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What Moved Global Markets
– Iranian missile attacks on two Iraqi military bases housing American troops early Wednesday was a “slap on the face” to the U.S. but “not enough,” Iran’s supreme leader said. Battle damage assessments of the overnight attack, which saw more than a dozen ballistic missiles hit Ain al-Asad airbase in Iraq’s western Anbar province and a base in Irbil in the country’s north, are ongoing.
– Boeing 737 plane bound for Kyiv, Ukraine, crashed in Iran, killing all 176 people on board. The cause of the crash is still unknown.
– President Trump said Wednesday that Iran “appears to be standing down” after Tehran fired missile barrages on US targets in Iraq. But the U.S. will “immediately impose additional punishing economic sanctions on the Iranian regime,” Trump said. And he vowed that “Iran will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon” while he’s president. After his speech, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq hit record highs.
– Oil sinks 5% to under $60.
– Apple this morning released a year-end retrospective of its Services business, which includes the App Store, Apple Music, iCloud and, new in 2019, Apple Arcade, Apple TV+, Apple News+ and Apple Card. In particular, the company highlighted new holiday 2019 records set on the App Store, which sees over a half a billion visits from people in 155 countries per week. To date, App Store developers have earned over $155 billion. What’s remarkable is that a quarter of those earnings came in last year alone. Apple also noted it saw a busy holiday season on the App Store, with customer spending reaching $1.42 billion between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.
Crypto Prices (from CoinMarketCap)
Bitcoin: Down 3.97% to $7995.62
Total trading volume (24h): $29.84+ billion USD
Ethereum: Down 3.02% to $140.83
Total trading volume (24h): $8.95+ billion USD
3 biggest movers 24 hours
Biggest Mover 1: DAD Chain (DAD) is up 121.25% to $0.289776
Biggest Mover 2: QURA GLOBAL (QURA) is up 118.53% to $0.111090
Biggest Loser: DEX (DEX) is down 54.55% to $0.017630
What moved Crypto Markets (i.e. digital assets)
– The cryptocurrency community is again showing its commitment to support charitable goals around the world. Binance has donated $1 million to help with Australian fire relief efforts and invites the community to join the initiative. The recent bushfire season is considered to be the worst in living memory, causing billions in damages.
– AliPay operator Ant Financial is about to roll out its enterprise blockchain platform. It is set to go live next month. Guofei Jiang, vice president of Ant Financial, said that the platform will help small and micro enterprises to develop their own blockchain applications at a lower cost.
– Kelly Loeffler, former CEO of bitcoin derivatives exchange Bakkt and a newly-appointed U.S. Senator, has joined the committee that oversees the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Loeffler’s appointment to the committee raises concerns about a possible conflict of interest. Her husband, Jeffrey Sprecher, is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), which is regulated by the CFTC.
– Coinbase rolls out Android app for professional investors. The app, available in over 100 countries, allows users to trade and check their portfolios on the go. It supports more than 50 trading pairs, including bitcoin (BTC)-U.S. dollar (USD), ether (ETH)-USD and XRP-USD.
Other Specialties
Fintech: The provincial government of Anhui, China, has announced a plan to adopt blockchain technology across governmental service centres. As a part of the plan, all levels of governments in Anhui will start utilizing new technologies including blockchain and artificial intelligence to offer governmental services on a 24/7 basis.
Healthtech: another unicorn has just popped up in the healthcare field. A company called ClassPass announced the close of a $285 million Series E funding round. This latest round brings ClassPass’s valuation to $1 billion. ClassPass launched in 2013 to give users an easier way to work out. The company partners with boutique fitness studios, letting users search through that inventory and book a class all from their smartphone.
Al: White House proposes guidelines for AI regulations. The Trump administration is proposing new rules to guide future federal regulation of artificial intelligence that is used in medicine, transportation and other industries. But the vagueness of the principles announced by the White House is unlikely to satisfy AI watchdogs who have warned of a lack of accountability as computer systems are deployed to take on human roles in high-risk social settings, such as mortgage lending or job recruitment. The White House said that in deciding regulatory action, U.S. agencies “must consider fairness, non-discrimination, openness, transparency, safety, and security.” The rules won’t affect how federal agencies such as law enforcement use facial recognition and other forms of AI. They are specifically limited to how federal agencies devise new AI regulations for the private sector. There’s a 60-day public comment period before the rules take effect.
Smart cities: Toyota announced plans to build a fully connected, prototype city of the future at the base of Mt. Fuji in Japan. A phased groundbreaking is expected early next year, and Denmark’s Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) will be the architects. The 175-acre site, called Woven City, will run on hydrogen fuel cells and house full-time residents including Toyota employees and their families, retirees, retailers and researchers. It will serve as a real-world testbed for technologies including autonomous vehicles (AVs), robotics, personal mobility, artificial intelligence (AI) and smart homes. About 2,000 people initially will live there and more could join as the project matures.
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