Tuesday Morning Reads
Reads:
- First Country to Adopt Bitcoin as National Currency
- Unlikely to Spur More Bitcoin Adoption
- Crypto and Sports
- Life After the ECB?
- China Trade Surges to New Records
- Warning of Income Gap
- ‘Tragic Mistake’
- Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place
- From Cradle to Grave
- Battling Wall Street’s Most Feared Fund
- Criminal Prosecutors See No Evil
- Lawsuits Over ‘Misleading’ Food Labels
- Biden’s Electric Car Plans
Futures:
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SeekingAlpha
The Bitcoin (BTC-USD) subreddit community is looking at a coordinated plan to buy the cryptocurrency to commemorate El Salvador's law making it legal tender. President Nayib Bukele tweeted yesterday that the country had purchased a total of 400 Bitcoins.
It was three months ago (and with the price at $35K) that Bukele made a surprise appearance at Miami's Bitcoin 2020 conference to announce plans to make the crypto legal tender in his country.
The law in El Salvador goes into effect at 3 PM local time (5 PM ET) and citizens will be able to download a digital wallet and receive $30 in Bitcoin after entering their ID number. Bitcoin is now down about 1%, moving below $52K.
According to tweets, a large Brazilian Reddit (REDDIT) community with more than 3M users, plans is being called on to buy $30 each in Bitcoin. Reddit coordinating. In a post titled "So ... We all buying $30 worth of Bitcoin on Tuesday,' user thadisusb writes: "3,316,862 Community Members X $30/each = $99,505,860 (give or take based on currencies used) ... El Salvador will have the crypto launch @ 3 PM. I say we coordinate for this time, which is 2 PM Pacific Standard time. Thoughts? ... I have meant this as more of a support gesture, rather than a pump. It's a first that a nation has adopted Bitcoin. This is an important time in Bitcoin. Let's show El Salvador, for those who are on the fence about it still, that Bitcoin has value for them. And for everyone. Bitcoin is meaningful." The post has more than 2,000 comments, with 86% giving the idea a thumbs up.
Whether the plan comes to fruition is another matter, with Vijay Ayyar, head of Asia Pacific with crypto exchange Luno in Singapore telling Bloomberg it would be challenging. “Saying something and actually doing it are very different,” Ayyar says.
On Friday, SA contributor John Rhodes argued that even "if there's a high chance of failure, or loss, over a long period of time, Bitcoin can be an outstanding asymmetric bet." (1 comment)
For several months, one of the major topics involving tech companies has been China. Whether it's been the Beijing government imposing more regulations on its own e-commerce leaders, or fears about shortages in semiconductors and other products made in China, barely a day of late has gone by without the topic of China being brought up in regards to the tech sector.
But, just how much does China weigh on the thinking of top tech chief executives and other corporate officials? Are they that worried about China and its impact on their businesses?
Since CEOs know that whatever they say will be parsed for any hints about where their businesses are headed, they often only speak publicly when they want to promote something positive about their companies. But, one of those rare times when they, or their CFOs, do go before the public is on their quarterly earnings calls. And in addition to telling how well their companies have done over the prior three months, those executives have a fiduciary duty to let their shareholders know about any challenges they are facing. And with China seemingly being a worry to much of the tech sector, those quarterly conference calls would appear to be the appropriate place for company officials to address the China question. But, a look at the recent conference calls of some of the biggest tech companies shows that, in many cases, China doesn't even warrant a mention, much less a worry, to some top tech CEOs. (75 comments)
Normally a huge miss on headline payrolls (235K vs. 750K expected) would send money away from risk into bonds, pushing yields down and hitting Financials (NYSEARCA:XLF) on net interest margin. But BTIG still has an Overweight rating on the sector, looking at the bigger picture.
"Taking a step back, Financials relative performance vs. the S&P 500 continues to build out a base that has been a decade-plus in the making, after holding the GFC era low," Julian Emanuel, chief equity and derivatives strategist, writes in a note. "This suggests that should financials maintain their momentum and relative strength break out, there is plenty of room for further outperformance - this is consistent with our view that Value began a period of longer-term outperformance vs. Growth in September 2020." (11 comments)
Barron's spoke with investors and analysts who focus on the biotech field to find names that are poised to make a comeback.
Many biotech stocks have had a tough year so far. The SPDR Biotech ETF (NYSEARCA:XBI) is down 4.7% year-to-date. That compares to a 20.8% return in the same period for the S&P 500.
The companies Barron's highlights are: Acceleron Pharma (NASDAQ:XLRN), Invitae (NYSE:NVTA), Sarepta Therapeutics (NASDAQ:SRPT), COMPASS Pathways (NASDAQ:CMPS), and AlloVir (NASDAQ:ALVR). (34 comments)
White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci says that the U.S. COVID-19 vaccine rollout scheduled for Sept. 20 will likely start with Pfizer (NYSE:PFE)/ BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX) COVID-19 vaccine, soon followed by the introduction of Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) COVID-19 booster shot.
Speaking on CBS' "Face the Nation," on Sunday, the top U.S. infectious disease expert said Pfizer/ BioNTech have likely submitted sufficient data for regulators to make a decision before the deadline, set by The White House last month. “It is conceivable that we will only have one of them out, but the other will likely follow soon thereafter," Fauci said. (158 comments)
Today's Markets
In Asia, Japan +0.86%. Hong Kong +0.73%. China +1.51%. India +0.12%.
In Europe, at midday, London -0.34%. Paris -0.11%. Frankfurt -0.32%.
Futures at 6:20, Dow -0.05%. S&P -0.06%. Nasdaq -0.08%. Crude -0.65% at $68.86. Gold -1.07% at $1814.15. Bitcoin -1.8% at $50940.
Ten-year Treasury Yield +4.3 bps to 1.365%
Today's Economic Calendar
12:30 PM TD Ameritrade IMX
1:00 PM Results of $58B, 3-Year Note Auction
Companies reporting earnings today »
What else is happening...
Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) to supply chip for new Renault (OTC:RNSDF) electric vehicle.
Japan to purchase 150M doses of Novavax's (NASDAQ:NVAX) COVID-19 vaccine.
FDA places clinical hold on BioMarin's (NASDAQ:BMRN) Phase 1/2 gene therapy study in phenylketonuria.
HUYA's (NYSE:HUYA) chief financial officer resigns.
111 (NASDAQ:YI) approves $10M share repurchase program.
Deutsche Telekom (OTCQX:DTEGF) nears €5B sale of Dutch unit - Bloomberg.