The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has “major concerns” about cryptocurrencies, Governor Shaktikanta Das said on Wednesday, flagging potential risks to financial stability. Das said he had communicated his concerns to the government, which has largely opposed trading in private cryptocurrencies in recent years. He said the RBI’s plans to launch its own digital currency remained a “work in progress”. “We have major concerns from the financial stability angle,” Das told news channel CNBC-TV18 in an interview, adding that the RBI was “targeting to launch” a digital currency. “It will ...

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday said some form of congressional authorization may be needed for the central bank to proceed with any development and roll-out of a digital version of the U.S. dollar. The Fed expects this year to be an important one for the development of a digital U.S. currency, Powell said in response to a lawmaker’s questions during testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, especially in its engagement with the U.S. public on the matter. The Fed and a number of other monetary authorities and ...

NASDAQ-Adv: 2,919 Dec: 1,129 NYSE-Adv: 2,822 Dec: 1,346(Source: Nasdaq)

The dollar struggled at multi-year lows against the Antipodean currencies and held near a one-month low versus the euro as reflation trades gripped the currency markets on Wednesday. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reiterated on Tuesday that U.S. interest rates will remain low and the Fed will keep buying bonds to support the U.S. economy. The dollar resumed its decline towards the lows recorded at the start of the year after a brief rally in late January. Money flowed from safe havens like the dollar, Swiss franc and the Japanese ...

Sterling looks set to extend its rally beyond $1.40, thanks to the pace of Britain’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout and signs that investors are flocking back to assets out of favour during years of Brexit turmoil. The signing of a post-Brexit accord on Christmas Eve, while leaving Britain more distanced from the European Union than investors had hoped, ended years of uncertainty. That alongside a vaccination campaign running well ahead of most countries has helped the pound become this year’s best-performing G10 currency, with a 3% gain versus the dollar. With ...

European shares opened generally higher on Wednesday but world shares remained in the red after a weak Asian session, even after Fed Chair Jerome Powell pushed back against inflation fears. Falling tech stocks pulled Asian markets lower overnight, as recent gains in U.S. Treasury yields put lofty valuations under pressure. In his testimony before the U.S. Senate, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell did not seem too worried about rising yields, telling Congress they were a statement on the market’s confidence in the pandemic recovery. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield edged ...

The dollar remained at multi-year lows against the Antipodean currencies and held near a one-month low versus the euro as reflation trades gripped the currency markets on Wednesday. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reiterated on Tuesday that U.S. interest rates will remain low and the Fed will keep buying bonds to support the U.S. economy. The dollar resumed its decline towards the lows recorded at the start of the year after a brief rally in late January. Money flowed from safe havens like the dollar, Swiss franc and the Japanese ...

China’s central bank will join a project looking at using central bank digital currencies (CBDC) for cross-border payments, the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) said on Tuesday. The project is currently run by central banks in Hong Kong and Thailand along with the the central bank umbrella group The People’s Bank of China’s own domestic CBDC project is one of the most advanced projects of its kind in the world, having conducted trials in several major cities. CBDCs are like banknotes or coins, and would give holders a direct claim ...

Based on what I hear from traders and investors, it seems there are a lot of people living in an almost permanent state of anxiety right now. Every time the market indicates a lower opening, as it did this morning, they hold their breath, anticipating “the big drop.” The theory is that such a drop is inevitable because the fundamentals don’t support stocks at these levels. There is some truth to that: We really are at high multiples of earnings, and still have economic weakness left over from the Covid ...

NASDAQ-Adv: 1,129 Dec: 2,946 NYSE-Adv: 1,630 Dec: 2,581(Source: Nasdaq)

World shares struggled on Tuesday as a rally in commodity-related assets gave in to pressure on heavily weighed tech stocks and investors awaited reassurance from U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on the path for monetary policy in United States. European tech stocks were on set for their worst day in four months, down 2.7%, and futures on the Nasdaq fell 1.5% after losses in stocks like Apple and Tesla dragged the index down 2.5% on Monday. “The prospect of a less dovish tone from central banks, sparked by rising ...

European shares reversed early gains to trade lower on Tuesday as mixed corporate earnings updates overshadowed a boost from strong commodity prices, while British bank HSBC fell after abandoning its long-term profitability targets. HSBC Holdings dropped 1.5% after its annual profits fell sharply due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while it unveiled a revised strategy focused mainly on wealth management in Asia. The benchmark euro zone stock index was down 0.8%. Tech and healthcare stocks fell the most, while oil and gas and travel shares gained nearly 1%. “Investors are cautiously ...

The dollar briefly dropped to lowest since Jan. 13 on Tuesday as investors’ focus shifted to how U.S. Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell might respond to resurgent inflation expectations, while commodity-linked currencies hovered near multi-year highs. The recent rise in inflation expectations as investors bet on a post-pandemic economic rebound and the so-called “reflation” trade had lifted U.S. government bond yields and — briefly — the dollar until earlier this month. But analysts expect Powell, who testifies before Congress at 1500 GMT, to provide some reassurance that the Fed will ...

The U.S. dollar resumed its slide on Monday and reached multi-year lows against the British pound and the Australian dollar as traders focused on the promise of coronavirus vaccinations and the outlooks for economic growth and inflation that could push bond yields higher. A U.S. Dollar banknote is seen in this illustration taken May 26, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration The U.S. dollar index was last down 0.3% in afternoon trading in New York at 90.046 and about even for the year. The dollar has been trending down in February and has ...

NASDAQ-Adv: 1,543 Dec: 2,494 NYSE-Adv: 1,960 Dec: 2,214(Source: Nasdaq)