Good morning. Ethan is away this week, resting up for August, which I will skip altogether (Unhedged will appear just three times a week all month, with a special guest author writing one of those.) So you know who to blame for the below: robert.armstrong@ft.com. The market thinks the Fed has very good timing It’s
Institutional sentiment toward Ether (ETH) appears to have shifted into positive gear, with digital investment products offering exposure to the asset having posted four consecutive weeks of inflows, according to CoinShares. Prior to this, ETH investment products had been on a lengthy 11-week run of outflows that saw the total year-to-date (YTD) outflows hit as
This year Patrick Pouyanné, chief executive of TotalEnergies, was en route to Mozambique when he stopped off in the tiny central African nation of Rwanda. Rwanda has no oil and gas reserves and a small domestic market of 13mn people. Yet Pouyanné and Rwanda’s president Paul Kagame signed a co-operation agreement anyway, agreeing to explore
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has warned crypto investors about a scam using an investment strategy called liquidity mining. “This scam has been responsible for over $70 million in combined victim losses,” said the law enforcement agency. FBI Warns of Crypto Liquidity Mining Scam The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued an investor alert
The governor of the central bank of the Philippines has shared his policy on cryptocurrency regulation. “I don’t want it banned,” he said, advising investors not to invest money they cannot afford to lose in crypto. Philippine Central Bank Governor on Crypto Regulation Felipe Medalla, the governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the
Tesla has revealed that it is still holding bitcoin worth $222 million in market value after selling 75% of its crypto holdings. The company recorded realized gains of $64 million on its recent bitcoin conversion into fiat currency. Tesla Realizes Gains of $64 Million From Bitcoin Sale Tesla Inc. filed its second-quarter report with the
The blockchain space is seeing some areas of strength despite the perceived downturn in the market. The perpetual futures funding rates for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) have flipped back to positive on major exchanges, which shows bullish sentiment among derivatives traders. In addition, Bitcoin started trading below its cost basis, which has marked previous
Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss have exchanged blows over the economy in a crucial televised Tory leadership debate that ended in a bloody stalemate but took the contest to new levels of acrimony. Sunak, former chancellor, had hoped to use the primetime BBC1 debate to secure a breakthrough against foreign secretary Truss, who is seen
Walmart has cut its outlook for the second quarter and the rest of the year, signalling a sharp worsening of the US retail environment as inflation bites the price-sensitive consumers on which the world’s largest retailer depends. “The increasing levels of food and fuel inflation are affecting how customers spend, and while we’ve made good
U.S. stock futures fell on Monday night after Walmart cut its profit forecast, sending retail stocks tumbling after hours. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell by 134 points, or 0.42%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures declined 0.31% and 0.38%, respectively. A late Monday announcement from Walmart, which cut its quarterly and full-year profit estimates
Walmart has issued its second profit warning in 10 weeks, signalling a further deterioration in the US retail environment as inflation weighs on the price-sensitive consumers on whom the world’s largest retailer depends. “The increasing levels of food and fuel inflation are affecting how customers spend,” said Doug McMillon, Walmart’s chief executive. He said the
Bitcoin (BTC) could be in the process of bottoming after gaining 25%, based on several market signals. BTC’s price has rallied roughly 25% after dropping to around $17,500 on June 18. The upside retrace came after a 75% correction when measured from its November 2021 high of $69,000. The recovery seems modest, however, and carries bearish
Liz Truss, foreign secretary, has proposed sweeping reforms to UK trade union laws that would guarantee minimum services during strikes and raise the threshold on the number of workers needing to take part in ballots on industrial action. Truss, the bookmakers’ favourite to be the UK’s next prime minister, pledged on Monday to introduce legislation
Lord David Trimble, a key architect of the Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland almost a quarter of a century ago, has died after a short illness. He was 77. The Ulster Unionist party, which Trimble led from 1995-2005, released a brief statement from his family saying the politician had died earlier
The chemicals sector faces a £2bn hit of post-Brexit red tape, twice the cost of initial industry estimates, as Britain sets up its own regulatory regime, ministers have warned. While Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak have promised to “axe EU red tape” during the Tory leadership campaign, the cost of homegrown British red tape after
The total crypto market capitalization broke above $1 trillion on July 18 after an agonizing thirty-five-day stint below the key psychological level. Over the next seven days, Bitcoin (BTC) traded flat near $22,400 and Ether (ETH) faced a 0.5% correction to $1,560. The total crypto capitalization closed July 24 at $1.03 trillion, a modest 0.5%
Municipals were little changed Monday while U.S. Treasuries were weaker and equities were mixed near the close. With a steady muni yield curve and weaker USTs, muni to UST ratios on Monday fell slightly. They were at 67% in five years, 85% in 10 years and 98% in 30 years, according to Refinitiv MMD’s 3
Cleveland heads into the market this week with an upgrade helped along by its decision to tap surpluses to bolster reserve levels. Moody’s Investors Service raised the city’s rating to Aa3 from A1 while S&P Global Ratings affirmed its AA-plus. Both assign a stable outlook.Moody’s action recognizes a “strengthening of fund balance and liquidity,” analysts
After people have accused bureaucrats and government agencies of changing definitions during the last few years, Joe Biden’s administration now claims that a second consecutive quarter of negative gross domestic product (GDP) does not indicate the U.S. is in a recession. This is despite the fact that two negative GDPs have always been considered a
Bitcoin (BTC) and most major altcoins are witnessing profit-booking on July 25 as the bulls scale back their positions before the Federal Open Market Committee meeting on July 26 through July 27. This indicates that the sentiment remains fragile and that bulls are not confident about carrying long positions into the event. Several analysts have