An Iranian general is reportedly calling for the use of cryptocurrency to evade sanctions. Saeed Muhammad, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ “Army of Guardians of the Islamic Revolution” (or Sepâh for short), a branch of the Iranian Armed Forces, said in a speech Wednesday that Iran should look to cryptocurrencies to bolster international
Month: February 2020
The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Small Business is set to discuss the benefits blockchain technology can bring to entrepreneurs. Slated for March 4 at 16:30 UTC, the “Building Blocks of Change: The Benefits of Blockchain Technology for Small Businesses” hearing will explore the ways in which some startups are utilizing blockchain technology to
In light of the tumultuous move in global stocks this week, I found it comforting, in that it-could-be-worse sense, to think about some excessively priced assets I’ve watched up close, as well as from a distance. One day within the dot.com bubble stands out very clearly. In December 1999, I sat in my mother-in-law’s room
Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange swapped stories all week about the extreme trading conditions they witnessed — conditions that have not been this wild since the financial crisis in 2008. For Virtu’s Matt Cheslock, it was the stunning move in bond yields: “As an equity trader, seeing over 10 basis
A customer exits a Big Lots store in Clifton, New Jersey. Emile Wamsteker | Bloomberg | Getty Images Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading. Big Lots — Shares of Big Lots tumbled nearly 30% after the retailer posted a quarterly earnings miss. The company reported earnings per share of $2.39 in the
Prospective home buyers arrive with a realtor to a house for sale in Dunlap, Illinois. Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images As coronavirus fears send bond yields tumbling, the average rate on the popular 30-year fixed mortgage fell Friday morning to 3.23%, an 8-year low, according to Mortgage News Daily. The 30-year fixed loosely follows
With each passing day, fears surrounding COVID-19 elevate as the equity sell-off pressed on for the seventh day on Friday. The biggest winners have and will continue to be muni issuers, as they can sell debt at historic lows and participants don’t see the movement slowing. COVID-19 has pushed benchmark muni yields down to record
Investment Thesis Last July, I wrote two articles for Seeking Alpha in which I examined six of the most popular preferred stock ETFs. In the first of those articles, I considered the Invesco Preferred Portfolio ETF (PGX) alongside two of its competitors. In response to a lively discussion in the comments of that article, I
Crypto exchanges have made it easier for millions of people to trade in cryptos, but they have also been found to be vulnerable to attacks, and today, two crypto exchanges, Bitfinex and OKEx, reported Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks. OKEx stated that the exchange suffered the attack last night, but none of its users were actually
Decentralized derivatives exchange Digitex has fallen victim to a significant data breach believed to have exposed the email addresses and possibly other information of more than 8,000 users. A former employee stole private information for more than 8,000 users, Christina Comben, who heads Digitex’s communications, said Friday. Comben told CoinDesk the exchange was “aware of
U.S. stocks continue to reel over coronavirus-related fears, and investors are increasingly betting the Federal Reserve will slash interest rates to stabilize the economy and markets. But whether those investors turn to bitcoin (BTC) as a crisis hedge remains to be seen. Such action by the Fed could, in theory, help bitcoin prices since lower
CNBC’s Jim Cramer said on Friday investors with long-term horizons to retirement should now put money to work in this week’s steep stock market correction. “If you’re in a 401(k), I know no one wants to hear this, but I think you have to buy. Buy some,” Cramer said on “Squawk Box.” ”What are we waiting
International investors believe coronavirus is truly a global phenomenon: Stock markets around the world are all down 10% to 12% from their recent highs. While travel-related stocks are taking very large hits, the entire global stock market has been taken down in recent weeks. All this has occurred in a short period — the S&P
Shoppers walk through the Easton Town Center Mall in Columbus, Ohio. Luke Sharrett | Bloomberg | Getty Images Check out the companies making headlines after the bell. Beyond Meat — The meat substitute maker’s stock plunged 8% in extended trading after the company reported a fiscal fourth-quarter net loss of $0.5 million, or 1 cent
A single family home is shown for sale and in escrow in San Marcos, California. Mike Blake | Reuters Pending home sales in January rose 5.2%, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday, crushing analysts’ expectations of a 2% monthly gain. They were 5.7% higher on an annual basis. “This month’s solid activity — the
Municipal market technicals were already driving performance and so the strong quality bid has deepened the rally across the curve as the asset class really didn’t need to grab U.S. Treasuries coattails all that tightly. Jeffery Lipton, managing director, head of muni research and strategy at Oppenheimer, said that the outsized demand for U.S. sovereign
