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When Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the owner of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), announced that it was launching a bitcoin market, the move was met with enthusiasm by many within the cryptocurrency industry as a vindication of the legitimacy of the asset class. However, others, including some Wall Street veterans, warned that the “financialization” of

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• President Donald Trump continued to criticize the Federal Reserve's recent monetary policy decision in an interview with Reuters on Monday.
• The statement comes after a report that Trump complained about Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and the central bank's recent interest-rate hikes during a fundraiser in Southampton, New York, on Friday.
• Trump was displeased with Powell's decision to raise interest rates, according to Bloomberg.
• This would not be Trump's first criticism of Powell and the Fed. The president publicly questioned the interest-rate hikes in July.

President Donald Trump continued to blast the Federal Reserve's recent interest rate hikes in an interview Monday, days after complaining about Federal Reserve Chairman at a private GOP fundraiser.

Trump told Reuters that he was "not thrilled" by Powell's decision to raise interest rates and would continue to criticize the Fed if interest rate hikes continued.

Trump said that during the recent spat of trade fights central banks in other countries have helped to cushion the economic impact, but not in the US.

"We're negotiating very powerfully and strongly with other nations," Trump said. "We're going to win, but during this period of time I should be given some help by the Fed. The other countries are accommodated."

The Fed has been gradually raising interest rates since the end of 2015, with five hikes coming under Trump. While economic theory (in the simplest terms) says that rate hikes slow the pace of economic growth, interest rates today remain historically low, and measures of credit growth show that access to loans is still generally easy.

Additionally, Trump's tariffs on goods coming into the US are generally thought to be inflationary, driving up consumer prices. In the face of higher inflation the Fed typically increases interest rates.

The criticism comes after a private Republican fundraiser on Friday, during which Trump reportedly attacked Powell's interest-rate hikes.

According to Bloomberg, Trump complained that Powell — the president's own pick for the Fed's top job — was raising interest rates instead of delaying rate hikes and keeping monetary policy loose.

Trump was attending a private fundraiser with GOP donors at the Southampton, New York, home of Howard Lorber, the chairman of the iconic hot-dog company Nathan's Famous. The Chicago Cubs co-owner Todd Ricketts, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and the White House adviser Jared Kushner were also there, according to Bloomberg.

This isn't the first time Trump has taken exception to the Fed's gradual interest-rate hikes. In July, the president bashed the rate hikes during an interview with CNBC but also praised Powell as a good person. Trump followed up those comments with further complaints on Twitter.

The Federal Reserve operates independently of the government, as it is sometimes compelled to make interest-rate decisions that are meant to be good for the economy in the long run but that may be politically unpopular. Presidents have not commented on Federal Reserve policy in over twenty years after Bill Clinton decided to stay mum on the central bank's choices.

Presidential meddling in monetary policy has a troubling history, most notably President Richard Nixon's insistence that the Fed keep interest rates low ahead of the 1972 election. Economists said the pressure helped create the stagflationary economy of the 1970s.

During the previous episode of Fed criticism, the White House maintained that Trump respected the central bank's independence.

"Of course the president respects the independence of the Fed," the White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters told Business Insider at the time. "As he said he considers the Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell a very good man and that he is not interfering with Fed policy decisions."

Despite Trump's expressed desire for lower interest rates, the president has so far appointed members of the Fed's Board of Governors that appear to be in line with Powell's thinking on the need for hikes. Typically, the greatest influence a president has over the Fed is the appointment of governors.

SEE ALSO: These are the states that would be wrecked by Trump's proposed tariff on cars

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• Canopy Growth Corporation hit a fresh record on Monday, continuing its surge from the previous week. 
• Constellation Brands, which makes Corona and other famous beverages, is the company's biggest investor.
• Follow CGC's stock price in real-time here. 

Canopy Growth Corporation, the world's largest publicly traded marijuana company, surged more than 11% on Monday to hit a record high of $37.53 a share.

The fresh high comes after Constellation Brands, the company behind Corona beer and Svedka vodka, said it would up its stake in the Canadian cannabis company by $4 billion. Constellation is Canopy's biggest investor. 

Canopy Growth has been grinding higher ever since it began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in May, though its price is quite sensitive to regulatory issues. Shares took a hit last week when the Canadian province of Ontario said it would delay the launch of retail marijuana stores.

In its most recent earnings report, which coincided with the announcement of Constellation's investment, Canopy said it lost $0.11 per share on revenue of $25.9 million — both of which were worse than Wall Street had expected.

