Traders betting on higher prices took the brunt of forced selling as interest rates spiked upwards on Wednesday.
By Shaurya Malwa, James Van Straten, Omkar Godbole, and Stephen AlpherEdited by Stephen AlpherMake preferred on Share this article35 minutes ago· 8:08 a.m. EDTStephen AlpherShare this postSpace X slips on reported $40 billion capital raise to buy Nvidia chips
Space X SPCX$168.73· is in talks to raise $40 billion in debt to fund the purchase of Nvidia chips, according to the FT.
The capital would be split between bank loans and investment-grade paper, the story continued, noting that the huge sum underscored the massive amounts required to finance the infrastructure supporting the AI boom.
SPCX is down 2% pre-market.
43 minutes ago· 8:00 a.m. EDTStephen AlpherShare this post'Le spread' blowing out after one-day respite
The EU debt crisis, part two, is back in play on Wednesday as the French 10-year OAT yield soars by 17.6 basis points to 4.924%, while the German 10-year Bund yield rises by a modest 3 basis points to 3.51%.
That puts the OAT/Bund spread — otherwise known as “le spread” — back to more than 141 basis points, a level not seen since the 2011 troubles.
Again, that first crisis affected the periphery of the EMU —the PIGS: Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain. This time around, it’s far more troublesome as the target of the bond selloff is a country firmly in the core of the monetary zone.
The euro is lower by 0.7% versus the greenback on Wednesday, trading at its weakest level in five months at $1.1183.
1 hour ago· 7:29 a.m. EDTOmkar GodboleShare this postBitMine to stop buying ether at 5% hard cap, Tom Lee says
BitMine Immersion Technologies will stop buying ether ETH$2,575.40 once it has accumulated 5% of the cryptocurrency’s supply, Chairman Tom Lee said during a keynote at Token2049 in Singapore on Wednesday.
“That’s a hard cap. We’re not gonna be accumulating past 5%,” Lee said. “We’re not gonna own more than 5% of Ethereum.”
He said the company needs to buy another 100,000 ETH to hit that self-imposed ceiling.
Ether’s price has declined by 4.5% to $2,477 since midnight UTC hours. Bitcoin, meanwhile, is down 2.2%.
The global bond sell-off continues
The global bond sell-off continues, with U.S. Treasury yields rising across the curve and pressure spreading across Europe and the UK. The U.S. 10-year yield is at 5.333%, while the 30-year yield has reached a fresh high of 5.715%. In the UK, the 30-year gilt yield has surpassed 6%, reaching 6.014%.
Renewed dollar strength is adding to the pressure, with the U.S. Dollar Index (DXY) climbing back above 102.
Bitcoin has fallen more than 2% over the past 24 hours, dropping below $84,000 and trading as low as $83,300. Oil initially jumped on news of Iranian tanker attacks, but WTI crude has since reversed those gains, turning slightly negative over the past 24 hours and slipping below $90 a barrel.
U.S. equities are also showing signs of a pullback after the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 hit all-time highs on Tuesday. Invesco QQQ, which tracks the Nasdaq 100, is down just under 1% in premarket trading.
1 hour ago· 7:09 a.m. EDTShaurya MalwaShare this postBitcoin breaks below $84,000 as bullish bets get flushed out
Bitcoin fell as much as 2.4% on Wednesday to about $83,600, slipping below $84,000 as about $550 million in leveraged crypto bets were wiped out over 24 hours, according to CoinGlass data.
Those were liquidations, positions an exchange closes automatically when a trader using borrowed money can no longer cover the losses. Most of them hit longs, or traders betting on higher prices.
Ether dropped nearly 4% to about $2,590, XRP lost about 4% and SOL fell more than 3%.
Dan Khus, chief analyst at LVRG Research, told Bloomberg the drop looks like "a leverage flush instead of a downward trend."
The slide takes bitcoin under the $84,000 level that FxPro flagged on Tuesday as the point where sellers take control. The recent low near $83,000 is the next test.
Risk appetite cooled across markets. Renewed Iranian attacks in the Strait of Hormuz dimmed hopes that shipping through the waterway would return to normal and pushed Brent crude above $101 a barrel. The 10-year Treasury yield climbed back above 5.3%, and Europe's Stoxx 600 snapped a three-day winning streak. U.S. stock futures were little changed after the S&P 500 closed at a record.
Minutes from the Fed's last meeting come out later Wednesday. Rachael Lucas, an analyst at BTC Markets, told Bloomberg that a hawkish read could push yields and the dollar higher and keep risk assets under pressure.