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Bitcoin wallet company Xapo announced today that it has received an early nod of approval from a key Swiss regulator.

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US stocks rose to new highs for a second-straight day but finished the trading session little changed. The Dow held above 20,000.

Here's the scoreboard:

• Dow: 20,100.91, +32.40, (0.16%)
• S&P 500: 2,296.68, -1.69, (-0.07%)
• Nasdaq: 5,655.18, -1.16, (-0.02%)

1. Sean Spicer, White House press secretary for President Donald Trump, said the administration is considering a 20% border tax on Mexican imports, according to the White House press pool report.

2. The Mexican peso tumbled after Mexico's president, Enrique Peña Nieto, announced he had canceled a meeting scheduled for next week with Trump. Mexican opposition figures had reportedly urged Peña Nieto to cancel the meeting to protest Trump's demand that Mexico pay for a border wall.
3. Verizon and Charter are exploring a merger. According to The Wall Street Journal, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam approached officials "close to Charter," and they're in preliminary talks.
4. Swiss biotech company Actelion agreed to be purchased by Johnson & Johnson in a $30 billion all-cash deal following weeks of speculation. The offer to acquire all of Actelion's outstanding shares for $280 was unanimously approved. 
5. Caterpillar beat on fourth-quarter earnings but once again lowered its outlook for the year ahead. The industrial-equipment maker said it cut its outlook "due to the strengthening of the US dollar." 
6. New home sales fell to a 10-month low in December, by 10.4% at a seasonally adjusted rate of 536,000. For 2016, sales were the strongest since 2007. 
7. Initial jobless claims rose more than expected last week, by 22,000 to 259,000. Claims have been below 300,000 for 99 straight weeks.

Additionally:

FIAT-CHRYSLER CEO: There's 'no doubt' Trump's economic plans will be an 'overall positive for us'

Trump is making a massive promise about his Obamacare replacement

Home prices in the Hamptons are collapsing

TOP OIL TRADER: Trump’s border tax would make filling your car up with gas more expensive

BERNANKE: There are 2 reasons why the Fed may want to wait on shrinking its balance sheet

UBS asked 2,000 Americans if their loan applications were 'completely accurate and factual,' and the results are worrying

Join the conversation about this story »

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US stocks rose to new highs for a second-straight day but finished the trading session little changed. The Dow held above 20,000.

Here's the scoreboard:

• Dow: 20,099.78, +31.27, (0.16%)
• S&P 500: 2,296.71, -1.66, (-0.07%)
• Nasdaq: 5,656.98, +0.65, (0.01%)

1. The Mexican peso tumbled after Mexico's president, Enrique Peña Nieto, announced he had canceled a meeting scheduled for next week with President Donald Trump. Mexican opposition figures had reportedly  urged Peña Nieto to cancel the meeting to protest Trump's demand that Mexico pay for a border wall.
2. Verizon and Charter are exploring a merger. According to The Wall Street Journal, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam approached officials "close to Charter," and they're in preliminary talks.
3. Swiss biotech company Actelion agreed to be purchased by Johnson & Johnson in a $30 billion all-cash deal, following weeks of speculation. The offer to acquire all of Actelion's outstanding shares for $280 was unanimously approved. 
4. Caterpillar beat on fourth-quarter earnings but once again lowered its outlook for the year ahead. The industrial-equipment maker said it cut its outlook "due to the strengthening of the US dollar." 
5. New home sales fell to a 10-month low in December, by 10.4% at a seasonally adjusted rate of 536,000. But for 2016, sales were the strongest since 2007. 
6. Initial jobless claims rose more than expected last week, by 22,000 to 259,000. Claims have been below 300,000 for 99 straight weeks.

