Weekly news summary for December 16 to December 22
Friday, Dec. 16: Crypto Prices Fall as Mazars Drop Crypto Clients
Cryptocurrency prices declined on Friday after new developments concerning French auditing firm Mazars Group raised uncertainty over the reliability of reserve figures provided by major crypto exchange Binance.
Bitcoin was down 3%, while Ether lost 6%, and other alt-coins followed suit after Mazar moved to temporarily halt all work with its cryptocurrency clients, including Binance, KuCoin, and Crypto.com following its publication of proof of reserves (PoR) reports for certain exchanges.
Monday, Dec. 19: Twitter Poll Urges Musk to Step Down; Tesla Gains
Tesla Inc. and Twitter Inc. chief executive Elon Musk on Monday asked users of the social media platform via a poll whether he should resign as the company’s head, with 57.5% of the about 17 million participants voting ‘yes’ against the 42.5% voting ‘no’ to his idea of leaving the post.
The tweet resulted in a positive push to the electric-vehicle giant’s (EV) stock, which climbed 4.5% in pre-market trading on the possibility that his exit from Twitter would stop what is seen as his major distraction from Tesla.
Tuesday, Dec. 20: Nike Shares Climb after Positive Q2 Earnings
Shares in Nike Inc. rose 13% in after-hours trading on Tuesday after the company reported its best revenue growth in 42 quarters, with profit topping expectations, as the US sportswear maker’s bigger discounts and further promotions significantly helped clear its substantial inventory.
Nike said revenue increased 17% to $13.32 billion in the second quarter from $11.36 billion in the previous year, beating forecasts of $12.57 billion, while its net income for the quarter was $1.33 billion or $0.85 per share, also surpassing estimates of $0.64 per share.
Wednesday, Dec. 21: Oil Prices Rise on Larger US Inventory Draw
Oil prices surged to a one-week high on Wednesday after the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a bigger-than-expected decline of 3.1 million barrels in crude inventory last week.
The US West Texas Intermediate crude futures gained 1.6% to $77.43 per barrel, and Brent crude futures added 1.7% to $81.35 per barrel, with prices also receiving support from concerns over an extended Russian oil shortage after news that the country’s oil exports fell 11% from the prior year.
Thursday, Dec. 22: Yen Extends Gains, Dollar Falls Ahead of PCE Data
The Japanese yen continued to rise on Thursday after the Bank of Japan’s (BOJ) decision to expand its yield curve control, while the US dollar extended its drop ahead of the release of key economic reports that are seen providing more hints on inflation.
The yen gained 0.5% and was near the four-month high reached on Wednesday, while the dollar index and dollar index futures both shed 0.3%, with focus now on the US’s revised third-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) data and personal consumption expenditure (PCE) price index for November.
