Hi Everybody,
Hope you’re having a great day so far. 🙂
The price of Litecoin rose by more than 33% over the past 24 hours and passed Dash to become the fourth largest cryptocurrency. Both Litecoin and Dash have been gaining in value lately and now have a combined market cap of about $1 Billion.
Way to go @jaynemesis for calling it. Looking forward to your post.
The total value currently being stored in all digital currencies is equal to approximately $27.2 Billion (US Dollars), which isn’t all that much if you think about it. The European Central Bank is currently pumping about €60 Billion into their economy every month.
Over time, as humanity continues to integrate technology into our daily lives digital, borderless, currencies are increasingly likely to replace the Fiat (government issued) currencies that we’re used to.
Thanks to recent legislation and corporate partnerships in Japan, approximately 260,000 retail stores are about to start accepting bitcoin as cash, making it easier for locals and tourists to facilitate payments directly from their smartphone.
Here in eToro, one thing is certainly clear. The amount of value stored on the blockchain needs to rise very quickly in order to support the next generation of digitally adept consumers.
-Mati
Today’s Highlights
- Fed picks the VIX back up
- More Oil – Not Less
- Something Snapped
Please note: All data, figures & graphs are valid as of April 6th. All trading carries risk. Only risk capital you can afford to lose.
Market Overview
Thanks to some key updates yesterday the market again has some direction. Unfortunately, that direction is down. The FOMC meeting minutes out yesterday have put the fear back into the markets.
In short, what the Fed discussed behind closed doors on March 15th & 16th was how to start reducing their $4.5 Trillion balance sheet. They’ve been buying bonds and securities since 2009 to prop up the post-crisis economy. Now that things are back to normal, it’s time to start offloading some of those assets.
Very excited to be able to add the VIX volatility in today’s update. For the first time in a while, it’s actually done something interesting. Here we can see the Fed-induced volatility.
Even though the VIX didn’t even reach 13 points, it’s still one of the highest levels we’ve seen all year, so it seems like a lot.
The Fed is not solely to blame for yesterday’s declines though.
Crude oil inventories released yesterday showed that stockpiles in the United States have increased to another record high, disappointing analysts who were expecting a decrease in supply. The price of oil dipped briefly to support at $51 on the Chicago exchange putting strain on the energy sector, which has been holding up the markets lately as we’ve shown in previous updates (see: Energy Led Market from March 30th)
The price is rising over the last hour or so and oil is largely holding onto the gains of the past two weeks. $51 represents strong support, a level that if held or broken will have large consequences on all markets.
Financials and Technology bore the brunt of yesterday’s selling…
The NASDAQ itself fell by more than 0.5%, which is good for me because @pipatel is going to buy me a beer at the end of the year, but not so great for Wall Street.
As can be expected, the tech sector’s youngest darling, Snapchat, couldn’t handle the pressure and completely fell apart. A total loss of 6.3% in a single day.
This illustrates just how emotional these markets are being. There have been no real changes in the structure of Snap or any changes to the outlook of their success over time. Yet, since it’s IPO on March 2nd it’s reached as high as $29 a share and as low as $18 a share with wild swings in between.
Trade with others. Join eToro community and use experience of other traders!
Fun times all around.
Best regards,
Mati Greenspan
Senior Market Analyst