Thesis Welcome to Orchid’s Platinum Weekly report, in which we discuss platinum prices through the lens of the GraniteShares Platinum Trust (PLTM). PLTM reached a high of $10.00 per share on February 19, missing our Feb-20 target of $10.30 per share. Platinum has performed the worst among the precious metals space so far in February,
Bitcoin (BTC) has spent much of the last week in freefall, sinking to a low of $8,520, just as the Coronavirus outbreak prompts widespread panic in the financial world due to its potentially cataclysmic impact on the global economy. This negative correlation between a global crisis and the value of the world’s largest cryptocurrency is
Coinhako, a cryptocurrency exchange backed by Tim Draper, has restricted user withdrawals after falling victim to a “sophisticated attack.” The Singapore-based exchange told users Friday that account send functions for cryptocurrencies had been temporarily disabled. Although a spokesperson initially said this was for “network maintenance”, the exchange admitted Saturday it had been victim to an
The spreading coronavirus sowed a new bout of fear among investors, triggering a stock market sell-off and flight to safe-haven assets like gold and U.S. Treasury bonds, with 47 countries now reporting infections amid widespread reports of travel cancellations, shipment delays and business interruptions. U.S. stocks fell for the sixth straight day, Treasury yields slid
Oil prices continued their steep decline on Thursday, with U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude falling more than 4.8% to a 13-month low below $47 per barrel, as fears of the coronavirus outbreak, and what it could mean for crude demand, continue to batter prices. “Current forecasts of crude oil demand have fallen off a cliff.
An employee works while sitting under a mural at Etsy Inc. headquarters in Brooklyn. Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images Check out the companies making headlines after the bell: Booking Holdings—Amidst the coronavirus outbreak, the travel company’s stock fell over 2% in extended trading despite posting a double beat on earnings and revenue for the
Rob and Reshawn Lee have always wanted to travel. But between juggling family, busy careers and bills, they made it into their 40s without seeing much of the world. Rob had a successful career in IT, and Reshawn worked in sales. Together, they would take home more than $200,000 in a good year. “We just
Puerto Rico-based creditors took steps Tuesday to oppose the two biggest proposed restructurings of the commonwealth’s bonds. Backyard Bondholders, which consists of Puerto Rico-based holders of Puerto Rico bonds, released a statement opposing a restructuring deal for the central government’s debt. The Puerto Rico Oversight Board negotiated the deal with several other parties and released
Main Thesis The purpose of this article is to evaluate the iShares U.S. Utilities ETF (IDU) as an investment option at its current market price. In the short term, the utilities sector continues to push to new highs, and it is actually the second best performing sector so far in 2020. With this bullish momentum,
Polkadot is readying itself for its expected network launch after it announced its integration with Chainlink oracles on February 25. The progress made with the integrations is an indication of a systematic approach that will allow porting with Ethereum infrastructure. Polkadot Announces Integrations of Chainlink Oracles The integration of Chainlink oracles is vital in the
The crypto industry is taking aim at one of Wall Street’s oldest redoubts: investing in the $17 trillion market for U.S. Treasury bonds. Arca Funds, a Los Angeles-based money manager specializing in cryptocurrencies, wants to create a fund to buy U.S. Treasury bonds and then use them to back a digital token created atop the
A lawsuit claiming Ripple violated securities laws will be allowed to move forward – though with a caveat favorable to the San Francisco-based payments firm. In a ruling Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton, of the Northern District of California, allowed a putative class-action lawsuit by retail XRP buyers to proceed. Hamilton said the suit
As the energy industry faces a time of reckoning — pressured by consistently low oil prices, high operating costs and a growing sustainable investing movement — oil and gas companies are increasingly turning to Silicon Valley for help streamlining operations and boosting efficiencies. By some estimates, the addressable market for digital oil and gas solutions
Jordan Katzman, co-founder of SmileDirectClub Inc., left, and Alex Fenkell, co-founder of SmileDirectClub Inc., watch traders during the company’s initial public offering (IPO) at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York, U.S., on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2019. Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images Check out the companies making headlines after the bell: Salesforce.com—The software company’s
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