NOTABLE MOVES
As of Tue, Jan 08, 08:00 Singapore Time Zone UTC+8
USDJPY, +0.08%, $108.63
EURUSD, +0.60%, $1.1479
GBPUSD, +0.42%, $1.2786
USDCAD, -0.54%, $1.3297
AUDUSD, +0.29%, $0.7145
NZDUSD, +0.18%, $0.6754
S&P500, +0.70%, 2,549.69
Nasdaq, +1.26%, 6,823.47
Nikkei Futures, +0.02%, 20,145.0
CURRENCY MARKET WRAP
- The ISM Non-Manufacturing Index slipped to 57.6% in December from 60.7% in November. The key takeaway from the report is that it followed the ISM Manufacturing Index in showing a slowdown in activity in December. That is in keeping with the market’s perception of economic matters and threatens to bleed into a slowdown in earnings growth.
- U.S. Treasuries started the session in positive territory, but spent the bulk of the day in a retreat that coincided with a rally in the stock market. The 2-yr yield rose four basis points to 2.52%, and the 10-yr yield added two basis points to 2.68%. The U.S. Dollar Index fell -0.5% to 95.70, reaching its lowest close since mid-October.
- Euro caught bids amid renewed protests in France and Hungary. Not only does this unrest raise political and social concerns, it also inhibits the recovery in France and could restrain growth for the Eurozone as a whole. Euro traders were pleased to see the sharp recovery in German and Eurozone retail sales, but the manufacturing sector continues to struggle with factory orders falling a steep -1% in November, against a forecast of -0.2%.
- In the past 4 trading days, USD/CAD has fallen from a high of 1.3665 to a low of 1.3279. The combination of rising oil prices, a stronger IVEY PMI report (59.7 vs expected 58.1) and risk appetite took the pair to its lowest level in nearly a month.
STOCK MARKET WRAP
- The major averages opened the session to some tepid buying interest. The S&P 500 briefly dipped into negative territory (-0.3%), but the pullback didn’t gain any traction as the benchmark index steadily climbed to session highs (+1.4%) by early afternoon.This resilience to selling efforts following huge gains last Friday created some fear of missing out on further gains that helped drive up prices. Stocks, however, began to lose steam at around 1:45 p.m. ET, shortly after Trump tweeted that he will address the nation over border security Tuesday evening. Notable movers included PG&E (PCG 18.95, -5.45) plunging 22.3% amid a possible bankruptcy filing and Loxo Oncology (LOXO 232.65, +92.78) soaring 66.3% after an offer to be acquired by Eli Lilly (LLY 115.28, +0.62, +0.5%) at a 68% premium over its Friday closing price. PG&E was an influential drag on the utilities sector.
UK Crypto Exchange Coinfloor to Launch Trading of Physically Delivered Bitcoin Futures
CoinfloorEX, a unit of the United Kingdom cryptocurrency exchange Coinfloor, has been reorganized to offer trading of physical Bitcoin futures on the Asian market. The rebranded CoinFLEX — short for Coin Futures and Lending Exchange — is reportedly owned by a consortium that includes Roger Ver, an early Bitcoin (BTC) entrepreneur and the supporter of the most recent controversial Bitcoin Cash (BCH) hard fork. The new venture will be based in Hong Kong and headed by Mark Lamb, Coinfloor’s co-founder. It will offer Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and Ethereum futures contracts to retail investors based in Asia starting in February. All of the company’s futures will be physically delivered. As soon as a contract expires, the customers will be given the underlying cryptocurrency instead of a cash payment.
Nasdaq-Powered EU Exchange Reveals Crypto Trading Pairs, Tokenized Stocks
Nasdaq-powered DX Exchange announced the platform’s launch and available trading pairs. The digital trading platform uses Nasdaq’s Financial Information Exchange (FIX) protocol. Users of the exchange will be able to trade tokenize stocks in various major global companies. The tokenized stocks of Amazon, Baidu, Apple, Facebook, Google, Intel, Microsoft, Netflix, Nvidia and Tesla will be available to trade on the platform. The exchange also announced support for various crypto to crypto and crypto to fiat pairs. Namely, the company revealed that Ripple (XRP) will be available to trade against Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), euro, yen, and U.S. dollars while Litecoin (LTC) will be available to trade against BTC, ETH, and USD. Cardano (ADA) trading will also be supported on the exchange against ETH, USD, yen and BTC.
Japan Gauges Interest in Bitcoin ETF as Pundits Talk Down US Approval Rumors
Japan’s financial regulator is considering allowing Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETF). The Financial Services Agency (FSA) is testing interest in an ETF with a view to potentially giving the instrument the green light to trade on domestic markets. The move would place Japan in direct contrast to the United States, where regulators are risk-averse on ETFs but permit physical Bitcoin futures trading, which FSA has rejected. Discussing the U.S. stance on ETFs, securities lawyer Jake Chervinsky stood firm on his opinion that lawmakers were unlikely to change tack anytime soon. Intercontinental Exchange’s Bakkt platform is still slated to begin offering Bitcoin futures on the U.S. market later this month, a move which Nasdaq has said it will copy in 2019.