Shares of Canopy Growth gained 33% since their May initial public offering. 

Business Insider interviewed Canopy's CEO, Bruce Linton, last month about his plans to operate anywhere the drug is legal, and about the new THC-infused products you can expect to see in the future.

SEE ALSO: The world's biggest marijuana stock is surging after a $4 billion investment from the maker of Corona

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The distinction between a physical and futures-backed ETF is worth unpacking given that one may or may not have a better shot at SEC approval.

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 The market is about to be redefined by one huge shift — and buying these 14 stocks could help you make a killing

The US dollar surprised everyone this year.

Most of Wall Street expected it to be weaker versus its global counterparts, but it has instead surged 7.4% since January, according to the Federal Reserve's trade-weighted measure.

A big part of that is the Fed's monetary tightening, which comes at a time when other global central banks are still employing far looser policies. And any chances for a reversal have been thwarted in recent months amid mounting trade tensions.

A strong dollar is problematic for multinational companies that rely heavily on exports. But by that same token, there's great value in knowing which companies fall into that category, in the event of a dollar reversal. If and when the greenback heads lower, the stocks of those firms could get a big boost.

That's where Goldman Sachs comes in. They maintain an index of companies who get a large percentage of their sales internationally.

The Winklevoss twins are teaming up with exchange rivals to take a page out of the stock market's playbook

Several crypto exchanges are teaming up to form a task force that could bring the crypto markets to the next level.

The Winklevoss brothers' Gemini and three other exchanges on Monday announced the creation of the Virtual Commodity Association Working Group, which could be a precursor to the formation of a self-regulatory organization for digital commodities like bitcoin and Ethereum.

The hope, market observers say, is that it could bring to fruition new industry standards for crypto and make large investors more comfortable with the nascent market.

The marijuana industry is gripped by a deal frenzy

The cannabis sector is booming.

Major Canadian marijuana cultivators, known as licensed producers, have pursued a flurry of deals as excitement around Canada's legal marijuana market ramps up.

Earlier this week, Constellation Brands, the beer-and-liquor giant behind Corona, poured close to $4 billion into Canopy Growth, the largest publicly traded licensed producer. In May, Aurora — another of Canada's large so-called LPs — bought a smaller rival, Medreleaf, in a $2.3 billion stock deal, just days after the company closed a $1 billion cash-and-stock acquisition of CanniMed Therapeutics. That's amid a wave of smaller mergers and acquisitions in the sector.

Though investors are excited about the prospects of cannabis legalization, the accounting giant PwC is flashing warning signs, saying the "deal mania" in the cannabis sector will create some winners — but many more losers.

In markets news

• It looks like 'Y2K all over again' for stocks as evidence of an imminent crash continues to pile up
• The Turkish lira is falling again — but stock market investors are returning to Turkey at their fastest rate in half a decade

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• L Brands' Victoria's Secret is breaking its brand image and losing pricing power, according to Jefferies.
• Pink is now more promotional than core Victoria's Secret.
• Watch L Brands trade in real-time here.

Victoria's Secret owner L Brands is breaking its brand image by selling cheap underwear.

Body By Victoria bras, the company's top bra franchise, is now offering a "buy 2 get 1 free" promotion. Its Pink branch, which targets younger women, is running even deeper promotions and just announced $3 panties for members this past weekend. In the eyes of Jefferies analyst Randal Konik, this is a "scary" development.

"Our panty price tracker for over a decade shows this is the lowest ever price point for panties across VS or PINK," Konik wrote in a note out to clients on Monday. "We believe it shows how desperate the company is to drive consumer traffic and also shows how soft demand for PINK has become." 

Pricing power continues to erode as the brand extends more and more promos and yet the consumer still isn't responding. It's a major red flag considering Pink is a $3 billion business and accounted for all of Victoria's Secret's segment growth over the past 5 years, Konik added.

"Victoria's Secret brand is broken and PINK is now breaking," Konik reiterated in Monday's note.

Konik has $23 price target — about 30% below where shares are trading — and remains "underperform" on the retailer. 

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• Nvidia launched a new lineup of graphics cards at an event in Germany on Monday.
• The cards are the first time ray tracing is available to every day consumers. The tech creates cinematic renderings for video games.
• Shares of Nvidia rose about 3% following the announcements.
• Follow Nvidia's stock price in real-time here. 

