck cited the government shutdown as a key reason for this, explaining that the companies were having conversations with the SEC prior to the shutdown, but that these conversations had ceased. He said that the companies would re-file after the government re-opens.

Fifteen Alleged Operators of $8 Million Crypto Scam Arrested in Taiwan

Police in New Taipei, Taiwan, have arrested fifteen suspects for allegedly running a cryptocurrency scam that earned them millions of dollars. The arrested suspects have been reportedly charged with fraud, and the case has been handed over to the Taipei District Prosecutors Office. The group allegedly defrauded over 30 people in the country of nearly NT$250 million (equivalent to about $8.16 million). They promoted IBCoin, an Ethereum (ETH) ERC20 token aiming to be a means of payment for the adult entertainment industry, according to its promotional material. The alleged fraudsters reportedly also publicized the scheme on Facebook, posting pictures of expensive cars and luxurious lifestyles to lure in new victims. According to the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB), no victim has ever seen any return on their investment and the token has no real value since “there are currently no known companies that trade or deal in IBCoins.”

NOTABLE MOVES 

As of Fri, Jan 25, 08:00 Singapore Time zone UTC+8

USDJPY, +0.00%, $109.60
EURUSD, -0.59%, $1.1314
GBPUSD, +0.39%, $1.3120
USDCAD, +0.08%, $0.6762
AUDUSD, -0.70%, $0.7092
NZDUSD, -0.37%, $0.6762

S&P500, +0.14%, 2,642.33
Nasdaq, +0.68%, 7,073.46
Nikkei Futures, -0.01%, 20,557.0    

CURRENCY MARKET WRAP 

• The US Senate has rejected two bills to end the government shutdown, leaving no end in sight to the record-breaking closure of federal agencies. The Republican legislation failed by 50-47 and the Democratic bill followed suit by 52-44. Both measures were long shots, needing 60 votes to pass. Afterwards, Trump told reporters at the White House that he would only sign a bill if it included a “down payment” on a border barrier.
• Weekly initial claims decreased by 13,000 to 199,000 (consensus 219,000) for the week ending January 19. That is the lowest level of initial claims since November 15, 1969. Continuing claims for the week ending January 12 dropped by 24,000 to 1.713 million. The key takeaway from the report is that the low level of initial claims is reflective of a tight labor market.
• U.S. Treasuries ended on a higher note, pushing yields lower across the curve. The 2-yr yield decreased three basis points to 2.56%, and the 10-yr yield decreased four basis points to 2.71%. The U.S. Dollar Index rose 0.4% to 96.53, benefiting at the expense of the euro, which fell on the back of Draghi’s cautious remarks. WTI crude rose 1.0% to $53.15/bbl.
• ECB’s Draghi, whose term ends in October, acknowledged on Thursday that the euro zone’s economic risks have moved to the downside. Draghi commented, “We were unanimous about acknowledging the weaker momentum and changing the balance of risk for growth.” Although there was no change in policy at Thursday’s ECB meeting, Draghi signalled the bank would react should the data continue to disappoint. The ECB gave no indication of whether it was preparing to cut interest rates, saying its governing council “expects the key ECB interest rates to remain at their present levels at least through the summer of 2019”. Eurozone growth fell to its lowest level in four years in the third quarter, with the region’s economy expanding by just 0.2 per cent. The bank had hoped in mid-December that the weakness would prove temporary. However, almost all of the data published since then has been disappointing. Thursday’s PMI data provided more signs that growth would not rebound in the fourth quarter, suggesting the economy faced more pervasive problems than initially thought.
• Elsewhere, the Aussie flipped on traders after the positive labor data release (21.6K vs Consensus 17.3K) was offset by news that NAB, one Australia’s four big banks is raising interest rates which would make mortgages more expensive and further depress the already slumping housing market. 

