A neon sign indicates that Bitcoin is accepted inside the venue of the Paralelni Polis project, an organization combining art, social sciences and modern technology, in Prague, Czech Republic, on Friday, Jan. 5, 2024.
Milan Jaros | Bloomberg | Getty Images
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What you need to know today
Bitcoin slides after false ETF approval post
Bitcoin slid Tuesday after the Securities and Exchange Commission‘s social media account — which was compromised — sent a false social media post stating the regulatory agency had approved a long-awaited bitcoin exchange-traded fund. Immediately after the first post, the world’s largest cryptocurrency jumped to as high as $47,901 to its highest level since March 2022, but later traded lower by 3%.
Markets retreat
Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index ended with small declines on Tuesday, closing 0.15% lower, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.42%. The Nasdaq Composite, however, inched 0.09% higher by close as it bounced off a 0.9% slide from earlier in the session. Shares of tech stocks continued to rise and stave off bigger declines. Europe’s Stoxx 600 also ended 0.17% lower as most its main sectors fell along with other regional bourses.
Worst decade of growth
The World Bank has forecast the global economy will likely grow 2.4% in 2024. That’s lower than the 2.6% recorded in 2023, and will be the third year in a row where growth slows, according to the organization’s “Global Economic Prospects” report. Sluggish global trade and tight financial conditions will hit developing economies the hardest, the World Bank says.
HPE to buy Juniper Networks
Hewlett Packard Enterprise will buy Juniper Networks for about $14 billion in an all-cash deal, the company confirmed. That works out to about $40 per share — Juniper shares jumped 22% to close at $37.05 after the news. The acquisition will bolster HPE’s existing networking business — which was the company’s top-performing segment — and speed up growth, the company said.
[PRO] What Wall Street expects this earnings season
Big banks including Citigroup, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo will be kicking off earnings season later this week. Investors will be looking for hints of what such companies expect for the new year, while analysts expect a “negative catalyst.”
The bottom line
Bitcoin is arguably the world’s most popular cryptocurrency and has had a dramatic run-up in gains last year. Most of it was fueled by hype around a bitcoin exchange-traded fund that sparked a jump of about 60% in the cryptocurrency over the last three months.
A false social media post about the approval of such an ETF by the SEC was the last thing eager crypto bros were hoping for.
Market participants were anticipating an update from the regulatory authority as soon as Wednesday as it would mark the deadline for the SEC to approve or deny the application.
But bitcoin quickly sold off after the SEC said its X account had been compromised, confirming that it had not approved the Ark 21 Shares spot bitcoin ETF application, among others.
“The sell-off is showing a rattled market,” said Michael Rinko, research analyst at Delphi Digital. “This kind of high-volume boomerang event probably spooked some people and led to people taking some risk off the table but the initial market reaction is encouraging.”
It is, however, still widely expected to be approved by the SEC but some investors believe that considering bitcoin’s spectacular rally, it could also mean the day one effect of an approval may just turn out to be a sell-the-news event.
