Month: December 2017

Bitcoin drops more than 12% as top cryptocurrency marketplace starts supporting rival bitcoin cash

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Analyst who predicted bitcoin’s rise now sees it hitting $300,000-$400,000

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Bitcoin will surge past $20,000 and continue its meteoric march into six figures, according to independent research analyst Ronnie Moas.

“Bitcoin is already up 500 percent since I recommended it in the beginning of July, and I’m looking for another 500 percent move from here,” said Moas, the founder of Standpoint Research, a self-described “one-man operation” based in Miami.

Over the summer, Moas put a $5,000 price target on bitcoin for 2018. At the time, the digital currency was trading at just $2,600. Since then, it has surged to $18,168 as of Monday, according to prices tracked on Coinbase.

“The end-game on bitcoin is that it will hit $300,000 to $400,000 in my opinion, and it will be the most valuable currency in the world,” Moas told CNBC’s “The Rundown.”

The analyst’s comments came as the CME, the world’s largest futures exchange, launched its own bitcoin futures contract. The Cboe did the same earlier this month.

His aggressively bullish call — a near-$380,000 dollar appreciation on today’s prices — is based on the idea that since only 21 million bitcoin can ever exist. Increasing demand for the digital currency will naturally drive its price up, he said.

“I don’t know how much gold there is in the ground, but I know how much bitcoin there is, and in two years there will be 300 million people in the world trying to get their hands on a few million bitcoin. This mind-boggling supply and demand imbalance is what is going to drive the price higher,” Moas said.

Not everyone agrees

Moas said he believes his price target is a conservative call, but others disagree.

“We think that it’s risky,” Vasu Menon, vice president of Wealth Management at Singapore-based bank OCBC, told CNBC.

“I don’t see strong fundamental drivers for this bitcoin rally,” he said.

But Moas says the party is just getting started.

“I look at bitcoin the same way I look at Amazon,” he said. “The way to play Amazon for the last 15 years was to buy it, hold it, and add on the dips. That’s exactly the way I think people should be playing bitcoin.”

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Asian stocks rise as investors bet on US tax reform

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Most major Asian indexes on Monday were given a boost by investor optimism that a plan to reduce corporate taxes would be passed stateside.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 added 1.15 percent early in the session as trading houses and banks rose. Tech and automaker blue-chips also saw gains. Toyota rose 2.37 percent, Sony gained 2.22 percent and SoftBank climbed 1.14 percent.

Korea’s Kospi came under slight pressure, trading 0.08 percent under the flat line. Steelmakers traded lower, with Posco and Hyundai Steel down 3.6 percent and 4.68 percent, respectively, even though Samsung Electronics inched higher by 0.36 percent.

Shares of automakers underperformed the broader Kospi index, with Hyundai Motor off 0.32 percent. Yonhap news reported last Friday that Hyundai workers at the automaker’s Ulsan factories would be on strike on Monday and Tuesday after the company failed to meet their demands for a raise in wages.

In Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.64 percent as resource stocks gave a boost to the overall index. Rio Tinto climbed 0.98 percent and Fortescue Metals rose 1.75 percent. Banking shares were also higher on Monday, with ANZ rising 1.91 percent after the bank announced it would buy back up to USD 1.5 billion shares on-market.

In the US, Republicans unveiled their final tax plan on Friday as two holdout GOP senators indicated they would support the tax bill after compromises were made. Among the provisions that made the cut was a reduction in the corporate tax rate from the existing 35 percent to 21 percent, with effect from 2018.

Republicans intend to pass the measures by the middle of this week.

US stocks closed at record levels, with the Dow Jones industrial average gaining 0.58 percent, or 143.08 points, to close at 24,651.74.

The dollar held onto gains made in the last session. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six currencies, rose as high as 93.997 on Friday. At 8:26 a.m. HK/SIN, the dollar index stood at 94.010.

Against the Japanese currency, the dollar inched higher to trade at 112.74.

Bitcoin takes its place on a bigger stage

Meanwhile, CME launched its bitcoin futures contract at 6 p.m. ET Sunday, or 7 a.m. HK/SIN, under the ticker “BTC.” The front-month contract traded at USD 19,480 at 8:30 a.m. HK/SIN. Spot prices were down around 1.6 percent on the day at USD 18,781.39, according to the CoinDesk index.

That came on the heels of bitcoin futures beginning trade on the Cboe Futures Exchange earlier this month. Those moves come as investor interest in the cryptocurrency grows following the rapid rise in bitcoin prices this year.