Nvidia rose nearly 3% on Monday, clawing their way back after a red open, after CEO Jensen Huang took the stage in Cologne, Germany at the company’s GeForce gaming convention to announce a new set of graphics cards. 

"Turing opens up a new golden age of gaming, with realism only possible with ray tracing, which most people thought was still a decade away," Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, said at the conference.

"The breakthrough is a hybrid rendering model that boosts today’s computer graphics with the addition of lightning-fast ray-tracing acceleration and AI. RTX is going to define a new look for computer graphics. Once you see an RTX game, you can’t go back."

The new lineup of video cards includes the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, 2080, and 2070. Some specs of the RTX were leaked over the weekend, and confirmed by the company on Monday. The flagship card will have 11 GB of memory with 4352 CUDA cores, a 20% jump from the previous generation.

Also included is support for real-time ray tracing, a technology that allows for more cinematic and realistic rendering for animation or video games, thanks to Nvidia's Turing architecture. It's the first time the tech has been made widely available to every day consumers. 

Monday’s event in Germany comes just days after Nvidia’s second-quarter earnings report suggested the chipmaker is no longer counting on contributions from cryptocurrency mining to pad its bottom line.

"The crypto mining market is very different today than it was three years ago," Huang told analysts on the call, admitting that "it doesn't make much sense" for crypto-specific products to be sold into the mining market.

You can live-stream and watch a recording of the full event on Nvidia's twitch channel here.

SEE ALSO: NVIDIA: Our crypto business is dead and it's never coming back (NVDA)

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This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

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The SEC will approve or disapprove a rule change proposal to list the ProShares Bitcoin ETFs sometime this week.

Bitcoin has neither dumped nor has broken its crucial resistance level since August 15. The BTC/USD on Monday started with a bullish promise after snoozing through the whole weekend. The pair confirmed 6346-fiat as a strong support and rose 3.5 percent during the early Asian trading session. As the day progressed, bulls began to lose … Continued

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• Tesla.com was intermittently offline Monday morning. 
• The outage was reported by many users on Twitter and the issue was replicated by Business Insider staffers.
• An online service to check website outages, isitdownrightnow.com, confirmed the server was not responding.
• Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.  

Tesla's website was down for some users on Monday morning. Some users also reported that the company's app was also not working. 

According to isitdownrightnow.com, the company's website server was not responding. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Some users took to Twitter to complain about the outage. 

SEE ALSO: JPMorgan walks back its enthusiasm for Tesla's go-private bid, says 'funding appears to not have been secured' (TSLA)

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• Elon Musk suggested in a YouTube interview that aired over the weekend that Tesla may be able to produce an electric car for $25,000, but that it would take three years to get there.
• "Yeah, absolutely," Musk answered when asked if there's room at Tesla for "an even less expensive, quality electric car experience."
• "That's something we can do...if we work really hard, I think maybe we can do that in three years," Musk said. 
• Musk admitted though that the auto industry "is super competitive," and discussed economies of scale in comparison to industry rivals.  
• The interview was conducted with a popular Youtube personality, Marques Brownlee. 

  ---

Elon Musk said in a YouTube interview published on Friday that Tesla could one day produce an electric car that will sell for $25,000, but that it would probably take three years to make it happen. 

The interview, which took place with popular YouTube personality, Marques Brownlee, on Wednesday, August 15 at Tesla's Fremont Factory, was published online by Brownlee on Friday, August 17.

In the first part of the interview, Musk was asked directly by Brownlee if there is room at Tesla for an even less expensive, quality electric car experience. 

"Yeah, absolutely," Musk answered. 

"I think in order for us to get up to...a 25,000 car, that's something we can do," he said. "If we work really hard, I think maybe we can do that in three years."

He added that design and technology improvements are the keys to affordability, but that scale of production plays an important role as well. He compared cars to the development of cell phones, noting that "no amount of money, no amount of scale could have made" early cell phones affordable without technology improvements, but noted that with each successive model the phones became "better and cheaper."

During the interview, the Telsa CEO said that his company's smaller production scale makes it difficult to compete with rivals, such as General Motors and Ford. 

"We're really focused on trying to make the cars more affordable, which is really tough," he said. "Like in order to make the cars affordable you really need high volume. So you need economies of scale. And because the other car companies make a lot more cars than we do, they've got way better economies of scale. So as we're gradually able to build up and do more cars, higher volume, then we can...make the cars available to a wide range of people." 

