Ether, the world’s second-largest digital currency, hit a record high on Thursday.
The price of ether hit $1,918.52 during morning trade in Asia but has since pared some gains, according to CoinDesk data.
The rally in bitcoin, which surpassed $52,000 for the first time on Wednesday, is helping to push up ether as well.
Crossbridge Capital CIO Manish Singh expects the pound this year to hold at its current level against the dollar (around $1.3626 at the time of writing) or head to $1.40.
He said the pound would only move higher than the $1.40 mark next year, “on the benefits of Brexit accruing over time.”
Noah Holdings’ William Ma expects the demand for IPOs in China to remain high next year, following a “very exciting” 2020.
Stock listings of Chinese firms have dominated the global rankings in 2020, according to research from EY.
Among the top 10 listings globally, Chinese firms made up half of the list while also taking the top three spots.
Disney and Caterpillar rose 3.3% and 2.3%, respectively, to lead the Dow higher. Energy was the best-performing sector in the S&P 500, jumping nearly 2%.
Wednesday’s move higher came after a British regulator approved a coronavirus vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca for emergency use. The approval followed the discovery of a new Covid strain in the U.K., which has also been confirmed in the U.S.
President Donald Trump briefly emerged to tout the Dow Jones Industrial Average breaking 30,000 for the first time ever, and then vanished after a minute without taking questions.
The president’s brief appearance came less than a day after his administration took a major step toward the transition to Joe Biden’s presidency.
Trump, three weeks after Election Day, still has not conceded the race to Biden.
JPMorgan Chase agreed Tuesday to pay a $250 million fine after one of its U.S. regulators found a “pattern of misconduct” in its asset and wealth management division.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said in a release that the New York-based bank’s risk management controls were “deficient” and the firm couldn’t avoid “conflicts of interest” in the business.
Neither the bank nor regulator gave much detail about the potential wrongdoing and conflicts of interest that garnered the fine. In late 2015, JPMorgan agreed to pay more than $300 million in fines after the Securities and Exchange Commission found that the bank failed to disclose that it put some clients into higher-fee products created by the firm.
“I certainly wouldn’t want to be net short the market,” said billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller.
Druckenmiller’s comments came as U.S. stocks ripped higher on news that a coronavirus vaccine candidate from Pfizer and BioNTech was highly effective during a late-stage trial.
Bitcoin was last trading almost 9% higher at a price of $15,233, according to data from industry website CoinDesk.
The world’s best-known cryptocurrency has been on a tear in 2020, more than doubling in value year-to-date.
Some analysts have linked its rise to unprecedented stimulus from global governments and central banks.
Thousands of bitcoins — worth $1 billion — were seized by law enforcement this week in what the Justice Department said was the largest seizure of cryptocurrency in the history of agency.
The cryptocurrency is linked to sales of illicit drugs and goods on Silk Road, a dark web marketplace that shut down in 2013.
“Silk Road was the most notorious online criminal marketplace of its day,” says U.S. Attorney David Anderson of the Northern District of California. “The successful prosecution of Silk Road’s founder in 2015 left open a billion-dollar question. Where did the money go?”
Economies in Asia are set to benefit as China’s shows a strong rebound from the coronavirus pandemic, says Invesco’s David Chao.
In particular, the focus is on “whether the Chinese consumer can quickly return back to normalized activity,” Chao said.
Chao’s comments came after recent data showed China’s manufacturing activity expanded in September, pointing to a continued recovery for the world’s second-largest economy.