Additionally:

FIAT-CHRYSLER CEO: There's 'no doubt' Trump's economic plans will be an 'overall positive for us'

Trump is making a massive promise about his Obamacare replacement

Home prices in the Hamptons are collapsing

TOP OIL TRADER: Trump’s border tax would make filling your car up with gas more expensive

BERNANKE: There are 2 reasons why the Fed may want to wait on shrinking its balance sheet

UBS asked 2,000 Americans if their loan applications were 'completely accurate and factual,' and the results are worrying

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's how to use one of the many apps to buy and trade bitcoin

Sean Spicer, White House press secretary for President Donald Trump, told reporters on Thursday that the administration is considering a 20% border tax on Mexican imports according to Bloomberg.

Spicer said border tax would be part of a broader tax reform package, according to the report.

The announcement comes the same day that Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto canceled a trip to the US over Trump's proposal to build a wall along the length of the US-Mexico border.

Trump has long said that Mexico will pay for the cost of building the wall, which Republicans have estimated as $12 million to $15 million. Nieto has said Mexico will not pay for the wall.

Developing...

SEE ALSO: Here's how much Trump's Mexican border wall could cost

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Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne is optimistic about President Donald Trump's plans.

During the company's quarterly earnings call on Thursday, Marchionne was asked about the economic agenda and plans of Trump. Marchionne said that the president's plans — including possibly a border tax adjustment and more — are a good thing for the carmaker.

"There's no doubt that the full delivery of the set of financial – the set of economic parameters that President Trump has raised are overall positive for us," said Marchionne.

The CEO argued that the possibility of a border tax adjustment combined with Trump's promise to cut taxes to "15% to 20%" would end up raising profits for Fiat-Chrysler.

"I mean, if we — there's this whole notion of deductibility of capital that the border tax adjustments if properly executed with symmetrical treatment of revenues and cost of goods sold," said Marchionne. "If all those things were to happen including a reduction in corporate rate, these things are all bottom-line accretive."

Marchionne was one of the top executives to meet with Trump at the White House on Tuesday. Trump told leaders that he wanted them to bring more production back from overseas to the US.

According to Marchionne, Fiat-Chrysler is decreasing production of certain Jeep models which may allow the company to bring back some of its production of Ram brand trucks from Mexico in order to appease the president.

"And one of the things the press release made reference to is the fact that although there is no commitment to do so that this realignment would allow at the relevant time for the US manufacture of the Ram heavy-duty truck which is currently being produced in Mexico," said Marchionne.

The carmaker CEO did say that he doesn't expect significant changes in economic policy to happen before 2019.

Marchionne did express some doubt that Trump will be able to pass his entire economic platform, and anticipated continued talks with the administration.

"I'm unsure as to what part of that package, if any, is going to get rolled out," said Marchionne. "And I think we intend to work with President Trump and his staff to try and sort of — at least we gave them our view as to what the impact is."

SEE ALSO: The biggest companies in the world are excited about one of Trump's key economic plans

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The post Four Bitcoin Miners Arrested by Venezuelan Authorities appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

The IRS is pushing back against Coinbase's efforts to intervene in a case over bitcoin user records.

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At least three brokerage reports showed that home prices in the Hamptons plunged in the fourth quarter of last year. 

The luxury real estate company Brown Harris Stevens said prices fell 23.1% to $1.868 million year-over-year. The Corcoran Group put the decline in the South Fork's median price at 11%.  

Ernie Cervi, Corcoran's regional senior vice president, told the New York Post that the slump in activity late last year was related to election uncertainty. Consumer confidence has spiked since the election outcome became clear, and so that could revive the market this year, Cervi noted. 

Housing-market activity in the Hamptons this year could also be tied to how Wall Street professionals perform, since it's a prime location for buying vacation homes. After Hamptons home sales fell in the third quarter, Jonathan Miller, CEO of the real-estate appraisal firm Miller Samuel, tied the drop to weak hedge fund performance. 

The fourth-quarter report prepared by Miller's firm showed a 7.2% drop in the median sales price of Hamptons homes compared to last year. The number of sales closed fell by nearly 15%. Also, it took longer for sales deals to close — about four extra days compared to the same time last year.