Musk at one point paused and conceded the difficulty of working in the auto industry. 

"The car industry is super competitive," he said. "It's like one of the...it's like insanely competitive." 

This is not the first revealing interview Musk has been featured in the past week. On Friday, the New York Times published an exclusive interview where Musk admitted, "this past year has been the most painful of my career," and choked up multiple times while discussing personal and professional pressures. 

Musk set off a major controversy on August 7 when he tweeted he was considering taking Telsa private at $420 a share and that he had "funding secured." The Securities and Exchange Commission has opened up an investigation and both Musk and Tesla's board of directors have received SEC subpoenas.

In his interview with Brownlee, Musk appeared more at ease, joking, laughing, and telling anecdotes. 

"I actually even pay full retail price for my cars," he admitted.   

As of Monday morning, the video has already garnered 3.3 million views. 

SEE ALSO: Every bizarre thing that has happened since Elon Musk sent his 'funding secured' tweet about taking Tesla private

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• JPMorgan has walked back some of its previous excitement about Tesla's bid to go private. 
• The bank cut its price target to $195 — 35% below its current level — after realizing no funding had actually been secured. 
• "Such process appears much less developed than we had earlier presumed," the bank told clients Monday. 
• Shares of Tesla sank to a three-month low, following the price cut, but have since reversed into positive territory. 
• Follow Tesla's stock price in real-time here. 

JPMorgan has cut its price target for Tesla by 36% to $195 a share as questions continue to surround the electric-car maker's bid to go private.

"We are reverting to valuing Tesla shares on the basis of fundamentals alone, which entails a $113 reduction in our price target back to the $195 level where it stood prior to our August 8 note in which we newly weighted 50% in our valuation analysis a go private scenario for which funding was at that time said to have been secured to take the company private at $420 per share," analyst Ryan Brinkman wrote in a note to clients out Monday.

In a blog post six days after his "funding secured" tweet, Tesla CEO Elon Musk explained that the announcement came after a meeting with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund — which is reportedly in talks with a Tesla competitor, Lucid Motors. Those talks, according to Musk, left him feeling confident the kingdom would invest even more than its current 3% to 5% stake, helping him take the company private.

The disparities between Musk's tweet and his explanation have sparked at least one subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission, the US's top stock regulator, a handful of class-action lawsuits from investors, and doubt among sell-side analysts.

"Tesla does appear to be exploring a going private transaction, but we now believe that such a process appears much less developed than we had earlier presumed," Brinkman wrote.

"Mr. Musk has announced the hiring of financial and legal advisors in support of exploring a going private transaction (this appears to have been done after the August 7 announcement), and has stated conversations with the Saudi fund continue and also that he is having discussions with a number of other investors."

Tesla’s board has formed a special, three-person committee to explore the proposal to leave public stock exchanges, while the firm has tapped Goldman Sachs for banking services on the transaction. Goldman’s research analyst David Tamberrino has since suspended coverage of Tesla.

"This to us suggests a going private transaction is clearly possible, which could potentially provide upside risk to the shares, but that such a process appears much less developed than we had earlier presumed," Brinkman said.

Tesla shares have plunged by more than 18% over the past week, hitting a three-month low, as the SEC’s investigation and a New York Times interview with Musk weighed on investors' minds. 

SEE ALSO: Wall Street analysts were blown away by the Tesla Model 3's 'next-gen, military-grade' tech — and say that's why the base model will never turn a profit

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• Today's market is facing a growing number of alarming comparisons to the dot-com era.
• The most recent observation, from Leuthold Group, relates to the jagged, uninspiring recovery by US stocks since their 11% correction earlier this year.
• Other bearish parallels — specifically those relating to valuation — tie into arguments raised by the reputed market bear John Hussman, who sees a 67% stock-market drop brewing.

As stock-market valuations have swelled to within striking distance of all-time highs, many experts have been hesitant to compare the situation to the tech bubble.

Not Leuthold Group.

In fact, to those at the Minneapolis-based firm, the comparisons keep piling up.

Leuthold's latest observation comes from recent research, titled "Y2K All Over Again?" The report assesses the S&P 500's difficult and erratic recovery from its 11% correction suffered in February. It notes that the choppy, six-month rebound since then has eerily mirrored the five-month upswing that followed the equity meltdown of March-April 2000. ...

