NexChangeNOW Daily Briefing – Thursday Dec 05, 2019

Listen to the audio:

What Moved Global Markets
– NATO leaders set aside public insults ranging from “delinquent” to “brain dead” and “two-faced” on Wednesday, declaring at a 70th anniversary summit they would stand together against a common threat from Russia and prepare for China’s rise. Officials insisted the summit was a success: most notably, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan backed off from a threat to block plans to defend northern and eastern Europe unless allies declared Kurdish fighters in Syria terrorists. President Donald Trump on Wednesday abruptly cancelled a press conference that was scheduled before.
– Wall Street gained ground on Wednesday in a broad-based rally as investor sentiment brightened after U.S. President Donald Trump said talks with China on an interim trade deal were going “very well.” All three major U.S. stock indexes were on course to snap a three-day losing streak, with financials and tariff-sensitive technology stocks leading the charge.
– Oil jumps more than 4% on eve of OPEC meeting after larger-than-expected drop in US inventories.
– OneConnect Financial Technology, the blockchain and AI subsidiary of China’s top insurance company Ping An Insurance, has set the terms for its previously announced initial public offering (IPO). According to an updated F-1 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday, the firm aims to raise between $432 million and $504 million via the offering of 36 million American depositary shares (ADSs) at a price of between $12 and $14.

Crypto Prices (from CoinMarketCap)
Bitcoin: Up 0.69% to $7.263.84
Total trading volume (24h): $20.98+ billion USD

Ethereum: Up 0.47% to $146.52
Total trading volume (24h): $7.57+ billion USD

3 biggest movers 24 hours
Biggest Mover 1: Rupiah Token is up 268.77% to $0.000299
Biggest Mover 2: ProChain is up 67.90% to $0.082863
Biggest Loser: adToken is down 61.96% to $0.003420

What moved Crypto Markets (i.e. digital assets)
– Binance took down 5 new trading pairs: PERL/USDC, ADX/BNB, POA/BNB, GNT/BNB, ARDR/BNB.
– The Binance edition blockchain smartphone by HTC introduced last month is going on sale tomorrow on HTC’s EXODUS website.
– Bakkt news: Kelly Loeffler, CEO of ICE-backed crypto exchange Bakkt, will serve Georgia as a U.S. Senator starting January 2020. She will step down from her post at Bakkt after 16 years of working for ICE and leading the company’s crypto startup since its launch. Monday’s open interest on Bakkt Bitcoin futures reached a new all-time high of $6.5 million.
– Cryptocurrency finance firm Circle and cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex parted ways last month. Now Circle has said that if Poloniex’s U.S. customers don’t withdraw funds from its platform, they will be subject to fees.

Other Specialties
Fintech: France is looking to test central bank-issued digital currency in 2020, according to news site AFP. The central bank’s governor François Villeroy de Galhau said that the bank would start testing digital currency soon and “will launch a call for projects before the end of the first quarter of 2020,” per the AFP report.
Healthtech: Google details AI that classifies chest X-rays with human-level accuracy. The study’s publication comes months after Google AI and Northwestern Medicine scientists created a model capable of detecting lung cancer from screening tests better than human radiologists with an average of eight years experience.
Al: Interesting WIRED interview with Facebook’s Head of AI, who says the field will soon ‘hit the wall.’
Smart cities: A new report about the safest cities in the US. Columbia, MD is the safest city in America for the second consecutive year, according to research from WalletHub. Yonkers, NY; Plano, TX; Gilbert, AZ; and South Burlington, VT rounded out the top five cities, while St. Louis; Ft. Lauderdale, FL; San Bernardino, CA; Detroit; and Baton Rouge, LA landed on the bottom of the list.

NexChangeNOW Pick of the Day
Blockchain-Based Ride Hailer Tada Closes $5m Series A