At the luxury end of the Hamptons market, the median sales price fell 29.5% to $5.85 million year-on-year, according to Miller Samuel. But this did not deter developers from putting more homes up for sale, as inventory increased 21% in the same period. 

The opposite is happening about 100 miles away in Manhattan, where fewer homes with overzealous prices are being offered for sale as more buyers push back.  

SEE ALSO: 2016 was the best year for the US housing market since the financial crisis

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If the gossip at a recent invite-only bitcoin conference is any indication, news may be forthcoming in the long-simmering Satoshi Nakamoto saga. On the sidelines of the two-day Satoshi Roundtable conference in Cancun, rumors were swirling that new developments in the 'Who is Satoshi?' story once again relate to the controversial Australian academic and entrepreneur Craig Wright, who last May […]

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Microsoft is little changed, up 0.03% at $63.70 a share, ahead of its second-quarter earnings results that are scheduled to cross the wires on Thursday afternoon.

Here are Wall Street's expectations, according to analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg:

• Revenue: $25.266 billion, down 1.7% year-on-year
• EPS (adjusted): $0.786

According to Bloomberg Intelligence, cloud-related products may drive Microsoft results. Microsoft's 2Q results will likely be driven by growth in its cloud application and infrastructure products amid an in-line holiday season for PCs. 

In other news, Microsoft is preparing to enter the work chat market in force with Microsoft Teams. Additionally, the company appointed Kevin Scott as the new chief technology officer on Tuesday.

SEE ALSO: Microsoft appoints Kevin Scott as chief technology officer

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Data on US new-home sales released Thursday confirmed that 2016 was the best year for the housing market since the financial crisis.

Although sales slumped in December — by 10.4% at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 536,000 in December — new home sales were at the strongest level since 2007 for the year 2016.  

Also, data from the National Association of Realtors on Tuesday showed that in 2016, existing home sales were at the strongest level since 2006. 

Interest rates are still near historical lows, and served as one draw for prospective homebuyers last year.

"We expect the upcoming year to bring both headwinds and tailwinds," said Ralph McLaughlin, Trulia's chief economist, in a note. "While higher mortgage rates blow strongly into the face of homebuyers, low existing inventory, near full employment, and rising wages are strong tailwinds that will continue to push new home sales higher in the year ahead."

Tight housing inventory, the recent rise in mortgage rates, and freezing weather may have contributed to the drop in new home sales in December.

"Combined with missed expectations for existing home sales data earlier this week, 2017 so far doesn’t seem to be shaping up to be a banner year for homebuyers," said Svenja Gudell, Zillow's chief economist, in a note. 

SEE ALSO: 'Reality finally caught up' with the most important part of the US housing market

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The post Pro-Bitcoin Congressman Faces Questions as Trump’s Pick for Budget Chief appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

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After a string of several tough quarters, Discover, the smallest of the four major US card networks, made something of a comeback in 2016, especially in the year’s fourth quarter.

The firm posted loan growth across segments, driven largely by card growth — the largest segment of its business — as well as personal lending. And the firm is also seeing growing spend, which could point to a brighter future as the company readjusts before moving ahead. 

The firm is effectively courting new customers, and they’re spending. The network’s total volume was up by 2% on a year-over-year (YoY) basis.

• In 2016, the firm hit its highest number of new accounts since the recession. Like its peers, Discover always wants high credit-score borrowers. But it’s also focused on a segment it calls “revolvers,” which are customers that pay their bills on time, but not in full, which results in interest income. This is a good strategy in the short term, but it could be risky down the line, reflecting strong credit appetite in the US economy that could change and later hurt Discover.
• At the moment, these additions are clear growth drivers for the firm. Discover’s loan growth is skewed 70-75% towards new accounts, CFO Mark Graf noted in the firm’s earnings call. And the firm’s purchase volume and spend is growing overall, which it hasn’t always been doing. Even more, PULSE, Discover’s debit segment that’s been the main drag on the firm’s business for multiple consecutive quarters, posted just a 1% decline in Q4, compared to 6% in Q3 and 15% in Q2, and is expected to return to growth at some point next year. 