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SEE ALSO: The legendary investor who predicted the past 2 bubbles breaks down how the 9-year bull market will end

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This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

• Hedge funds are making record bets against long-term US Treasurys. 
• Jeff Gundlach, the founder of DoubleLine Funds, warned that these investors could be in for pain if Treasurys in fact rally. 
• Speculators have nailed the drop in Treasurys (and rise in yields) so far this year, but their record wagers are a concern for Gundlach.

Investors who are betting against US Treasurys could be setting themselves up for massive losses ahead, according to Jeff Gundlach. 

The DoubleLine Funds founder and fixed-income maven warned on Friday via Twitter after data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed hedge funds had piled on record bets against 10- and 30-year Treasurys.

Speculators have been on the right side of the trade so far this year. In late-April, the 10-year yield, which rises when the underlying note's price falls, topped 3% for the first time since 2014. It has since retreated and was at 2.842% on Monday, up about 44 basis points from the beginning of the year.   

The drop in yields this year has shrunk the difference between short and long-term bonds — plotted on the yield curve — to the smallest since the financial crisis. It has turned negative before every recession since the 1960s, and so its approach towards zero has been the subject of much debate in markets this year. 

However, if the trend in yields reverses, hedge funds could face a so-called short squeeze as they're forced to close out their positions, pushing Treasury yields downward even faster. 

There are market-moving events just ahead this week that could test hedge funds' conviction against Treasurys. On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve will release minutes of the policy meeting it held earlier this month. And on Friday, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will speak on monetary policy at the Jackson Hole symposium, an annual meeting of central bankers.  

One strategist on the other side of the popular short trade is Matthew Hornbach, Morgan Stanley's global head of interest-rate strategy. 

"Government bonds are mounting a second attempt this year at a tactical bull market, the first of which was ended prematurely by Bank of Japan policy," Hornbach said in a note Friday. Treasurys sold off and the 10-year yield topped 3% again on August 1 after the Japanese central bank indicated it was willing to prolong its accommodative monetary policy even though  other countries are tightening. 

"The ensuing rally should mark the end of the cyclical bear market that began in late 2017," Hornbach said. "We still suggest long UST 10y and UKT 10y positions."

See also:

• Investors have turned complacent and are in danger of being sideswiped by a 'likely correction' that's approaching, Morgan Stanley says
• MOODY'S WARNS: Mutual funds are bleeding cash at an unprecedented rate, and they're increasingly vulnerable to the next market meltdown
• GOLDMAN SACHS: Big-money investors are dominating the market with the help of 10 stocks — here's the list and how they can continue crushing it

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China has released its blockchain rankings for August, rating public blockchain networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum based on their application and technology. The rankings, created by China Electronic Information Industry Development Research Institute and the China Software Testing Center, featured the contributions of professors and researchers at the country’s most prestigious educational institutions including Tsinghua

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• Saudi Arabia has been in talks with the electric-car maker Lucid Motors, Reuters reported Monday.
• JPMorgan cut its price target for Tesla to $195 from $305 on Monday, citing the fact that funding for a go-private deal had not been secured as CEO Elon Musk originally said.
• Tesla shares sank more than 6% in early trading Monday.
• Follow Tesla's stock price in real-time here.

Shares of Tesla were on track to continue their decline Monday morning, set to open down 6%, after a report from Reuters said Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund was considering an investment in a rival electric-car maker, Lucid Motors.

News of the talks comes almost two full weeks after the Financial Times reported the kingdom's sovereign-wealth fund had bought a 3-5% stake in Tesla. That report was followed by a tweet from CEO Elon Musk suggesting that funding had been secured to take the electric-car maker private at $420 a share.

In response, Tesla shares skyrocketed to near record highs, hitting of $387.46 apiece, on August 7. But they had slumped more than 20% from that level through Friday, and Monday's selling has wiped away all of Tesla's postearnings gains. The sell-off has been a windfall for Tesla short-sellers, who have made more than $1.3 billion.

The big profits seen by the short-sellers come much to the chagrin of Musk, who told The New York Times in an interview published Friday that he was gearing up for "months of extreme torture" from those betting against his stock.

Also weighing on Tesla's stock price in early trading Monday was a price-target cut from JPMorgan. The bank's analyst Ryan Brinkman slashed his target by more than 35% to $195 a share, citing the fact that funding was not actually secured at the time Musk indicated it had been.

"The revelation the Saudi fund is subsequently asking Tesla for details of how the company would be taken private suggests to us that any deal is potentially far from even being formally proposed," Brinkman told clients in a note Monday, Bloomberg reported.

