Global Financial News Brief - December 17, 2023

Policy and Regulation

• China's Non-Bank Payment Industry Regulation: The State Council of China has introduced new regulations, effective from May 1, 2024, to strengthen the supervision of the non-bank payment industry that serves over a billion individuals.

Corporate Dynamics

• Nissan's Global Electric Vehicle Sales: Nissan Motors plans to sell electric vehicles developed in China globally and collaborate with top Chinese universities to enhance technology.
• Illumina-Grail Deal Review: A U.S. court has ordered the Federal Trade Commission to re-examine Illumina's acquisition of cancer detection company Grail.
• Anheuser-Busch U.S. Factory Strike: The Teamsters union announced that 99% of its members voted in favor of a strike at the Anheuser-Busch brewery in the U.S.
• Tesla CEO's Views on Energy: Tesla's founder Elon Musk stated that oil and gas should not be demonized in the medium term.

Digital Currency and Blockchain

• Palau's Stablecoin Project: The Ministry of Finance of Palau has initiated the second phase of its stablecoin pilot project, focusing on developing a digital ecosystem.
• Rise in Bitcoin Transaction Fees: Bitcoin's network fees surged by over 33% in one day, reaching 560.3 BTC.
• NFT Trader Attack Incident: Boring Security paid a 10% bounty to the NFT Trader attacker and plans to return all stolen NFTs to the victims for free.
• Blockstream CEO on Bitcoin Mining: Adam Back stated that the transaction fees of the Bitcoin network are sufficient to sustain future mining incentives.

Foreign Exchange Market

• U.S. Dollar Trend: The U.S. dollar faces challenges ahead of the upcoming Core Personal Consumption Expenditures (Core PCE) report, which will impact trading setups for various currency pairs.
• Rise in Gold and Silver Prices: The prices of gold (XAU/USD) and silver (XAG/USD) have risen due to a dovish Federal Reserve interest rate outlook.
• Euro and British Pound Outlook: The Euro may face support challenges, while the British Pound closely monitors inflation and GDP data.