Discover is also managing to effectively navigate the card rewards debacle.

• There's a rewards arms race afoot. Increased credit appetite is leading card networks to considerably up their rewards offerings in order to attract customers that may not have been previously interested in credit. That’s hitting issuers hard.
• But Discover, which has warned about an "overheated" rewards market, according to The Wall Street Journal, appears to be taking a different approach. Their customer marketing, which has recently seemed to be focused on attracting lower-credit customers though channels like rewards or its credit scoring app, onboarding them to offerings like the Secured It Card, and then converting them to more lucrative products. This seems to be working — Discover’s loans and revenue grew at roughly the same pace in Q4 2016 — and could help put Discover ahead depending on the way the rewards game escalates moving forward. 

Discover is just one piece of the broader payments ecosystem, which has grown to include merchants, acquirers, processors, issuers, and more.

John Heggestuen, director of research at BI Intelligence, Business Insider’s premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on the payments ecosystem that drills into the industry to explain how a broad range of transactions are processed, including prepaid and store cards, as well as revealing which types of companies are in the best and worst position to capitalize on the latest industry trends.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

• 2016 will be a watershed year for the payments industry. Payments companies are improving security, expanding their mobile offerings, and building commerce capabilities that will give consumers a more compelling reason to make purchases using digital devices.
• Payments is an extremely complex industry. To understand the next big digital opportunity lies, it's critical to understand how the traditional credit- and debit-processing chain works and what roles acquirers, processors, issuing banks, card networks, independent sales organizations, gateways, and software and hardware providers play.
• Alternative technologies could disrupt the processing ecosystem. Devices ranging from refrigerators to smartwatches now feature payment capabilities, which will spur changes in consumer payment behaviors. Likewise, blockchain technology, the protocol that underlies Bitcoin, could one day change how consumer card payments are verified.

In full, the report:

• Uncovers the key themes and trends affecting the payments industry in 2016 and beyond.
• Gives a detailed description of the stakeholders involved in a payment transaction, along with hardware and software providers.
• Offers diagrams and infographics explaining how card transactions are processed and which players are involved in each step.
• Provides charts on our latest forecasts, key company growth, survey results, and more.
• Analyzes the alternative technologies, including blockchain, which could further disrupt the ecosystem.

To get your copy of this invaluable guide, choose one of these options:

1. Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >> START A MEMBERSHIP
2. Purchase the report and download it immediately from our research store. >> BUY THE REPORT

The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the payments ecosystem.

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Google is down 0.54% at $853.78 a share ahead of its fourth quarter earnings announcement on Thursday afternoon.

Here are Wall Street's expectations, according to analyst estimates compiled by Yahoo Finance:

• Revenue: $25.2 billion, up 18% year-on-year.
• EPS (adjusted): $9.67

Besides the numbers, analysts will also be looking for more evidence of Google's ambition to become a hardware company. Its first-ever phone, the Google Pixel, launched to positive reviews, but has struggled to meet demand. Google also released Google Home, an Amazon Echo competitor, and Daydream View, a virtual reality headset for the Pixel, as well as a small number of other Android phones.

Investors will also be on the lookout for "Other Bets", or the separate companies exploring ambitious new businesses, made by Google's parent company, Alphabet. 

On the earnings call, investors will be looking for signs of progress in some of these businesses, as well as an update from Alphabet on its commitment and broader strategy. 

SEE ALSO: What to expect from Alphabet's Q4 earnings: Pay attention to those 'other' bets

Join the conversation about this story »

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Google is down 0.54% at $853.78 a share ahead of its fourth quarter earnings announcement on Thursday afternoon.

