Decentrader

Decentrader brings you the most timely and relevant updates on the financial, Bitcoin, and cryptocurrency markets.

Stock in Europe and US remain confident

The traditional markets are continuing to make an argument that they are “too big to fail.” Stocks in Europe are hitting a weekly high alongside a rise in the United States’ futures market. 

Driving the market in Europe are commodity producers, travel companies — apparently undeterred by fears of a second-wave of COVID-19 infections in the fall — and retailers. Optimism surrounding the euro zone’s positive economic data may be tempered, however, by deepening cuts into companies’ workforces.

Worth noting is that euro zone PMI reports are scheduled for today.

Meanwhile, stocks in the U.S. have been bolstered somewhat by progress towards another economic stimulus package. A deal is expected by the end of the week — if lawmakers are to be believed. Tensions between Washington and Beijing are still ever-present, however, and are rarely divorced from the market.

Gold surpasses $2,000 per ounce

Gold continues to reap the benefits of a weakening U.S. dollar, hitting prices above $2,000 per ounce for the first time as government stimulus continues to be priced in and ten-year Treasury yields remain low. 

The yellow metal is up roughly 30% this year. Increases are primarily being driven by economic uncertainty surrounding COVID-19, central bank printing, and geopolitical instability — all of which are also benefitting the prices of silver and other precious metals.

Bitcoin catching its breath as futures volume surges

The Bitcoin market remains relatively flat, as of the time of this writing — with the most notable development being Barstool Sports’ founder Dave Portnoy claiming that he “wants to buy all the bitcoins” in an invitation to have Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss explain the leading cryptocurrency to him. The Gemini-founding twins accepted the invitation.

More directly relevant to the markets is the fact that open interest in Bitcoin futures hit a new all-time high of $5.6 billion on Saturday, as per data sourced from skew. Aggregated daily volumes also remain high — though there has been a slight decline over recent days as the market catches its breath.

Chart illustrating aggregated daily trading volume for BTC futures. Source: skew 

Decentrader brings you the most timely and relevant updates on the financial, Bitcoin, and cryptocurrency markets.

Dow winning streak cut short as COVID-19 cases rise

The Dow saw a potential five-day win streak cut short yesterday with a 0.5% drop, though futures seemingly indicate that Friday will open in positive territory. However, optimism could potentially be dampened by the ever-increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the United States — particularly in Florida, which is currently seeing more than 10,000 new infections per day over the last few days.

Tech stocks continue to weigh the market down a bit, with the Nasdaq moving down more than half a percent. Netflix, in particular, is seeing a sharp decline as subscriber growth underwhelms and quarterly earnings disappoint.

Mortgage rates, on the other hand, are bolstering the housing market as buyers look to take advantage of exceedingly-low 30-year fixed-rate home loans.

Finally, talk of a new U.S. coronavirus relief bill may further inflate markets — especially given reports that Democratic leadership believes $1.3 trillion is an insufficient amount and is considering a second round of direct stimulus checks.

Twitter massively breached in Bitcoin-related scam

The Bitcoin world was rocked on Wednesday when some of the world’s most high-profile individuals and entities saw their Twitter accounts hacked in a BTC-related scam. Affected accounts include those belonging to former U.S. president Barack Obama, current presidential candidate Joe Biden, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and various celebrities. Only a relatively small amount of BTC was actually stolen by the bad actors, however, given the total reach of the affected accounts.

Despite the bad press, the price of Bitcoin has largely remained unaffected — seeing only a slight decline amid a period of stagnation and uncertainty regarding its next direction. As the saying goes, “there is no such thing as bad press,” and the first and foremost cryptocurrency has once again, if anything, been thrust into the limelight.

Decentrader brings you the most timely and relevant updates on the financial, Bitcoin, and cryptocurrency markets.

Positive coronavirus vaccine news boosts market confidence

U.S. stock market futures are up significantly following news that Moderna’s candidate for a COVID-19 vaccine successfully produced antibodies in each trial participant. Particularly noteworthy is the bolstered confidence in airline and cruise stocks, as investors are seemingly optimistic about the return of holiday travelers and tourism. At the same time, the Dow Jones Industrial Averaged pumped more than 500 points.

Following JPMorgan Chase’s better-than-expected quarterly earnings report, Goldman Sachs has reported its own boast-worthy numbers. The American multinational investment bank and financial services company saw its stock surge by more than 4% after demolishing analysts’ expectations with reported earnings of $6.26 per share and the best equities trading quarter in over a decade.

Finally, Apple shares are up after 2% after the European Union’s general court ruled that the tech giant won’t need to pay $15 billion in disputed Irish taxes.

Bitcoin volatility disappears as BoE considers CBDC

It is truly the dog days of summer for Bitcoin, which is lazing about with hardly any noteworthy price movements to speak of. The first and foremost cryptocurrency’s volatility is approaching lows not seen since the 40% price crash in November 2018. 

However, the market structure was objectively more bearish two years ago, having reached the end of a long-term descending triangle in which every post-$20,000-peak rally was sold off. This time, analysts and industry pundits are a bit more split on Bitcoin’s next move — though nearly everyone agrees it will be a volatile one.

Bitcoin aside, central bank digital currencies remain a hot topic in the cryptocurrency space — particularly after the Bank of England is reportedly mulling over the idea of launching its own CBDC.

Decentrader brings you the most timely and relevant updates on the financial, Bitcoin, and cryptocurrency markets.

Wall Street attempts recovery after a rough start to the week

The stock market in the United States is trying to keep its footing after a late Monday pullback that saw tech shares weigh heavily on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq — the latter of which briefly hit a new all-time high before closing down 2%. Likewise, the S&P 500 temporarily negated all of its 2020 losses before moving downwards.

Tesla is up 6% in the premarket after announcing a Model Y crossover price cut.

The continuing spread of COVID-19 infections in the U.S. is also constantly present in the minds of investors on Wall Street. Florida, alongside other states, is seeing a surge in new infections as the country records more than 3 million coronavirus cases.

JPMorgan Chase shares are up 2% in the premarket following a better-than-expected quarterly earnings and revenue report in the face of the global coronavirus pandemic.

Bitcoin trades flat as whales distribute and miners grind

The Bitcoin market has largely stagnated in a small trading range. However, important developments continue to take place behind the scenes.

The number of verifiable Bitcoin whales — specifically, addresses holding large sums of BTC — has hit a 14-month low as coins are seemingly being continually distributed. Addresses holding a minimum of 10,000 coins on the first and foremost cryptocurrency’s blockchain have decreased to levels not seen since May 2019.

At the same time, the Bitcoin mining difficulty is higher than ever. On Monday, the metric that measures how difficult it is to mine BTC set a new all-time high of approximately 17.35 trillion — 9.89% higher than the previous all-time high.

Though the price of Bitcoin is largely boring traders, decentralized finance tokens continue to hog the spotlight with seemingly-too-good-to-be-true yields.