Looking back at the most intriguing and popular industry news from the past week between 13th and 17th April on LeapRate.
Markets have pulled back this week as fears mount that we’re heading for a deep global recession following predictions by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). An explosive report from the IMF predicted the worst economic downturn since the 1930s. Asian markets stumbled overnight despite China announcing more stimulus, cutting its medium-term interest rate to a record low to support its own businesses amid the downturn. US futures are also pointing towards a dip this morning, despite yesterday’s strong rally.
As risk aversion once again takes over, the dollar reverts to being the safe haven of choice for many investors, with the index that measures the performance of the greenback up by more than 0.6% during early Wednesday trading.
The collapse of the oil price is not over either. The new agreement seems to be massive but in reality it is simply not enough in the face of the collapse in oil demand, leaving producers in serious crisis. In just a few days we have seen the price slow down to test the support zone at $19.50. A clear break down of these levels could open space for a new low with the bearish sentiment far from finished.
An exchange-traded Bitcoin fund on a major global stock exchange is now a reality at the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) in Canada and 3iQ, the asset management firm that stayed the course for three years and which launched the fund this past Thursday. $14 million was invested on that eventful day with more to come as this storyline rolls out. Sadly, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the U.S. continues to place roadblocks in the way of a similar product launching down south, but for now, TSX is the winner.
Brokeree Solutions, a technology provider of forex brokers solutions, released advanced monitoring system for forex brokers. The company announced its release of a System Alerts – new risk management application for MetaTrader 4 and 5 servers. The solution provides dealers and system administrators with real-time monitoring of trading servers’ performance and notifies them of any issues.
IS Prime Hong Kong, part of the ISAM Capital Markets Group, appointed former Invast Global executive Antony Tan as Vice President – Trading Solutions, Asia. Tan is the first new member of IS Prime Hong Kong’s coverage team since the company obtained SFC Type 3 Leveraged Foreign Exchange Trading licence in December last year.
The US online trading services provider, GAIN Capital Holdings, Inc., reported 95.6% growth МоМ for March 2020 metrics. The OTC trading volume for the retail segment skyrocketed to $388.6 billion in March.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warned that the Covid-19 pandemic will bring a surge of crypto scams creating opportunities for fraudsters to take advantage of the situation. FBI agents believe the scammers will pose as organizations looking for donations for remote workers via email, safety equipment sellers, not going through the established channels for payments, or even posing as charities that take cryptocurrency, which is a big red flag.