Wall Street now has an average target of $331 for Tesla, according to Bloomberg, 26% below Musk's $420 target for taking the company private.

SEE ALSO: Wall Street analysts were blown away by the Tesla Model 3's 'next-gen, military-grade' tech — and say that's why the base model will never turn a profit

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Chaincode is launching a new "residency" in New York that will focus on helping developers build their own Lightning Network apps

Australians wishing to pay their bills in cryptocurrencies do not have to be held back by the fact that their utility or service provider is stuck with traditional methods of payment. This follows the formation of a partnership between two financial technology firms, cryptocurrency exchange Cointree and automated billing platform Gobbill, allowing the payment of … Continued

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• A group of cryptocurrency exchanges including the Winklevoss brothers' Gemini are teaming up to form a new working group. 
• The hope is that it could bring to fruition new industry standards that currently don't exist for crypto and could make large investors more comfortable with the nascent market, market observers say. 

A group of crypto exchanges is teaming up to form a task force that could bring the crypto markets to the next level. 

The Winklevoss brothers' Gemini and three other exchanges announced on Monday the creation of a new group called the Virtual Commodity Association Working Group, which could be a precursor to the formation of a self-regulatory organization or SRO for digital commodities like bitcoin and ethereum. 

The hope is that it could bring to fruition new industry standards that currently don't exist for crypto and make large investors more comfortable with the nascent market, market observers say. 

In equities, securities exchanges have their own organization to come up with common standards and jointly respond to declarations by regulators. The new group could serve as the equivalent for the crypto world, by coming up with best practices for the industry, looking at ways to boost liquidity and stamping out market manipulation, according to a person familiar with the group. 

"It is a great sign that multiple competing exchanges have recognized that working together, to improve the overall industry, in their mutual self interest," Dave Weisberger, the founder of CoinRoutes, told Business Insider. 

Patrick Rooney of Trading Technologies said the formation of such a group would help regulators engage with the crypto world. 

"I’m sure D.C. would like to have a common voice speaking for them so it’ll certainly benefit communication to regulators as well as the trading community," he said. 

Aside from Gemini other exchanges in the group include Bitstamp, Bittrex, and bitFlyer USA. 

Still, it is early days for the group that only includes a handful of exchanges and notably excludes Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the US. A spokesman for Coinbase declined to comment on the group. 

The group's first meeting will be held in September. 

The opaqueness of the crypto markets is one problem the group could solve. In crypto, the price of different digital assets trade at widely different prices and there is no common host to audit all market data. In equities, stock exchanges are developing the so-called Consolidated Audit Trail to allow regulators and market participants to better track activities in US equities. The working group could develop a similar project, the person familiar with the group said.

"Institutions are genuinely skeptical today over the fairness and data quality in the crypto market," Weisberger added. "At CoinRoutes, even though we help our clients consolidate the data, there is a lot of concern over the quality of the exchange data we aggregate as well as underlying manipulation. An industry SRO is a great start towards ameliorating those concerns.”

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Over the past 24 hours, the crypto market has lost $6 billion from its valuation, experiencing a slight drop after a solid corrective rally by Bitcoin. While Bitcoin recorded a small gain of 0.5 percent, other major cryptocurrencies including Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Stellar, Litecoin, and Cardano fell by 1 to 4 percent, affecting

The post Bitcoin Price Shows Stability as Crypto Market Sees Minor $6 Billion Drop appeared first on CCN

Over the past 24 hours, the crypto market has lost $6 billion from its valuation, experiencing a slight drop after a solid corrective rally by Bitcoin. While Bitcoin recorded a small gain of 0.5 percent, other major cryptocurrencies including Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Stellar, Litecoin, and Cardano fell by 1 to 4 percent, affecting

The post Bitcoin Price Shows Stability as Crypto Market Sees Minor $6 Billion Drop appeared first on CCN

Over the past 24 hours, the crypto market has lost $6 billion from its valuation, experiencing a slight drop after a solid corrective rally by Bitcoin. While Bitcoin recorded a small gain of 0.5 percent, other major cryptocurrencies including Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Stellar, Litecoin, and Cardano fell by 1 to 4 percent, affecting

The post Bitcoin Price Shows Stability as Crypto Market Sees Minor $6 Billion Drop appeared first on CCN

Bitcoin's corrective rally from the recent low of $5,859 would resume on bull pennant breakout.

