MIEX Offical

The market fell sharply on Thursday after the U.S. economy posted its worst quarter ever—contracting by 32.9% on an annualized basis—while the Nasdaq turned positive thanks to shares of Big Tech companies rising ahead of earnings.   The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.8%, almost 250 points, on Thursday, while the S&P 500 fell 0.4% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 0.4%.   While the broader market fell, the Nasdaq turned positive thanks to shares of Big Tech companies like Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google-parent Alphabet moving higher ahead of second quarter earnings later on Thursday.   “ Tech stocks are working because they’re viewed as a safe haven,” says Mark Freeman, chief investment officer at Socorro Asset Management.   “ Investors are clearly showing that they’re willing to pay for growth right now, while reopening trades have pulled back as the reopening of the country has stalled,” he adds.   Stocks tanked afte...

The price of Bitcoin has stalled under $11,000 after rallying to as high as $11,488 across major exchanges. According to cryptocurrency trader and on-chain analyst Nik Yaremchuk, BTC faces strong resistance that dates back to 2018.   Since February 2018, the $11,500 level has acted as a crucial resistance level for Bitcoin.   When BTC first rejected $11,500 two years ago, the price of Bitcoin dropped below $7,000 in the following month.   In August 2019, BTC rejected the same level. The price of Bitcoin declined to $7,800 in the month that followed.   Historical Data Suggests a Big Resistance Level is Ahead: Arguments For Sellers   Whether the price of Bitcoin will struggle to break above $11,500 in the near term remains an uncertainty.   Historical data indicates it is a large area of resistance for Bitcoin. But that can be comprehended as a price point of significance.   If BTC surges past a level it failed to reclaim for ...

With zero interest rate policy, and massive QE driving rates on the long end of the borrowing curve lower, investors have been looking for an expansion in multiples to drive stock prices up. After all, the claim is that there is no alternative, and with earnings expected to plunge due to the coronavirus pandemic, the only thing that can push stocks higher are the multiples.   But history tends to tell a different story. Low rates do not produce higher multiples, earnings do.   We saw this low-rate narrative before, when rates plunged following the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009. It took years for multiples to expand. Europe has had low rates for just as long of a period, and even multiples in an export-driven, robust economy like Germany have not seen the same level of expansion as we have in the US today.   Yields And Multiples The one-year forward price-to-earnings ratio for the S&P 500 has recently risen to 19.8, its highest since April 2002. Back then...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced during a speech on the Senate floor that a new stimulus bill, referred to as CARES 2, will be unveiled early next week.   White House officials and McConnell have been blunt about their desire for schools to reopen. In his remarks today, McConnell referenced the need for America’s children to be educated and for working parents to have certainty. He also added that the “reopening related funding package north of $100 billion” would be included. Before his announcement, there was speculation of whether funding for schools would be tied to reopening, and this makes it clear that it will indeed be incentive-based.   Teachers across the country have protested school reopenings because they fear that schools are not prepared to receive children safely. Several large school districts have already announced the extension of remote classes into the fall, but it remains to be seen whether financial incentives to reopen will make ...

  Gold prices on Tuesday climbed to a nearly nine-year high as investors continued to seek refuge in the precious metal as a safe haven amid surging Covid-19 infections worldwide.   The local gold price climbed at a moderate pace as the baht strengthened against the US dollar.   The price of gold peaked at US$1,824.5 an ounce on Tuesday, the highest level since September 2011, as global infections surpassed more than 14.8 million cases and over 613,000 deaths.   The SPDR fund bought 4.97 tonnes of gold on Monday after buying 6.43 tonnes last week.   Gold was lifted by a weaker US dollar and fireworks in silver, which climbed 3% to $19.33 an ounce overnight, said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst for Asia-Pacific at forex firm Oanda.   "A move through $1,820 an ounce [for gold] should see more stop-loss sellers, as well as model-driven buyers, hit the market," Mr Halley said. "That could lead to a reasonably rapid spike by gold into...

Bitcoin has had a fraught relationship with governments around the world since it was created a little over ten years ago.   The U.S. looked into the possibility of "shutting down" bitcoin back in 2012 and just last month it was reported president Donald Trump told Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to focus on a bitcoin clampdown over negotiating a China trade deal last year.   Now, as bitcoin is gaining broader support on Wall Street and in Washington, the chief executive of major bitcoin and cryptocurrency investor Digital Currency Group, Barry Silbert, has said he thinks the risk of a "catastrophic" U.S. bitcoin ban is a thing of the past.   "For the first time ever, we're past the 'ban bitcoin' perceived risk," Silbert said, speaking on bitcoin and crypto-asset manager Grayscale's second quarter investor call earlier this week, adding he's "cautiously optimistic" the crypto regulatory landscape in the U.S. to ei...

If this trend persists, President Trump’s White House stay will be bookended by optimistic stock markets accompanying his arrival and his departure.   President Trump campaigned vigorously in 2015/2016, promising, among other things, to bring back former leading U.S. industries, then stagnant: Steel, aluminum, oil & gas and coal. However, he failed, and those groups are dramatically lower, even though the overall stock market rose.   Now, however, those stocks are joining today’s rising market because of Trump, but not for the reasons Trump anticipated. This time, it’s his potential leaving that is creating bullishness.   Following Congress' 2017 year-end tax bill that included reduced corporate taxes, Trump began to act to support his favored industries. He unilaterally (that is, without advisory input or support from Congress) enacted "emergency" tariffs and signed Executive Orders (many reversing established measures and procedures). And he made his int...