STOCK MARKET WRAP 

• The S&P 500 eked out a gain of 0.14% on Thursday as it wavered between small gains and losses throughout the day. Another round of better-than-expected corporate earnings coupled with ongoing global growth concerns contributed to a mixed session on Wall Street.
• Some discouraging commentary from Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi helped temper buying interest. Specifically, Ross said the U.S. and China are still “miles and miles” from reaching a trade deal, and Draghi acknowledged that significant stimulus is still needed for the eurozone. These comments stirred concerns about the pace of future economic growth, which in turn stirred concerns about the pace of future earnings growth.
• The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index was a notable pocket of strength on Thursday, rising 5.7% on the back of some strong earnings reports. Heavyweight component Texas Instruments (TXN 102.09, +6.60) rose 6.9%, while Lam Research (LRCX 161.20, +21.87, +15.7%), Xilinx (106.06, +16.51, +18.4%), and Teradyne (TER 36.04, +4.11, +12.9%) each surged well over 10% following their earnings reports. In addition, better-than-feared earnings and guidance from the transport stocks, particularly the airlines, helped lift the Dow Jones Transportation Average (+1.1%) and the industrial sector.
• American Airlines (AAL 33.66, +2.01, +6.4%), Southwest Air (LUV 54.21, +3.19, +6.3%), JetBlue (JBLU 18.12, +0.88, +5.1%), and Union Pacific (UNP 160.34, +6.01, +3.9%) all beat earnings and revenue estimates.
• McCormick (MKC 124.35, -14.65) ] dropped -10.5% after it missed Q4 top and bottom-line estimates and guided fiscal 2019 earnings and revenue below consensus. Its poor performance was a huge drag on the consumer staples sector (-1.3%). PG&E (PCG 13.95, +5.96, +74.6%) surged late in the day on a report that a California investigation cleared the company from issues surrounding the 2017 Tubbs wildfire.

BLOCKCHAIN & CRYPTOCURRENCY NEWS

Singapore’s Monetary Authority Halts Local STO Due to Regulatory Violations

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has prevented a local initial coin offering (ICO) from launching a security token offering (STO) in the country. Under the current rules, all STOs have to comply with Singapore’s securities laws and are obliged to register with the MAS. In case the owners want the offering to fall under an exemption, they should be aware of conditions, including advertising restrictions, the MAS notes. The issuer of the halted, unnamed STO intended to rely on the exemption that would allow them to launch an offering without registering with the MAS. However, the issuer failed to comply with the advertising prohibition and posted a promotional article to LinkedIn. Shortly after the MAS warning, the issuer has temporarily suspended the STO. The MAS has also warned investors about the risks linked with token offerings, such as possible price speculation, the possibility of fraud and the lack of a proven track record from the companies. The financial authority urges customers to evaluate these risks before investing money.

Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital to Raise $250 Million to Offer Crypto Loans

Mike Novogratz’s crypto merchant bank Galaxy Digital is reportedly raising at least $250 million to offer loans to crypto-related firms, according to an unconfirmed report published by American news site Business Insider. Citing two unnamed people familiar with the matter, the news outlet claims that Galaxy Digital is purportedly planning to close the first fundraising round for its crypto credit fund in March. Galaxy’s lenders will be able to get their loans by using crypto assets, real estate and crypto mining hardware as deposits. Two anonymous individuals also noted that Galaxy decided to launch its own fund after seeing an increased demand for crypto lending services from firms amidst the bear market in 2018. Founded by former Goldman Sachs partner Michael Novogratz, Galaxy Digital is already lending to crypto businesses using its own balance sheet. Recently, Novogratz — who is both Galaxy’s founder and CEO — has increased his shares of the company by up to 79.3 percent of ordinary shares assuming their conversion, which reportedly amounts to 221.2 million ordinary shares.

Samsung’s Previously Denied Ethereum Wallet Surfaces in Allegedly Leaked Galaxy S10 Images

Images allegedly portraying the upcoming smartphone Samsung Galaxy S10 showing a “Samsung Blockchain Keystore” app surfaced on Twitter on Jan. 23. The reportedly leaked photos feature only an Ethereum (ETH) wallet option in the “supported cryptocurrencies” list. Even if those images portrait real software that will be present on the upcoming smartphone, it may gain support for other cryptos as the development continues before the launch. The leak seemingly confirms the rumors that Samsung has plans to offer a cryptocurrency cold wallet on this smartphone, an addition that had been denied in December last year. Samsung applied for a trademark in the United Kingdom for a cryptocurrency wallet. However, after the aforementioned trademark application, a senior executive at Samsung said in an interview with computing magazine JAX that decentralization is a more important phenomenon than blockchain.

NOTABLE MOVES 

As of Thu, Jan 24, 08:00 Singapore Time zone UTC+8

USDJPY, +0.15%, $109.54
EURUSD, +0.20%, $1.1381
GBPUSD, +0.92%, $1.3077
USDCAD, -0.09%, $1.3342
AUDUSD, +0.29%, $0.7144
NZDUSD, +0.60%, $0.6791

S&P500, +0.22%, 2,638.70
Nasdaq, +0.08%, 7,025.77
Nikkei Futures, -0.31%, 20,497.0