Corporate news

Shares of Obayashi Corp. were off 0.07 percent following Nikkei headlines that Japanese prosecutors are likely to raid the company’s offices as part of a bid-rigging investigation. Other Japanese construction companies Nikkei said was involved in the probe were also lower on the day: Taisei Corporation was down 1.63 percent, Shimizu Corporation shed 0.49 percent and Kajima Corporation fell 2.51 percent.

Meanwhile, stock exchange operator Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing announced plans on Friday to loosen existing listing rules in a bid to improve competitiveness. In its proposal are plans to allow the listings of biotechnology issuers in the pre-profit stage and to accept issuers with dual share classes, subject to safeguards.

What’s on tap

Here’s the economic calendar for Monday (all times in HK/SIN):

9:30 a.m.: China house price index
12:00 p.m.: Malaysia October unemployment rate

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

US Fed hikes rates by 25 bps, raises growth outlook for economy

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Here’s why bitcoin prices are different on each exchange

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Bitcoin prices vary depending on the exchange they’re trading on.

For instance, as of 10:50 a.m. ET on Tuesday, Bitcoin was trading on these exchanges at the following price points:

Kraken – $17,212
GDAX – $17,150
Gemini – $17,039
Bitfinex – $16,957
Bitstamp – $16,979
The varying prices come down to a few things.

First, liquidity. Bitcoin trading volume can be massive on the larger exchanges, such as the ones above, but much lower on smaller exchanges. Those differences in supply affect the price.

Second, there’s no established common way to price bitcoin, which means nobody knows what it’s “supposed” to cost, and the price is based purely on trading.

Third, moving money across exchanges can be messy and inefficient, and requires lots of collateral to do efficiently. That means it’s hard for traders to arbitrage differences across exchanges, which allows these price differences to persist for longer than they would in a more efficient market.

Finally, Pisani says there’s an “infrastructure issue” wherein buyers can’t currently quickly buy bitcoin across multiple exchanges at once, again, making it hard to arbitrage these price differences. Pisani says this will be something that needs to be looked into during the next year as bitcoin increases in popularity.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Apple’s up 43,000 percent since its IPO, and could soon surpass $1 trillion in market cap

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Apple just celebrated a new milestone – 37 years since its IPO.

Apple made its Wall Street debut on Dec. 12, 1980, at $22 per share, or 39 cents split adjusted, and since then the stock has gained more than 43,600 percent to trade near $172 on Tuesday. For reference, the S&P 500 is up just shy of 2,000 percent, while the Dow is up roughly 2,500 percent and the Nasdaq has rallied more than 3,000 percent during that time.

According to Todd Gordon, founder of TradingAnalysis.com, the stock looks as though it could soon be crossing another major level — $1 trillion in market cap.

Looking at a chart of Apple, Gordon noted that a parallel uptrend channel has formed over the past year. As the bottom line continues to serve as support, Gordon believe that the stock could soon reach the top of the channel at $190 in the next few months.

“You’ll see that we’ll likely greet that ceiling somewhere around the $190 region, which that will put Apple at that $1 trillion valuation,” he said Tuesday on CNBC’s “Trading Nation.” “So the way I look at this chart is we have a chance to move up. We are a little bit in the middle of this channel, meaning we’re not down at support, we’re not up at resistance. So what I’d do rather than buy options to get bullish, I’d like to sell options also to be bullish.”

To play for the move higher, Gordon recommended selling the January 19 weekly 170/165 put spread collecting $1.48 or $148 per options contract. This is a bullish strategy that allows Gordon to see profits if the stock rallies, stays where it is, or even falls slightly.

“We do have a skewed reward to risk ratio, but being that we have profitability all the way down another couple dollars below us, we have a high probability of success,” Gordon said.

As a result, he advised traders stop out of the strategy at $165, as that is also the bottom end of the parallel channel that he initially established on the charts.

“If we do break through the $165 area between now and January expiration, we will have some premium remaining, and we will get out of that trade,” he said.

Apple is currently up more than 48 percent year to date.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Top buy & sell ideas by Ashwani Gujral, Mitessh Thakkar & Prakash Gaba for December 11

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Nifty50 futures on the Singapore Stock Exchange were trading 40 points higher at 10329 indicating a positive opening for the domestic market.

