Markets Overview
- ASX SPI 200 futures down 0.3% to 7,355.00
- Dow Average down 0.7% to 35,735.73
- Aussie down 0.5% to 0.7135 per US$
- U.S. 10-year yield fell 6.0bps to 1.4241%
- Australia 3-year bond yield fell 3bps to 0.89%
- Australia 10-year bond yield fell 3bps to 1.60%
- Gold spot up 0.3% to $1,787.72
- Brent futures down 1.0% to $74.43/bbl
Economic Events
- 9:30am: (AU) Dec. ANZ Roy Morgan Weekly Consumer, prior 107.5
- 11:30am: (AU) Nov. NAB Business Confidence, prior 21
- 11:30am: (AU) Nov. NAB Business Conditions, prior 11
Western Australia will welcome fully-vaccinated international and domestic travelers from Feb. 5.
Markets around the globe prepared for a wave of central bank decisions, with traders weighing the potential impacts of less generous monetary settings amid coronavirus challenges and lofty equity valuations. About 20 central banks are due to hold meetings this week, with the Federal Reserve seen winding down bond purchases and signaling an interest-rate liftoff in 2022 — heralding a historic pivot to counter the fastest inflation since the 1980s. The European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan are also set to announce their monetary policy decisions.
Other News
The Congressional hearing on crypto spurred a new meme cryptocurrency: mongoose coin.
On Wednesday, the House Financial Services Committee questioned six crypto leaders about the benefits and challenges of digital assets. FTX Chief Executive Officer Sam Bankman-Fried and Coinbase CEO Alesia Jeanne Haas testified at the hearing, along with the heads of Bitfury, Circle, Paxos Trust Company, and Stellar Development Foundation.
In his line of questions, Rep. Brad Sherman, a California democrat, said cryptocurrencies themselves are the No. 1 threat to crypto.
“Bitcoin could be replaced by ether which could be replaced by doge,” he said. That, he said, “could be replaced by hamster coin and then there’s cobra coin.”
“What could mongoose coin do to crypto coin?” He joked. A Mongoose — an African animal that can get as long as 2 feet — is known for living in burrows and eating other animals, including cobra snakes.
Following his remarks, several mongoose coins started trading on platforms including Polygon, Avalanche, and Binance Smart Chain. Decrypt and Mashablefirst reported the news.
On Polygon and Binance Smart Chain, the supply was approximately “69,420,000,” a popular meme finance number. Some of the coins saw a price surge before dropping back down.
Mongoose coin follows a long line of meme tokens. Likely the most well-known meme coin, boosted by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, is dogecoin. Following dogecoin came shiba inu coin. Some, like Squid Game coin based on the Netflix hit show, have been scams.
“Will mongoose coin always have a value?” Sherman said at the hearing. “I don’t know. I just made it up. It’s a joke. Although I said that about hamster coin, and then I found out there really was a hamster coin. It’s not fair to compare fiat currencies’ current system to what cryptocurrencies aspire to be.”