CURRENCY MARKET WRAP 

• As we head into day 34 of the U.S. government shutdown, the battle in Washington is heated. Trump said he plans to go ahead with delivering his State of Union Address next week but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to allow him to deliver the speech from the House chamber (its usual venue) while the government is in shutdown. Today the Senate is scheduled to vote on Trump’s latest proposal and a short term spending bill from the Democrats that would help reopen the government until February 8th. Considering that neither party has a majority and both resist the other’s proposals, these votes are widely expected to fail leading to a continued shutdown. In the unlikely scenario that one passes, the Dollar will react positively.
• U.S. Treasuries ended on a lower note, although the bulk of the session saw a steady climb off opening lows. The 2-yr yield increased two basis points to 2.59%, and the 10-yr yield increased three basis points to 2.76%. The U.S. Dollar Index lost -0.2% to 96.12. WTI crude lost -0.8% to $52.63/bbl.
• BoJ kept its QQE with yield curve control and its forward guidance unchanged. At the same time, it cut the inflation outlook significantly by 0.5pp in the fiscal year (Apr-Mar) 2019. The growth outlook was also cut but only for the current fiscal year whereas the FY 2019 and FY 2020 forecasts were revised slightly upwards. On the recent global development, the BoJ kept the sentence ‘overseas economies have continued to grow firmly on the whole’. This highlights that the BoJ expects the current global slowdown to be temporary and the recent weak Japanese export figures to bounce back once a trade agreement has been reached between the US and China.

STOCK MARKET WRAP 

• The S&P 500 gained 0.22% on Wednesday in what was an uneven day of trading. The benchmark index was up as much as 0.8% shortly after the start of trading, lost as much as -0.8% by midday, and teetered around its flat line for most of the afternoon. Most S&P 500 sectors finished higher with consumer staples (+1.2%) and utilities (+1.1%) outperforming. Conversely, the energy (-1.0%) and material (-0.7%) sectors underperformed the broader market and were the lone sectors ending with a loss.
• Stocks had rallied at the open on some earnings beats and reassuring guidance from Dow components IBM (IBM 132.89, +10.37, +8.5%), Procter & Gamble (PG 94.84, +4.40, +4.9%), and United Technologies (UTX 117.04, +5.98, +5.4%).

BLOCKCHAIN & CRYPTOCURRENCY NEWS

UK Financial Regulator Releases Consultation Paper on Crypto
The United Kingdom’s financial regulator has published a consultation paper titled “Guidance on Cryptoassets”. The stated goal of the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) paper on cryptocurrency is to provide more regulatory clarity on the subject for market participants. The consultation period on crypto, which the paper initiates, is scheduled to end on April 5, 2019, after which a policy statement with final guidance is set to be released. In its introduction to the paper, the FCA declares that the final version is meant to “help market participants to understand whether the cryptoassets they use are within the regulatory perimeter.”  In the paper, the FCA outlines various possible definitions of crypto assets and applicable U.K. laws.  In particular, the guidance paper notes that crypto assets could be considered “Specified Investments” under the state’s Regulated Activities Order (RAO) or “Financial Instruments” regulated by the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II. The FCA’s crypto asset guidance places cryptocurrencies into three potential categories, namely exchange tokens, security tokens and utility tokens. So-called exchange tokens, the regulator writers, are those “not issued or backed by any central authority and are intended and designed to be used as a means of exchange.”

Hong Kong Hardware Manufacturer Releases Mining GPU for New Privacy-Oriented Coin
Hong Kong-based computer hardware manufacturer Sapphire has announced a new graphics card for mining the recently-launched GRIN Coin, according to an official press release published on Jan. 22. GRIN, which was released earlier this month, is a privacy-oriented token that is touted as a fully decentralized and democratized digital asset. The token is based on mimblewimble technology, which in theory grants users in the network with solid anonymity, by encrypting the value of a transaction using “blinding factors.” The new graphics processing unit (GPU) from Sapphire will purportedly be able to solve the Cuckoo Cycle algorithm which forms the basis of Grin’s proof-of-work (PoW). The GPU is not currently available for sale, but will eventually be released on the company’s website.

US: Pennsylvania Rules That Crypto Exchanges, ATMs Are Not Money Transmitters
The American state of Pennsylvania has clarified that cryptocurrency exchanges do not fall subject to the Money Transmitter Act (MTA), according to a Department of Banking and Securities (DoBS) document. The document clarifies crypto exchanges thus do not require a license to offer their services to Pennsylvania residents. The MTA — otherwise referred to as the Money Transmission Business Licensing Law — provides that “[n]o person shall engage in the business of transmitting money by means of a transmittal instrument for a fee or other consideration with or on behalf of an individual without first having obtained a license from the [DoBS]. According to the document, digital currencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) are not deemed to be “money” under the MTA — which is defined as being “currency or legal tender or any other product that is generally recognized as a medium of exchange.The document also clarifies that in regard to crypto kiosks, ATMs and vending machines — regardless of whether they enable one-or two-way deposits and exchange of crypto and fiat — no money transmission is deemed to be involved, as there is no transfer of money to a third party.