The Dow Jones futures are trading higher as traders are optimistic about the Moderna vaccine trial data. It seems like that the nightmare the global economy is living may have a solution. We have seen several events of similar optimism that led to stock market rallies this year. But the fact is that any news that confirms a possible defense against Covid-19 is positive for the coronavirus stock market.   President Trump signed an order yesterday that ends Hong Kong's special status. The US-China relation is still something that investors need to keep an eye on.   The global stock market recorded a positive day. The Japanese Nikkei index recorded most of the gains; it advanced 1.59%. The Shanghai index declined by 0.59% while the HSO index closed mostly flat.   Moderna has been at the forefront of developing a coronavirus vaccine. Yesterday it came out with more positive news. A Covid-19 vaccine that was tested on 45 healthy adults confirmed a boost in their im...

The great lockdown needed to contain the Covid-19 outbreak has been economically devastating. The longer the lockdown, the worse the damage. In response, governments have thrown fiscal caution to the wind and increased spending at unprecedented levels, either to help businesses keep workers on the payroll, as in Europe, or to directly compensate the unemployed, as in the U.S. Consequently, a public sector debt tsunami is coming. If not dealt with effectively, it could do even greater damage than Covid-19.   Making matters worse is the fact that governments in the developed world had allowed their debts to rise in the decade after the global financial crisis despite record-low interest rates. For example, government debt in the U.S. rose from 40% of GDP in 2007 to 89% in 2019, from 44% to 111% in the U.K., and from 81% to 134% in France, according to the OECD. As a result, government debts were high before Covid-19. Though estimates vary, the massive government spending since th...

It looks like China will not meet its Phase One trade deal promise to import more U.S. fuel products, including LNG, market watchers are now saying. Maybe that analysis is too easy to make at this point.   China has as good excuse as any: the economy is climbing out of a pandemic sized hole, and demand is not what it was a year ago. The question is, will that excuse be good enough for the U.S. to keep Phase One in tact? Given that this is an election year, blowing up what President Trump once called a “great deal” may not be politically prudent. For now, China is not going to deliver on its promises and its excuse is reasonable enough.   China said it would spend around $26 billion on U.S. oil and gas purchases this year.   In Washington, Republican lawmakers and U.S. trade groups have been lobbying the White House to prioritize oil, gas and its derivatives in trade negotiations with numerous countries, with China being a prime target. They all want China — th...

The stock market finished lower on Tuesday, cutting a five-day winning streak, as investors worry that surging coronavirus cases across the country could derail an economic recovery.   The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.5%, nearly 400 points, on Tuesday, while the S&P 500 fell 1.1% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 0.9%.   Shares of companies that would benefit from a reopening of the economy—including airlines, cruise stocks and some retailers—moved lower as many states continue to see a spike in new coronavirus infections.   Stocks traded briefly off their lows on news that the U.S. government awarded biotech drugmaker Novavax a $1.6 billion contract to develop a coronavirus vaccine, sending the company’s shares 30% higher.   But the stock market’s gains in recent weeks have come amid a backdrop of increasing coronavirus cases across the United States: The number of hospitalizations grew by 5% or more in 23 states over the weeken...

On June 30, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee held a hearing that covered a whole host of policy topics on the digitization of money and payments. In what was described as a move closer to the U.S. Digital Dollar, the hearing also covered a broad swathe of issues that impact the crypto and blockchain space. Chairman Mike Crapo (R-UT) of the Senate Banking Committee described how Covid-19 has forced Americans to go all-digital at a rapid pace. According to Crapo, his Committee was keen to learn more about new technologies that could replace our current payments system, understand who the new players are, and determine any regulatory policies as well as what the role of the U.S. Government should take in creating its own central bank digital currency. In his opening remarks, Crapo explored the long-standing promise of cryptocurrencies to provide faster, cheaper global payments with a degree of anonymity. Crapo introduced his colleagues to stablecoins as, “...a new type of cryptocurrency ...

Bitcoin hacks and thefts have exploded since bitcoin's epic 2017 bull run saw the price balloon to around $20,000. The bitcoin price has fallen by more than half since its late-2017 all-time high but bitcoin users remain a popular target for hackers.   Now, researchers have warned "millions" of bitcoin users might have been exposed by a newly discovered vulnerability in a number of popular bitcoin wallets.   Bitcoin transactions across three major bitcoin wallets were vulnerable to what some might call a double-spending attack, researchers at Tel Aviv-based bitcoin and crypto company ZenGo have revealed, adding other wallets beyond the nine they tested could be compromised.   The bitcoin wallets known to be affected—Ledger Live, Edge and BRD—have been updated in an effort to prevent the attack after their developers were alerted by ZenGo.   The vulnerability, named BigSpender, allows the attacker to make the wallet holder believe a payment has been ...

With over 500 companies having now joined the advertising boycott of Facebook called for by top civil rights groups, some investors are concerned about the company’s lost revenue—but most Wall Street firms estimate that Facebook is still looking at less than a 5% hit to overall revenue.   Facebook shares initially plunged by 8% last Friday amid an increasing number of big brands—most recently joined by Pfizer, Lego and Dunkin Donuts—announcing that they will stop working with the tech giant as part of the #StopHateforProfits campaign, which has now grown to include more than 500 advertisers.   But Wall Street firms generally remain quite bullish on the stock, with the large majority reiterating buy ratings: Facebook is looking at a less than 5% hit to its overall revenue, said Rohit Kulkarni, an analyst for MKM Partners, in a recent note.   In a scenario where the company loses business from its top 100 advertisers, that would only be around a $1 billion hit t...