Here are Wall Street's expectations, according to analyst estimates compiled by Yahoo Finance:

• Revenue: $25.2 billion, up 18% year-on-year.
• EPS (adjusted): $9.67

Besides the numbers, analysts will also be looking for more evidence of Google's ambition to become a hardware company. Its first-ever phone, the Google Pixel, launched to positive reviews, but has struggled to meet demand. Google also released Google Home, an Amazon Echo competitor, and Daydream View, a virtual reality headset for the Pixel, as well as a small number of other Android phones.

Investors will also be on the lookout for "Other Bets", or the separate companies exploring ambitious new businesses, made by Google's parent company, Alphabet. 

On the earnings call, investors will be looking for signs of progress in some of these businesses, as well as an update from Alphabet on its commitment and broader strategy. 

SEE ALSO: What to expect from Alphabet's Q4 earnings: Pay attention to those 'other' bets

Join the conversation about this story »

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The Mexican peso just tumbled after President Donald Trump tweeted about NAFTA.

The Mexican peso dipped into negative territory and is down by 0.3% at 21.0772 per dollar around 9:04 a.m. ET.

The currency was up by 0.8% at 20.9358 per dollar around 8:50 a.m. ET.

Trump tweeted on Thursday: "The U.S. has a 60 billion dollar trade deficit with Mexico. It has been a one-sided deal from the beginning of NAFTA with massive numbers of jobs and companies lost. If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting."

On Wednesday,  an official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Associated Press the Mexican administration "is considering" scrapping the visit.

And Mexican opposition figures urged president President Enrique Pena Nieto to cancel the meeting to protest his demand of payment for the border wall.

Peña Nieto did not address reports that he was considering canceling the visit, but said in a recorded addresss that was nationally televised, "I regret and reject the decision of the US to build the wall." 

Meanwhile, Trump told ABC News' David Muir in an interview published Wednesday that he wanted construction to begin as soon as possible. When Muir asked whether that meant construction would start within months, Trump said, "I would say in months, yeah."

SEE ALSO: What 25 major world leaders and dictators looked like when they were young

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Initial jobless claims rose more than expected.

Claims rose by 22,000 to 259,000.

Economists had expected claims to tick up to 247,000, according to the Bloomberg consensus.

Claims have been below 300,000 for 99 straight weeks.

Moreover, the four-week moving average came in a 245,000, a decrease of 2,000 from the previous week's revised average, and the lowest level since November 3, 1973.

SEE ALSO: What 25 major world leaders and dictators looked like when they were young

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Caterpillar, the massive industrial equipment supplier, beat on earnings for its fourth quarter but once again lowered its outlook for the year ahead.

The company reported earnings of $0.83 per share for the fourth quarter, better than analysts' projections of $0.66 per share. Revenue came in slightly below expectations at $9.57 billion, analysts had been looking for $9.81 billion.

Once again, however, Caterpillar's outlook was worse than projected with the company projecting full-year 207 earnings per share of $2.90 against analysts' expectations of $3.08 per share.

The company also moved down the mid-point for their expected 2017 sales rangs from $38 billion due to a stronger US dollar.

"Our expectation for sales and revenues in 2017 are now slightly lower due to the strengthening of the U.S. dollar over the past two months, and as a result, our current outlook for sales and revenues in 2017 is a range of $36 billion to $39 billion with a midpoint of $37.5 billion," said a press release from Caterpillar.

Following the announcement Caterpillar's stock was down slightly in pre-market trading. Shares were trading at $97.50 as of 7:50 a.m. ET, a fall of 0.66% from Wednesday's close.

SEE ALSO: The biggest companies in the world are excited about one of Trump's key economic plans

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The post Credit China FinTech Inks $30 Million Deal with Bitcoin Firm BitFury appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Day two at the Satoshi Roundtable saw guests try to break new ground on some of the larger issues facing bitcoin and regroup around its core values.

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From Bitcoin to Kimoji, there's a whole new economy of intangible goods ready for your business to sell.

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