Moneycontrol.com has collated a list of trading ideas from top market experts which one can take cues for better returns:

Ashwani Gujral of ashwanigujral.com

Buy Sonata Software with a stoploss of Rs 233, target Rs 248

Buy Bombay Dyeing with a stoploss of Rs 225, target Rs 242

Buy PC Jeweller with a stoploss of Rs 410, target Rs 435

Buy Piramal Enterprises with a stoploss of Rs 2850, target Rs 2970

Buy Pidilite Industries with a stoploss of Rs 880, target Rs 930

Buy Jet Airways with a stoploss of Rs 685, target Rs 710

Buy Arvind with a stoploss of Rs 442, target Rs 460

Buy Indian Bank with a stoploss of Rs 383, target Rs 400

Mitessh Thakkar of miteshthacker.com

Buy Axis Bank with a target of Rs 555, stoploss at Rs 537.50

Buy Dabur India with a target of Rs 362, stoploss at Rs 345

Buy Divis Laboratories with a target of Rs 1095, stoploss at Rs 1029

Sell Jet Airways with a target of Rs 640, stoploss at Rs 680

Buy MRF with a target of Rs 69500, stoploss at Rs 67500

Buy Indian Bank with a stoploss of Rs 379, target of Rs 405

Buy Ruchira Papers with a stoploss of Rs 175, target of Rs 198

Prakash Gaba of prakashgaba.com

Buy Indian Oil Corporation with a target of Rs 415, stoploss at Rs 396

Granules can climb to around Rs 135, keep stoploss at Rs 129

M&M can climb to around Rs 1427, keep stoploss at Rs 1389

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Asia markets narrowly mixed; bitcoin futures make their big debut

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Asian markets were narrowly mixed in early Monday trade, following a positive finish in the US last Friday after the release of a stronger-than-expected jobs report.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 edged higher by 0.06 percent as most trading houses, automakers and banks climbed. Tech shares, however, were a mixed picture, with Sony falling 1.09 percent and SoftBank Group higher by 0.47 percent in early trade.

Shares of construction company Obayashi Corporation were down 5.44 percent. The move followed a report from local newspaper Asahi Shimbun that prosecutors suspected the company was involved in bid-rigging.

Across the Korean Strait, the Kospi shed 0.1 percent as automakers, brokerages and blue-chip tech stocks declined. Samsung Electronics was off 0.69 percent and SK Hynix edged down 0.51 percent.

Down Under, the S&P/ASX 200 was little changed, trading just 0.02 percent below the flat line. Moderate gains in the energy and materials sub-indexes were offset by losses seen in utilities and consumer discretionary stocks.

In the currency market, the dollar held firm after rising against a basket of rivals from levels below 93.300 in the previous week to 93.892 on Monday morning at 8:25 a.m. HK/SIN.

Among other major currencies, the Japanese yen was steady, trading at 113.51 to the dollar. The Australian dollar traded at USD 0.7504 and the euro last traded at USD 1.1770.

The US economy added 228,000 jobs last month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Economists polled by Reuters expected a gain of 200,000. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.1 percent.

Bitcoin futures hit the markets

Elsewhere, bitcoin traded at USD 15,260.15 at 8:25 a.m. HK/SIN, according to data from Coindesk. The cryptocurrency has seen a more than 1,600 percent jump since the start of the year and topped USD 16,700 per token as of December 7 — although at least one exchange had seen the price exceed USD 19,000.

The Cboe Futures Exchange started trading in Cboe bitcoin futures at about 6 p.m. ET (7 a.m. HK/SIN) under the ticker symbol XBT. The Cboe is the first of the regulated exchanges in the United States to offer a futures contract for the cryptocurrency. Commentators have said that might offer bitcoin some legitimacy in the eyes of institutional investors.

The Cboe Global Markets website was temporarily down when the cryptocurrency futures began trading on Sunday evening US time. Cboe subsequently told Reuters that its trading systems were “operating normally.”

The CME Group will also launch its own bitcoin futures which would add to further legitimacy for the cryptocurrency.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Bitcoin tops record $19,000 on Coinbase exchange, then plunges in wild 2-day ride

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Bitcoin rocketed above $19,000 for the first time on Thursday before falling sharply from its record high.

In trading on the Coinbase exchange, the digital currency hit a high of $19,340 before falling more than 20 percent from that level to $15,198.63. At 4:08 p.m. New York time, the cryptocurrency traded at $16,362.99. The price on Coinbase is often at a premium over other exchanges. Coinbase is one of the major cryptocurrency exchanges accounting for a third of bitcoin trading volume.

“It goes without saying that prices have reached a level where sentiment is exhibiting short-term euphoria,” said Mark Newton, managing member at Newton Advisors, in a note to clients. “But to think prices are at mania levels where this could suffer a serious crash here… is a bit ridiculous.”

