Investment Education

According to Odaily, ANZ economist Bansi Madhavani has indicated that the Bank of England is expected to keep its benchmark interest rate at 5.0% during its policy meeting in September. Madhavani suggests that due to the inflation rate in the services sector not aligning with the target of a sustained 2% inflation rate, the central bank will adopt a gradual approach in the early stages of the easing cycle. The Bank of England had previously cut rates in August and may consider another rate cut in November. Madhavani believes that the combination of economic weakness and progress in reducing inflation will pave the way for a total reduction of 150 basis points during this easing cycle.

According to Odaily, the Australian stock market reached a historic peak on Tuesday, driven by growing expectations of a significant interest rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve this week. The S&P/ASX 200 index rose by 0.3% to 8,148.8 points, surpassing the previous record of 8,148.7 points set on August 1. The CME's FedWatch tool indicates that 62% of market participants now anticipate a 50 basis point rate cut. Traders are also awaiting Australia's August employment report, due on Friday, to gauge the labor market's response to high interest rates. Since November 2023, the Reserve Bank of Australia has maintained interest rates at a 12-year high of 4.35%. Financial stocks, which are sensitive to interest rate changes, increased by 0.3%, with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia rising by 0.4%. Gold stocks continued their upward trend for the sixth consecutive day. Mining stocks saw a slight increase of 0.1%, with industry giants BHP Group and Rio Tinto gaining 0.3% and 0.7%, respectively. Technology stocks surged by up to 1%, reaching new record highs.

According to BlockBeats, former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky is facing a potential prison sentence of up to 115 years. Last Friday, Mashinsky's legal team submitted a memorandum to the New York District Court, requesting permission for six former Celsius employees, including the company's former Chief Financial Officer and Chief Revenue Officer, to testify in his criminal trial.In July 2023, Mashinsky was arrested on charges of defrauding customers and misleading them about Celsius's profitability. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Celsius and Mashinsky of raising billions of dollars through fraudulent and unregistered cryptocurrency sales and manipulating the price of the company's native token, CEL.Mashinsky's lawyers argued in the memorandum that, as CEO of Celsius, Mashinsky relied on information provided by his experienced professional team and had no intention of harming anyone. They emphasized, 'The government has informed the defense that its current position, according to sentencing guidelines, is that Mr. Mashinsky should be sentenced to 115 years in prison.'

According to Odaily, all five members of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are set to testify before the House Financial Services Committee next Tuesday. This marks the first time since 2019 that the entire SEC, not just the chairman, will appear together for testimony. Additionally, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler is scheduled to testify separately before the Senate on Wednesday.

According to PANews, Barclays foreign exchange strategist Skylar Montgomery Koning has indicated that the dollar is poised for a rebound as traders have overestimated the extent of the Federal Reserve's rate cuts and underestimated the retail sales data set to be released on Tuesday. Koning predicts that stronger-than-expected retail sales will shift market bets towards smaller rate cuts, thereby boosting the dollar. With only two days remaining until the Federal Reserve's rate decision, trader uncertainty is at its highest level since 2007. This consumer report is one of the last pieces of information before the rate announcement.Barclays anticipates that the Federal Reserve will implement three 25-basis-point rate cuts this year, citing the continued strength of the U.S. economy. Montgomery Koning noted that the market tends to overreact to rate cut expectations. She stated, 'During those soft landing periods, if you look at historical data, the market always overestimates the extent of the Federal Reserve's rate cuts. When expectations shift, the dollar tends to rebound.'

According to Odaily, Goldman Sachs has addressed market skepticism regarding its optimistic view on gold prices, reiterating its stance that a Federal Reserve rate cut will drive gold prices higher. The firm has reaffirmed its recommendation to go long on gold, setting a price target of $2,700 per ounce by early 2025.

According to CoinDesk, more than 40 financial firms will join the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) to explore how tokenization can enhance wholesale cross-border payments in Project Agorá. The initiative aims to combine wholesale central bank money with tokenized commercial bank deposits, the BIS announced on Monday.The financial firms were selected by the BIS following a public call for participation in May. Project Agorá will now enter its design phase, focusing on the digitization of real-world assets. Tokenization, a technology several countries are exploring, is at the core of this project. The BIS launched Project Agorá in April, bringing together seven monetary authorities from the U.K., Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Switzerland, the U.S., and Europe.The project builds on the BIS's unified ledger concept and aims to investigate how tokenized commercial bank deposits can be seamlessly integrated with tokenized wholesale central bank money in a public-private programmable core financial platform. This major public-private partnership seeks to address several structural inefficiencies in current payment systems, particularly in cross-border transactions.The BIS highlighted the challenges for cross-border payments, including different legal, regulatory, and technical requirements, as well as varying operating hours. Project Agorá aims to overcome these obstacles and improve the efficiency of international payments.

According to PANews, X Payments, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Elon Musk's X (formerly Twitter), has obtained a money transfer license in Oklahoma. This brings the total number of states where X Payments is licensed to 37. The company aims to secure licenses in all 50 states and plans to launch its payment services across the United States later this year.

According to Odaily, the New York Federal Reserve's manufacturing index for September has reached 11.5, significantly surpassing the expected -4 and the previous value of -4.7. This marks the highest level recorded since April 2022.

According to Odaily, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group has indicated that the U.S. dollar is unlikely to achieve a sustained recovery even if the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates by 25 basis points this week. Analyst Lee Hardman from Mitsubishi UFJ stated in a report that a 25 basis point rate cut by the Federal Reserve might lead to further rate reductions in future meetings, especially if the labor market continues to show weakness. He noted that this scenario suggests it is only a matter of time before the Federal Reserve needs to accelerate the pace of rate cuts.