NexChangeNOW Daily Briefing – Wednesday Nov 27, 2019

    Listen to the audio:

    What Moved Global Markets
    – The United States was in the “final throes” in its attempt to reach a deal with China, Trump said, although he added Washington stood with protesters in Hong Kong, a sore point with Beijing. Wall Street’s three main indexes hit all-time highs on Tuesday, as comments by President Donald Trump on trade as well as gains for Disney and Best Buy countered weak consumer confidence data.
    – The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has collected over $1.3 billion in regulatory penalties in the fiscal year 2019. The figure is 40% more than the FY2018 amount, and fourth-highest total in its history. The SEC, on the other hand, collected over $4.3 billion in penalties in 2019.
    – China raised $6 billion in its biggest-ever international sovereign bond sale on Tuesday.
    – The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said on Tuesday it had ordered Goldman Sachs to pay $1 million for failing to make and keep certain audio recordings in relation to its swap trading business. The agency found that a software problem resulted in the bank failing to record the phone lines of trading and sales desks for around three weeks in 2014. 
    – The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) said on Tuesday it had filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to allow companies going public through a direct listing, instead of an initial public offering, to raise capital.

    Crypto Prices (from CoinMarketCap)
    Bitcoin: Up 0.59% to $7.230.37
    Total trading volume (24h): $20.22+ billion USD

    Ethereum: Up 1.62% to $149.49
    Total trading volume (24h): $7.42+ billion USD

    3 biggest movers 24 hours
    Biggest Mover 1: KAASO is up 144.82% to $0.022631
    Biggest Mover 2: UnlimitedIP is up 121.59% to $0.019633
    Biggest Loser: BitBall is down 77.79% to $0.001317

    What moved Crypto Markets (i.e. digital assets)
    – Bitcoin piqué: Michael Novogratz, the billionaire CEO of Galaxy Digital, feels bitcoin needs to break above $7,500 to avoid being stuck in the less pleasant $6,000–$7,400 range.
    – Analyst Peter Brandt: “a prolonged journey below the line might be needed to thoroughly prepare BTC for the move to $50,000. The bulls must first be fully purged.”
    – Charles Hoskinson: “We will see 10k btc again and welcome 100k”.
    – Payments startup Ripple has completed the acquisition of its $50 million stake in remittance platform MoneyGram.
    – One of China’s first goals with its central bank digital currency is to facilitate retail payments, former head of the People’s Bank of China Xiaochuan Zhou said.
    – Decentralized exchanges showed new record volumes.

    Other Specialties
    Fintech: BRICS economic bloc, are engaging in discussions to issue cross-national digital money in order to reduce the dependence of their economies on the US dollar and SWIFT.
    Healthtech: Amazon Alexa launches new feature that reminds customers when to take meds. 
    Al: Taiwan-based artificial intelligence (AI) start-up Appier, which helps companies use artificial intelligence to make marketing decisions, said on Tuesday that it has raised $80 million in its latest round of funding, a Series D round, from investors including TGVest Capital and Hopu Investments. That brings the total amount raised by Appier to $162 million.
    Smart cities: Uber plans to expand a safety feature that allows drivers and riders to take audio recordings of their rides to markets in the United States, according to a report in The Washington Post. The recordings would be used to investigate safety incidents.

    NexChangeNOW Pick of the Day
    BNY Mellon Joins Marco Polo Trade Finance Consortium