1) Bitcoin Futures Start Trading On CME Globex Monday Dec 18
Bitcoin futures surged more than 20% on their Cboe debut this week, forcing a major US derivatives exchange to halt trading twice as Wall Street seeks to ride a wave of interest in the controversial digital currency. A second bitcoin futures market launches Monday (Dec 18) on CME Globex. Financial Times (ft.com) video above published Dec 11, 2017.
CME Group Self-Certifies Bitcoin Futures to Launch Dec. 18 | cmegroup.com: "The new contract will be listed on and subject to the rules of CME. It will be available for trading on the CME Globex electronic trading platform, and for submission for clearing via CME ClearPort, effective on Sunday, December 17, 2017 for a trade date of December 18. CME Group's Bitcoin futures will be cash-settled, based on the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate (BRR) which serves as a once-a-day reference rate of the U.S. dollar price of bitcoin. Since November 2016, CME Group and Crypto Facilities Ltd. have calculated and published the BRR, which aggregates the trade flow of major bitcoin spot exchanges during a calculation window into the U.S. Dollar price of one bitcoin as of 4:00 p.m. London time. The BRR is designed around the IOSCO Principles for Financial Benchmarks. Bitstamp, GDAX, itBit and Kraken are the constituent exchanges that currently contribute the pricing data for calculating the BRR." For more info: cmegroup.com/bitcoinfutures.
CME Globex | cmegroup.com/globex: "CME Globex is the premier electronic trading system providing global connectivity to the broadest array of futures and options across all asset classes. CME Group technology facilitates electronic trading, providing users across the globe with virtually 24-hour access to global markets ..."
CME Group Inc.(Chicago Mercantile Exchange & Chicago Board of Trade) is a U.S. based financial market company operating an options and futures exchange. It owns and operates large derivatives and futures exchanges in Chicago, New York City, and exchange facilities in London, using online trading platforms. It also owns the Dow Jones stock and financial indexes, and CME Clearing Services, which provides settlement and clearing of exchange trades. The exchange-traded derivative contracts include futures and options based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities, rare and precious metals, weather, and real estate. Corporate headquarters are in Chicago in The Loop.
But also read:Get ready: #Bitcoin futures will be available on CME Globex and for block trading starting December 18. #BTChttps://t.co/k5sdH51ezB pic.twitter.com/KUevwfo3sU— CMEGroup (@CMEGroup) December 11, 2017
- Bitcoin hits new record high as warnings grow louder | reuters.com
- Bitcoin's Growing Price Gap Between Exchanges Creates Potential Headaches For Futures Trading--ZeroHedge.com.
- Bitcoin Whales: 1,000 People Who Own 40 Percent of the Market--"Because bitcoin is a digital currency and not a security, he says, there’s no prohibition against a trade in which a group agrees to buy enough to push the price up and then cashes out in minutes."--Bloomberg.com
- Bloomberg.com: Novogratz Says Crypto Will Be ‘Biggest Bubble of Our Lifetimes’--"One of the biggest bitcoin bulls on Wall Street says cryptocurrencies are in a massive bubble. He’s still starting a $500 million fund to invest in them."
- Signs Of A Market Top? This Pole Dancing Instructor Is Now A Bitcoin Guru | ZeroHedge.com
2) Antitrust & Tech:
- Antitrust should be used to break up partisan tech giants like Facebook, Google | TheHill.com: "How much face time will your news story get on Facebook? How many eyes will ogle it on Google? Too often, this is apparently determined not by whether the story is “fake” news or newsworthy, but by whether it’s politically correct. And it’s time to break up the Internet’s left-wing, information-conduit oligopoly."
- U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal's letter (pdf) to the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division re: Comcast-NBC merger--Senator Blumenthal asked the Trump administration's top antitrust prosecutor, Makan Delrahim, to revisit the deal and to try to keep in place conditions set to expire next year. "Given your responsibilities as head of the Antitrust Division to enforce our nation’s antitrust laws, it is incumbent on you to continue to ensure that Comcast’s acquisition of NBCU does not undermine free and fair competition," Blumenthal wrote. The Connecticut Democrat also asked Delrahim to consider splitting up the two companies if he finds that their merger has dampened competition.
- US Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) backs Trump's DOJ over AT&T-Time Warner merger | TheHill.com: "While DOJ’s action on the AT&T-Time Warner merger is a good step, one case alone does not prove that DOJ will be the strong antitrust enforcer that America needs."--Senator Elizabeth Warren.
3) Investing
Investing Notes:
- IMF identifies financial risks in China | SeekingAlpha.com: China's financial system, the 'shadow banking' sector, and excessive risk-taking.
- European debt investors left vulnerable to interest rate shock | ft.com: Average maturity of new bonds sold in eurozone climbs to highest level in a decade. See also Euro zone governments eye more 50-year-plus bond sales in 2018--reuters.com.
- U.S. stocks overpriced? DataTrekResearch.com: At the current 2.1x ratio, US stocks are no more expensive versus gold than they were at the beginning of 1997. The real “Mania” started then, and even if you bought stocks in January of that year you were still in the money at the end of 2002 once the bubble burst.
- The Swamp: Census Bureau: 5 Richest Counties Are D.C. Suburbs | cnsnews.com.
4) ICYMI Tech News:
- China's Top Phone Makers Poised to Challenge Apple on Home Turf | Bloomberg.com: "Huawei, Xiaomi in talks with carriers to expand to U.S. market - Apple has lost significant China marketshare to local makers"
- FCC overturns net neutrality rules, supporters plan to continue fight | USAtoday.com
- Tech Hub London: London's Housing Market Is Still a Money Machine--Bloomberg.com.
- Cord Cutters--ZeroHedge.com: New Study Says 40% Of American Households Will 'Cut The Cord' By 2030.
- Is Alibaba [$BABA] Eating JD.com's (NASDAQ:JD) Lunch? | SeekingAlpha.com
- Alibaba to buy 30% of India's online grocer BigBasket for $300M, with $80M of the investment used to buy shares from existing shareholders--indiatimes.com.
- Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) (domain: baidu.com) has a dominant position in China's search market with a 76% share of online search and an 82.5% share of China's mobile search market. China is the largest online market in the world with roughly 730 million users, a penetration rate of only 52%, and an annual ad spending growth rate of 32%--SeekingAlpha.com.
- Former Facebook exec says social media is ripping apart society | TheVerge/com: "No civil discourse, no cooperation; misinformation, mistruth .... an incident in India where hoax messages about kidnappings shared on WhatsApp led to the lynching of seven innocent people ..."
- Disney's Fox deal a seismic shift in media landscape | reuters.com
- India raises import tax on cellphones, move to hurt Apple | reuters.com
- Life is Short | paulgraham.com: "As I've written before, one byproduct of technical progress is that things we like tend to become more addictive. Which means we will increasingly have to make a conscious effort to avoid addictions—to stand outside ourselves and ask "is this how I want to be spending my time?" As well as avoiding bullshit one should actively seek out things that matter ... But most people start out with a life that's a mix of things that matter and things that don't, and only gradually learn to distinguish between them."
-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo
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