Wall Street - Down Again📉
EU charges Meta for violating antitrust laws
- After European regulators charged the social media behemoth with "distorting competition in the markets for online classified ads," $FB saw its share price drop by around 4% yesterday.
- By linking its online classified advertisements service, Facebook Marketplace, to its social network, Facebook, Meta may have violated the antitrust laws of the European Union, according to the European Commission, the executive branch of the EU.
- A fine of up to 10% of Meta's annual global turnover might be levied against the company if it is determined that it violated EU regulations.
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Banks - the crypto winter ends in 2023
- Before the Christmas holidays, Bitcoin returned to its preferred perch at $17K after a week of economic upheaval and exchange speculations.
- Last Tuesday's lower-than-expected figure for November's inflation sent Bitcoin temporarily above $18K in hopes that the FED would stop raising interest rates in 2023.
- The surge, however, was short-lived, as prices dropped on Wednesday as FED chair Powell stressed the importance of keeping up the fight against inflation.
- Rumors regarding one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges also slowed any bullish momentum.
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According to JP Morgan analysts, the Ethereum Surge will revitalize Ethereum and expand the use cases for blockchain technology. IIn addition, itis anticipated to work "as a catalyst for development in the cryptocurrency markets." Within the upcoming six to twelve months, this improvement is anticipated.
- Other major financial institutions have identified a variety of bullish catalysts, with Bank of America stating that "a greater urgency for regulation may enable greater institutional engagement" and VanEcK asserting that Ethereum, Polygon, Avalanche, Polkadot, and Cosmos are poised to win the next significant wave of institutional adoption.
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US markets decline for the fifth session in a row.
US stocks declined for a fifth session yesterday as market confidence was negatively impacted by the Federal Reserve's most recent rate increase last week.
- Tuesday saw a small decline in European stock markets as traders evaluated the Bank of Japan's unexpected pronouncement and the prognosis for interest rates in 2023.
- To maintain its ultra-loose monetary policy stance, the BoJ, an outlier compared to most other global central banks, likewise kept its benchmark interest rate at -0.1% on Tuesday. It also promised to dramatically raise the rate at which it buys 10-year government bonds.
- Housing Market is in trouble: Building permits, a leading indicator, showed a more dramatic reduction, falling to 1.342 million in November from 1.51 million in October and down 22.4% from the same month last year.
- Looking ahead to the rest of the week, we will learn the November existing home sales figure on Tuesday. There, it is commonly anticipated that the seasonally adjusted annual rate will decrease, dropping from 4.43 million in October to an estimated 4.17 million.
- Sam Bankman-Fried and his close friends donated millions of dollars to US politicians, and FTX will endeavor to recover those funds to help pay back creditors after claims that the contributions were paid for using client funds.