The global markets ended the week on a mixed bag of shocks from policy, earnings and re-invigorated risk appetite.
Japan’s central banks has announced its most aggressive rate increase in years, signaling an historic move away from ultra-easy cash.
US stocks stabilized, as technology rebounded in spite of Nike’s steep fall. Regulators also cleared an unexpected Nvidia and Intel deal.
Bitcoin ETFs saw heavy inflows from institutional investors as they doubled their bets ahead of increased volatility.
BOJ raises rates by 30 years
The central bank of Japan raised its interest rate on Friday to 0.75%, marking the first time in over 30 years that the ultra-easy policies have been ended. Inflation remains above the target 2%.
Kazuo Ueda, the governor, said that while accommodative policies will continue, more increases are likely if economic forecasts prove accurate.
The yields on 10-year JGBs soared, with the JGBs reaching 2%. Meanwhile the yen fell to 155.92 against the dollar. Nikkei rose 1.28%.
The BOJ’s ambitious normalization drive under the new PM Sanae Takaichi aims to achieve 1% of GDP by 2026, despite US tariff threats.
Nike stock markets sink as tech rebound stocks
Wall Street edged higher on Friday, as the tech sector continued to rebound from last week’s brutal selloff. However Nike’s stock plummeted over 10% following another disappointing earnings report.
Sales in Greater China fell 17% for the sixth consecutive quarter, and gross margins also shrank amid fire sales of inventory, as well as a $1.5 billion hit to tariffs from Trump’s policies.
S&P, Nasdaq and Dow gained between 0.3% and 0.4 %, but Dow fell slightly due to Nike. Nvidia, Nvidia’s friends and others lifted sentiment in spite of tariff worries.
Investors are ignoring Fed concerns and looking forward to a rally at the end of the year amid volatile trading.
The FTC has cleared Nvidia of its Intel investment
US antitrust regulators approved Nvidia’s $5 billion investment into struggling Intel, providing a lifeline to the company amid its manufacturing problems and declining market share.
After Nvidia’s announcement in September to bolster US chips against TSMC, AMD and threats.
There is no merger. Just cash injections for AI infrastructure, and tie-ups with personal computers using Nvidia NVLink technology.
Nvidia shares are up by 3%, Intel is steady in spite of tariff concerns. Trump wants to dominate the domestic semis market, while rivals are worried that Nvidia is gaining unfair Intel insight.
Bitcoin ETFs witness a surge in demand
US Bitcoin ETFs sucked up $457 million on Thursday. This was the largest daily haul for over a week. Fidelity’s FBTC led with $391 millions, followed by BlackRock’s IBIT, which brought in $111 million. Total assets now exceed $112 billion.
The “flight to Quality” is a reaction against recent outflows. Ether ETFs lost $22 million in a single day, amid the altcoin panic.
The options market is exploding with traders rushing to lock in BTC at key strike prices. Volatility will also spike as open interest hits a record.
Bitcoin’s dominance has reached 60%. This indicates that institutional investors are still betting on the king cryptocurrency despite all of the macro-noise. The cumulative inflows have now topped $57 billion.
Evening Digest: Bitcoin ETF Inflows Surge, BOJ Hikes Rates, FTC Clears Nvidia Intel Deal appeared first on the ICD
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