• CEO of Maersk, the world's largest shipping company, warns the impact of President Donald Trump's trade war will be bigger in the US than anywhere else.
• It could knock 4% off US trade annually, Soren Skou said at an event in Denmark.
• The impact would be particularly large if the US attempted to place tariffs on consumer goods coming from China.

The CEO of AP Moller-Maersk, the world's biggest operator of container ships, has warned that President Donald Trump's trade war will ultimately be more harmful to the US than any other country.

Speaking at Maersk's global headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark, Soren Skou said the US-led conflict, which has seen Washington and Beijing exchange numerous rounds of threats about tariffs, is likely to have the biggest downsides in the US, thanks to its outsized reliance on foreign-produced consumer goods.

Fallout from the tariffs "could easily end up being bigger in the US," Skou told the audience during his presentation, arguing that while global trade will likely fall no more than 0.3%, the negative impact on the USA could be as high as 4%.

"That would definitely not be good," he said.

The impact would be particularly outsized if the US started to place tariffs on consumer-focused goods.

"The first thing the American importers would do if tariffs are put on Chinese consumer goods would be to buy in Vietnam, in Indonesia or elsewhere in Asia," Skou said.

"Big US consumer brands like Nike produce in all of Asia, not just in one country, so there will be a substitution effect. You can’t get Nike sneakers or iPhones that are produced in the US. So it will end up being pushed on to the consumer," he continued.

So far, tariffs have focused largely on industrial goods, but it is not impossible that Trump could look to hit more consumer-focused products, especially given the tit-for-tat nature of the trade war so far.

AP Moller-Maersk controls the shipping of around 20% of the world’s seaborne consumer goods, meaning that when it spots a trend, it is highly likely to be impacting the entire industry. So far, Maersk hasn't seen any downturn in trade flows, reporting a 4% increase in demand, Skou said.

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• The Turkish lira continues to fall against the US dollar on Monday.
• Credit rating agencies S&P and Moody's both downgraded Turkey late Friday, stoking fears about the state of the Turkish economy.
• UBS said Turkish stocks saw their biggest investor inflows since early 2013 last week as investors "buy the dip."

LONDON — The Turkish lira is weakening against the dollar on Monday morning as investors continue to fret over the state of the country's economy.

The dollar is up 1.7% against the lira to 6.0853 as of 11:04 a.m. BST (6:04 a.m. ET):

Market commentators said the decline was being driven by the downgrade of Turkey's currency by credit rating agencies S&P and Moody's late Friday.

Michael Hewson, the chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK, said in an email on Monday morning: "Friday’s downgrade of Turkey by S&P and Moody’s further into junk territory was largely expected by the markets, however, it is also likely to prompt a similar downgrade to Turkey’s banks in the coming days, who are already struggling with the measures taken by Turkey’s authorities to support the lira.

"By making the currency more difficult to trade and limiting the ability of both domestic and overseas banks to hedge their currency exposure, the decline in the currency could well regain its pace in the coming days, after last week’s late rebound."

Turkey has been struggling to halt the decline in the lira amid a diplomatic spat with the US that has seen tariffs' levied by both sides.

The dip in the lira and warnings about continued weakness come despite a huge inflow of cash into Turkish stocks over the last week.

Geoff Dennis and Alexey Ostapchuk at UBS said in a note on Monday that Turkish equities received their strongest inflows of cash for five and a half years in the week to August 15.

"Korea ($217m) received the biggest inflow, followed (rather bizarrely) by Turkey, where a $191m inflow was the biggest since the first week of January 2013," the pair wrote.

"A surge in Turkey inflows suggests that investors were 'buying the dip' amidst the currency crisis."

UBS said Turkey has now replaced Colombia as the "most crowded" emerging market for stock investors.

SEE ALSO: These are the countries most at risk if Turkey's lira crash spirals into a debt crisis

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An offline peer-to-peer exchange of bitcoin to fiat turned sour for a South Korean businessman after it emerged that the euros he had swapped for his cryptocurrency holdings were fake. According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), the Singapore-based South Korean businessman who runs a cryptocurrency firm intended to exchange the bitcoins worth approximately US$2.3 million for … Continued

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A cryptocurrency dealer is being prosecuted in the U.S. for allegedly committing 30 counts of money laundering involving bitcoin.

