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What Moved Global Markets
– Beijing is insisting U.S. tariffs must be rolled back as part of any phase one trade deal with Washington, China’s Global Times newspaper said on Sunday citing unnamed sources, amid continued uncertainty on whether the two sides can strike a deal.
– China’s central bank governor said on Sunday that the country should maintain “normal” monetary policy as long as possible since economic growth is still within a reasonable range and inflation is mild overall. The exchange rate of China’s yuan is decided by the markets’ supply and demand, it will not resort to competitive devaluation of the yuan, Yi Gang wrote in an article published by the leading Communist Party theoretical journal Qiushi.
– U.S. shoppers made more purchases online on Black Friday than in the mall, according to data that offered a glimpse into what is still one of the busiest shopping days of the year.
– EU antitrust regulators are investigating Google’s collection of data, the European Commission told Reuters on Saturday, suggesting the world’s most popular internet search engine remains in its sights despite record fines in recent years. Competition enforcers on both sides of the Atlantic are now looking into how dominant tech companies use and monetise data.
Crypto Prices (from CoinMarketCap)
Bitcoin: Up 0.32% to $7.463.49
Total trading volume (24h): $18.16+ billion USD
Ethereum: Up 1.60% to $151.96
Total trading volume (24h): $6.91+ billion USD
3 biggest movers 24 hours
Biggest Mover 1: Blockium (BOK) is up 188.97% to $0.001716
Biggest Mover 2: Sumokoin (SUMO) is up 95.03% to $0.279848
Biggest Loser: Fusion (FSN) is down 59.58% to $0.249549
(CoinMarketCap received reports that Huobi has temporarily suspended withdrawals and deposits of FSN due to technical issues.)
What moved Crypto Markets (i.e. digital assets)
– Bitcoin fell back towards support at the $7,250-$7,300 level on Dec. 1 after its latest sudden uptick began to fizzle overnight.
– From next year, banks in Germany will be allowed to offer the sale and storage of cryptocurrencies under new legislation. Previously, banks were barred from offering direct access to crypto assets, but the new law implementing the fourth EU Money Laundering Directive would change that, according to local business newspaper The Handelsblatt in a report on Wednesday. The bill has already been passed by the German federal parliament, the Bundestag, and is expected to be signed off by the nation’s 16 states.
– An American Citizen arrested for educating North Korea on blockchain and cryptocurrencies. According to the November 29 announcement, the 36-year-old Virgil Griffith, who is an Ethereum research scientist, was arrested at the Los Angeles International Airport, and will be charged with conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The charges carry a maximum term of 20 years in prison.
– Galaxy Digital, the cryptocurrency investment bank helmed by Mike Novogratz, pocketed $58.4 million in net income in the first three quarters of 2019, a 133% jump from the same period last year.
Other Specialties
Fintech: Fintech news from Africa. Nigeria’s Financial Technology (Fintech) community has received a boost of $40m seed fund. PalmPay, the latest fintech startup to receive seed funding has already said it is working on partnerships in the areas of payment systems integrations, e-commerce, lending and communications.
Healthtech: CNBC reports: Digital health companies are struggling in part because the clinical teams and the product teams are at odds. Start-ups in the industry raised $8 billion last year, and exits are just starting to produce returns. A company called Omada Health is working on solutions to bridge the gap.
Al: French AI startup Foodvisor has raised a $4.5 million funding round after generating 2 million app downloads. Agrinnovation is leading the round and various business angels are also participating. Foodvisor calculates the distance between your plate and your phone using autofocus data from the camera. It then calculates the area of each item in your plate.
Smart cities: The “Global Smart Cities – Telecoms Infrastructure Plays a Key Role” report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com’s offering. This annual publication provides analyses on overall smart city developments and identifies the leading countries from around the world. It includes valuable statistics and information on the key telecoms infrastructure required for our smart cities (fixed broadband and mobile technologies based on 4G and 5G). The report also provides case studies on two countries which are considered leaders in this area (Singapore and Hong Kong).
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