In pics: Bubble or not! Facts you might not know about bitcoin rally

“I truly don’t think people are involved on a mass scale yet. We’ve heard the fraud claims. Now we need people profiting immensely all around us and making forecasts for $1 million, etc., for it to truly have reached a euphoric peak,” Newton said.

Despite its wild ride, bitcoin now has a market value of more than $270 billion, meaning it would rank among the 20 largest stocks in the S&P 500.

The latest swing higher came as bitcoin topped $12,000 Tuesday night in a rapid recovery from a 20 percent drop last week.

Between 5 and 6 a.m. New York time Wednesday, bitcoin jumped past $15,000, and the day’s wild ride began.

The digital currency began the year below $1,000 and its gains have accelerated as investor interest grows. Chicago-based Cboe Global Markets is planning to launch bitcoin futures on Sunday, while the world’s largest futures exchange, CME, is set to launch its futures product the following week. The addition of bitcoin futures by two respected exchanges marks another step towards establishing the digital currency as a legitimate asset class.

While we launched [in the U.S.] just a week ago, bitFlyer has already seen strong interest from institutions looking to gain exposure to bitcoin. We’re glad to have expanded to the US at this time with so much interest due to the impending Bitcoin futures launches,” bitFlyer COO Bartek Ringwelski, said in an email. The Tokyo-based digital currency exchange is the largest in the world by trading volume and announced last week it received a “BitLicense” to operate in New York.

However, many remain critical of bitcoin. JPMorgan Chase Jamie Dimon has called bitcoin a “fraud.” Digital currency investor and former Fortress hedge fund manager Michael Novogratz also said last week that cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are “going to be the biggest bubble of our lifetimes.” Novogratz also predicted last week that bitcoin could reach $40,000 by the end of next year.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Stocks close higher; tech notches 3-day winning streak

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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U.S. stocks rose on Thursday as technology stocks regained some of the ground they lost in the past week.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 70.57 points to close at 24,211.48, after briefly rising more than 100 points. The S&P 500 advanced 0.3 percent to 2,636.98. Information technology was among the best-performing sectors in the S&P 500, advancing 0.6 percent.

Tech, which is the best-performing sector of the year, had been under pressure recently — falling 0.9 percent over the past week — but posted a three-day winning streak on Thursday.

The Nasdaq composite gained 0.5 percent to finish at 6,812.84, as shares of Facebook and Amazon rose.

Material stocks perked up in late-afternoon trading on news that President Donald Trump plans to unveil an infrastructure spending plan in 2018. Shares of Martin Marietta Materials, Vulcan Materials and Eagle Materials rose 3.5 percent, 3.1 percent and 2.4 percent, respectively.

Wall Street also looked to Washington for clues about tax reform and a possible government shutdown.

Senate members passed a bill on Saturday that would change the U.S. tax code if it became law. Lawmakers in the Senate must now work with House members on a joint tax bill that must be passed before President Donald Trump can sign it. The House had passed another tax bill in November which differs from the Senate’s plan on key items.

“The House tax plan looks like a plan to us; the Senate version looks more like an agglomeration of bits and pieces designed to either capture needed votes (which it did) and/or be bargaining chips in negotiating with the House,” Jonathan Fenby of TS Lombard said in a note this week.

“As for reconciling the two plans, we think the House version generally wins out on the personal side and the Senate version predominates on the business side with one exception – no one-year delay on the corporate tax cut,” Fenby said.

Wall Street has been eagerly waiting for changes to the tax code, lifting stocks to record highs as they expect most companies will likely pay less in corporate taxes.

Investors are also weighing the possibility of a government shutdown. If lawmakers fail to craft a deal on spending by the end of the week, the federal government could close until a deal is struck. President Donald Trump said Wednesday a shutdown “could happen.”

But Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives at Charles Schwab, said he isn’t worried about a government shutdown adversely affecting the market. “After the last three shutdowns, the market has actually gone up,” he said.

In corporate news, Sage Therapeutics skyrocketed 70 percent after announcing positive results from Phase 2 testing of its depression drug known as SAGE-217.

Shares of Shake Shack jumped nearly 8 percent after the fast-casual dining restaurant reported better-than-expected quarterly results.

In economic news, investors looked ahead to the release of the November jobs report. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is set to release the data on Friday at 8:30 a.m. New York time. Economists polled by Reuters expect a gain of 200,000 jobs last month.

“We expect moderate to strong jobs growth in this report,” said Andrew Chamberlain, chief economist at Glassdoor. He noted, however, the labor market is showing signs of slowing down. “But that’s typical. With a 4 percent unemployment rate, there just aren’t enough bodies to put into jobs.”

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow