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What Moved Global Markets
– Trick, or treat, or impeach. A deeply divided U.S. House of Representatives took a major step in the effort to impeach President Donald Trump on Thursday when lawmakers approved rules for the next, more public, stage in the Democratic-led inquiry into Trump’s attempt to have Ukraine investigate a domestic political rival.
– According to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, U.S. House close to approving trade deal with Mexico and Canada.
– U.S. stocks fell on Thursday as worries that the United States and China may not be able to strike a trade deal overshadowed strong earnings reports from Apple and Facebook. Trump says a Phase I deal will be signed soon that will cover 60% of a deal, but, it’s Trump. He probably made that number up in his head.
– Europe stocks close lower on new trade deal doubts. But you might want to look at defence stocks – European defence spending is up to almost $300 billion a year and rising.
– Twitter bans all political ads, while Facebook’s policy is still very controversial and is under scrutiny from its employees.
Crypto Prices (from CoinMarketCap)
Bitcoin: Down 0.33% to $9,156.35
Drifting down again, but still well up from the $8.5 early in October and up from the $7.5 trough it was in last week.
Total trading volume (24h): $26.2+ billion USD
Ethereum: Down 1.1% to $183.03
Similar trends, but not as extreme as Bitcoin
Total trading volume (24h): $9.5+ billion USD
3 biggest movers 24 hours
Biggest Mover 1: IZIChain up 184% to $0.002473
Biggest Mover 2: Thunder Token up 85% to $0.015202
Biggest Loser: Insureum down 59% to $0.008730
What moved Crypto Markets (i.e. digital assets)
– Global banking regulators said on Thursday they will consider how much capital lenders should be setting aside to cover risks from any holdings of crypto assets. The Basel Committee, which includes banking regulators from the U.S., Europe and Japan, said it had agreed to publish a discussion paper on the prudential treatment of crypto-assets – digital assets like bitcoin.
– Huobi Group, the parent company of cryptocurrency exchange Huobi Global, is expanding to the Middle East by offering the exchange platform as a white-label service. The firm announced on Thursday that Huobi Cloud, a platform that helps companies build their own exchanges, is now available to the Middle East market.
– Canadian investment fund manager 3iQ received initial approval on its long road to launch a closed-end bitcoin fund on either the Toronto Stock Exchange or the TSX Venture Exchange later this quarter.
Crypto ‘buzz’ Trending in Social Media
Coindesk published a leaked transcript of an internal meeting at Bitmain, with details of a long-running power struggle that led to the sudden ousting of co-founder Micree Zhan.
Other Specialties
Fintech: The Association of German Banks, a lobby group of more than 200 private commercial banks, has called for a “programmable” digital euro and a common pan-European payments platform.
Healthtech: Smart Pill bottle prompts patients to take their medications on time and allows doctors to effectively monitor medication.
Al: US replaces China as the top AI venture capital investment hub, according to a new ABI Research report.
Smart cities: Microsoft Research team improved driver tests in India. They customized HAMS, an AI-based tool, to enable precise tracking of a vehicle’s trajectory during test manoeuvres such as parallel parking or negotiating a roundabout.
NexChangeNOW Pick of the Day
October 31st was Bitcoin’s Birthday! http://www.nexchangenow.com/news/71441/happy-birthday-to-bitcoin/