• Trump is proposing new 25% tariffs on Chinese imports.
• A hearing on the proposals starts in Washington on Monday.
• The new tariffs "dramatically expand the harm to American consumers, workers, businesses, and the economy," the US Chamber of Commerce said in written testimony.
• Furniture, lighting products, tires, chemicals, plastics, bicycles, cradles, and Chinese seafood are among the imports set to be hit by the new duties, Reuters reported.

The Trump administration's proposed $200 billion in tariffs on Chinese imports will force Americans to pay more for everything from cradles to seafood, businesses have warned.

Monday is the first session of a six-day hearing in Washington on the proposed 25% tariffs, which are part of the Trump administration and US Trade Representatives' efforts to put pressure on Beijing.

The US Chamber of Commerce, which represents a wide range of American Businesses, said in written testimony for the hearing that the new tariffs will "dramatically expand the harm to American consumers, workers, businesses, and the economy."

Past rounds of sanctions have mainly targeted Chinese industrial machinery and intermediate goods, but the proposed tariffs could affect thousands of consumer products by late September, Reuters reported. Furniture, lighting products, tires, chemicals, plastics, bicycles, cradles, car seats for babies, and Chinese seafood are all set to be hit by the new duties.

The Trump administration lacks a "coherent strategy" to address China’s theft of intellectual property and other harmful trade practices, the US Chamber of commerce said according to Reuters' report. It called for "serious discussions" with Beijing.

The USTR received over 1,400 written comments from businesses about the Trump administration's plan. Most businesses argued the tariffs will cause harm by raising costs on products and services.

The largest bicycle brand in the US, Huffy, said a 25% tariff poses a "serious threat to the company." It sells 4 million Chinese-made bikes per year.

"There is no other country in Asia or Europe that can provide the volume Huffy requires as China is the largest bicycle producer in the world," Bill Smith, the CEO of Huffy Corp, said in his submission.

Graco Children’s Products, which makes car seats for babies, said there would be an increase in customers buying second-hand items for their children.

"[The tariffs] will have a direct negative impact on our company, American parents, and most importantly the safety of American children."

Trump administration officials and their Chinese counterparts are expected to meet later this week in Washington to discuss their trade dispute.

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• September marks 10 years since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the biggest bankruptcy in US history, and the most significant moment of the financial crisis.
• Hundreds of former Lehman staff are having a reunion in London to commemorate the anniversary, according to a report from Financial News
• Details of the event are a closely guarded secret.
• Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell described the event's existence as "sickening" and "disgraceful."

LONDON — The 10-year anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers is just weeks away and, for most people, it will be a reminder of the banking excesses that led to the financial crisis.

For some former Lehman staffers, however, the anniversary is a chance to have a party.

According to a report from Financial News, hundreds of former Lehman bankers are set to attend an event to commemorate the anniversary of the bank's demise, scheduled to take place around September 15, the day the bank went under.

"It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years since the last of our Lehman days!... One of the best things about Lehman was the people. What better way to celebrate the tenth anniversary than getting everyone from former MDs to former analysts back together again!", an emailed invite to the event said, according to Financial News' report.

The venue of the event is unknown, although Financial News reports that it was originally scheduled to take place at The Conduit Club in Mayfair, London, before that event was merged with another Lehman reunion.

Details of the event are believed to be a closely guarded secret, given its sensitive nature.

Politicians and activist groups have reacted angrily to finding out about the event. Labour shadow chancellor, John McDonnell described it as "sickening" and "disgraceful."

"People will be absolutely disgusted about this unacceptable and highly inappropriate gathering," he told Financial News.

"It’s particularly disgraceful in the context of all the people who lost their jobs and homes to pay for bailing out these bankers who caused the financial crash."

Others were more sanguine about the event. Lord Alistair Darling, the UK's chancellor during the crisis told Financial News: "It would be ridiculous to say you can’t meet. Honestly, of all the problems we face today, frankly a bunch of people having a glass of wine is the least of them."

The collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 was undoubtedly the most memorable moment of the devastating financial crisis that struck between 2007 and 2009.

By the time Lehman collapsed, the crisis was already crystallizing but its demise was the point at which regular folks sat up and took notice. Images of Lehman workers holding crisis talks and eventually clearing out their desks at the bank's London office have become seminal reminders of the crash.

SEE ALSO: 'It sent a tremor down my back': Alistair Darling reveals how Britain came within hours of the 'breakdown of law and order'

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Chinese police have arrested three individuals who allegedly stole bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies worth around 600 million yuan, or $87 million. 

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