Bloomberg
“U.S. Stocks Creep Higher, Dollar Slips Before Fed: Markets Wrap.”
U.S. equities edged higher ahead of Wednesday’s Federal Reserve rate decision, while European stocks gained. The dollar slipped as benchmark Treasury yields held steady, and emerging-market currencies extended a drop.
The S&P 500 Index rose tentatively in morning trading, with a surge in health-care stocks offsetting the telecom weakness brought on after the AT&T takeover of Time Warner won court approval. West Texas crude fell after an industry report showed U.S. stockpiles expanded and Russia was said to seek a rollback of supply cuts by OPEC and other producers.
With the Fed is all but certain to raise rates by a quarter-point at the close of a two-day meeting Wednesday, the focus is on the outlook for future policy. An uptick in inflation has reignited some speculation there could be a total of four hikes in 2018. The European Central Bank will decide rates on Thursday — no change is expected but investors will be braced for news on a potential end to the region’s quantitative-easing program.
Technology companies outperformed as the Stoxx Europe 600 Index advanced, though gains there were also tempered by a decline in telecom shares. The region’s common currency was stronger ahead of Thursday’s ECB decision, even as more disappointing economic data were released. The pound weakened as Brexit battles rumbled on and inflation held steady. Italian bonds gained as the country’s debt sale had strong demand.
Gold was little changed and copper advanced, while Bitcoin looked headed for a fourth straight day of declines. Earlier in Asia, Japanese shares rose as the yen dipped, while equities fell in Hong Kong and Australia. Chinese shares also retreated, with ZTE Corp. plunging by its daily limit after it agreed to a $1 billion fine. Turkey’s lira posted the largest decline among emerging market currencies as polls pointed to a close-run election.
Reuters
“Trump says North Korea no longer a nuclear threat; North highlights concessions.”
North Korea no longer poses a nuclear threat, nor is it the “biggest and most dangerous problem” for the United States, President Donald Trump said on Wednesday on his return from a summit in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The summit was the first between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader and followed a flurry of North Korean nuclear and missile tests and angry exchanges between Trump and Kim last year that fueled fears of war.
“Everybody can now feel much safer than the day I took office,” Trump said on Twitter. “There is no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea. Meeting with Kim Jong Un was an interesting and very positive experience. North Korea has great potential for the future!” On Tuesday, Trump told a news conference after the summit that he would like to lift sanctions against the North but that this would not happen immediately.
North Korean state media lauded the summit as a resounding success, saying Trump expressed his intention to halt U.S.-South Korea military exercises, offer security guarantees to the North and lift sanctions against it as relations improve. Kim and Trump invited each other to their respective countries and both leaders “gladly accepted,” the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
Trump said the United States would stop military exercises with South Korea while North Korea negotiated on denuclearization. Speaking in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said he hoped all parties could “grasp the moment of positive changes” on the peninsula to take constructive steps toward a political resolution and promoting denuclearization.
BBC News
“World Cup 2026: Canada, US & Mexico joint bid wins right to host tournament.”
The 2026 World Cup will be held in the United States, Canada and Mexico after their joint bid beat Morocco’s proposal to host it. The ‘United 2026’ bid was selected by Fifa member nations, winning 134 votes compared to 65 for Morocco.
The 2026 tournament will be the biggest World Cup ever held – with 48 teams playing 80 matches over 34 days. «Football is the only victor. We are all united in football,» US Soccer president Carlos Cordeiro said.
«Thank you so, so much for this incredible honour. Thank you for entrusting us with this privilege.» Of the 211 Fifa member nations, 200 cast a vote at the 68th Fifa Congress in Moscow on Wednesday, with the winning bid needing a majority of 104.
Canada, Mexico, Morocco and the US were exempt, while Ghana was absent after the country’s government said it had disbanded its football association amid allegations of «widespread» corruption. Three US territories – Guam, the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico – were among the other member nations to not vote. Both Mexico (1970 and 1986) and the United States (1994) have previously hosted World Cups.
The ‘United’ World Cup will generate $14bn (£10.3bn) in revenue and make an $11bn (£8.1bn) profit for Fifa, says Cordeiro. Of the 16 host cities, 10 will be in the United States while the remainder will be split evenly between Canada and Mexico. Sixty matches will take place in the US, while Canada and Mexico will host 10 games each. The final will be held at the 84,953-capacity MetLife Stadium, which is home to NFL sides the New York Giants and the New York Jets.
Bloomberg
“Bitcoin Extends Its Decline.”
Bitcoin edged lower, bringing its four-session slide to 16 percent, as questions mount about whether the world’s biggest cryptocurrency was manipulated during last year’s record price surge.
The digital coin has closed below its 50-, 100- and 200-day moving averages for the past 16 days, the longest stretch below those support levels this year. After surging more than 1,400 percent last year amid an investor frenzy for digital assets, Bitcoin is down about 67 percent from its record high of $19,511 set in December.
Bitcoin edged lower, bringing its four-session slide to 16 percent, as questions mount about whether the world’s biggest cryptocurrency was manipulated during last year’s record price surge.
The digital coin has closed below its 50-, 100- and 200-day moving averages for the past 16 days, the longest stretch below those support levels this year. After surging more than 1,400 percent last year amid an investor frenzy for digital assets, Bitcoin is down about 67 percent from its record high of $19,511 set in December.
The virtual currency has struggled to reverse a selloff that coincides with negative news, most recently a study of possible price manipulation using the Tether coin. Bloomberg News reported in May that the Justice Department opened up a criminal probe into illegal trading practices that can manipulate the price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Tether, one of the most-traded cryptocurrencies, shows a pattern of being spent on Bitcoin at pivotal moments, helping to drive the world’s first digital asset to a record price in December, according to research by a University of Texas professor known for flagging suspicious activity in the VIX benchmark.