Tag: Bitcoin/USD Coin Metrics

Bitcoin tops $67,000 as it nears 2021 all-time high

Jaap Arriens | NurPhoto | Getty Images

Bitcoin jumped to start the week, edging even closer to its all-time high after the rally took a breather over the weekend.

The flagship cryptocurrency was last higher by 7% at $67,386.97, according to Coin Metrics. Earlier, it rose to as much as $67,493.00, its highest level since November 2021. Ether advanced 2% to $3,550.86.

Both coins are coming off their best week in almost a year — bitcoin gained about 21% and ether 16% — but paused their run over the weekend as the market digested two days of steep outflows from the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) that were offset by inflows into other “newborn” bitcoin exchange-traded funds.

Bitcoin is edging toward its all-time high

“With the birth of these nine new ETFs the big moves now tend to take place during the normal trading week rather than the weekends,” said Antoni Trenchev, co-founder of crypto exchange Nexo.

“What we’re seeing today … might well be a rerun of early last week when bitcoin surged $10,000 in the space of a couple of days,” he added. “We’re in that sort of environment when a day or two of sideways consolidation can precede explosive price action thanks to the voracious demand of these new spot ETFs.”

At $67,000, bitcoin sits about 3% off its November 2021 intraday record of $68,982.20.

Bitcoin lifted other crypto tokens, especially meme coins. Dogecoin surged 17%, while Shiba Inu coin rocketed 53%. Analysts point to their performance as evidence that retail investors, who have been absent for much of the recent crypto rally, are starting to return to the crypto market. Last week, meme tokens’ weekly trade volume surged to their highest level since late 2021, according to crypto data provider Kaiko.

Some crypto equities rode the bitcoin wave, such as Coinbase and Microstrategy, which rose 7% and 20%, respectively. Miners sat out, however, giving back earlier gains as the short-term effect of the upcoming halving in April — when mining companies’ revenue will be slashed — weighs on investors. Riot Platforms, Iris Energy and CleanSpark each fell about 6%. Cipher Mining slid 4% and Marathon Digital dipped about 2%.

Some analysts have suggested that while bitcoin could keep rising in the short term, it may cool in the next few weeks, as unrealized profit margins approach extreme levels. Bitcoin’s realized price is sitting at just about $42,700, according to CryptoQuant.

Nevertheless, long-term investors are confident that the combination of increasing demand for bitcoin through the new U.S. ETFs and a tighter supply expected after the April halving event will push the price of bitcoin to a new all-time high.

Crypto has also been getting a slight bid from the stock market, where the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite reached an all-time high on Friday, becoming the last of the major stock indexes to hit a record close this year. David Duong, head of institutional research at Coinbase, said that although March could be a month of sideways grinding for bitcoin, the cryptocurrency is benefiting from an AI- and blockchain technology-driven productivity boom he expects is here to stay.

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March 4, 2024
New details emerge about SEC’s X account hack, including SIM swap

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Monday that a SIM swap attack was to blame for the breach of its official account on X, formerly known as Twitter, earlier this month.

On Jan. 9, an unauthorized party gained access to the @SECGov account and displayed a fake post claiming the agency had approved the first-ever spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds. The cryptocurrency market moved following the unauthorized post, with bitcoin prices initially shooting up to nearly $48,000 from a low that day of just above $45,000. Then, after the SEC clarified that it had not yet approved the bitcoin ETF, prices fell below $46,000.

“Two days after the incident, in consultation with the SEC’s telecom carrier, the SEC determined that the unauthorized party obtained control of the SEC cell phone number associated with the account in an apparent ‘SIM swap’ attack,” an SEC spokesperson said in a statement.

A SIM swap is when a phone number is transferred to another device without the permission of the owner, allowing the bad actor to receive SMS messages and voice calls intended for the victim.

With access to the phone number, the unidentified individual then reset the account password. Since the SEC did not have two-factor authentication enabled, the SIM swap and subsequent password change were the only two steps necessary to gain full access to the agency’s account.

“While multi-factor authentication (MFA) had previously been enabled on the @SECGov X account, it was disabled by X Support, at the staff’s request, in July 2023 due to issues accessing the account,” the SEC said in the statement.

“Once access was reestablished, MFA remained disabled until staff reenabled it after the account was compromised on January 9,” the statement continued. “MFA currently is enabled for all SEC social media accounts that offer it.”

The agency had the ability to switch two-factor authentication back on for their X account and was not reliant on X to do so.

X owner and Chief Technology Officer Elon Musk mocked the SEC, an agency he has clashed with for years, after its account on X was breached. Musk also retweeted a post from Twitter Safety following the incident, which said the compromise “was not due to any breach of X’s systems.”

X didn’t immediately respond to CNBC’s questions about whether the platform has continued to cooperate with investigators, or whether the company plans to change its design or any features associated with government agency accounts in response to the SEC account breach.

Cybersecurity expert Chris Pierson tells CNBC that SIM swap attacks have become a much bigger security threat for government agencies and corporations.

“Originally, these attacks flourished as a means for criminals to hijack an individual’s cryptocurrency wallet or account, but they’re now being weaponized by other criminal actors and nation-states for a much wider range of uses,” said Pierson, a former member of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity Subcommittee and Privacy Committee.

There’s also been a growing number of targeted takeovers of influential social media accounts for pump-and-dump stock schemes, to inflict reputational damage and to spread disinformation, added Pierson, who is now CEO of cybersecurity and digital privacy protection company BlackCloak.

“While this is becoming a more serious problem, with more organized and sophisticated actors, we’re still seeing many agencies and companies continue to make basic mistakes with the security of these accounts,” he said.

The SEC said there was no evidence the unauthorized party gained access to the agency’s systems, data, devices or other social media accounts. Instead, the SEC said that “access to the phone number occurred via the telecom carrier” and that law enforcement is still investigating both how this individual “got the carrier to change the SIM for the account and how the party knew which phone number was associated with the account.”

The SEC said it’s continuing to work with multiple law enforcement and federal oversight entities, including the SEC’s Office of Inspector General, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Department of Justice and the SEC’s own Division of Enforcement.

— CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.

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January 22, 2024
Bitcoin touches $47,000 for the first time since April 2022 as investors brace for landmark ETF decision

Bitcoin rose to a 21-month high to start the week as investors awaited the potential approval of a U.S. bitcoin exchange-traded fund this week.

On Monday, the cryptocurrency was last higher by more than 6% to $46,924.38, according to Coin Metrics, as BlackRock, Grayscale and other potential bitcoin ETF issuers submitted final updates to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including key fee disclosures that bolstered investors’ confidence that an approval is more likely than not.

Earlier, it rose as high as $47,238.92. The last time it traded over $47,000 was April 2022.

“It’s a price war,” said Jim Angel, an associate professor specializing in financial market structure at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. “Multiple vendors are coming out of the gate with a nearly identical commoditized product and the only way they can compete is on price.”

The SEC is approaching its first deadline to approve or reject one of the ETF applications — that of Ark 21Shares on Wednesday. It is widely expected the agency will approve several applications at once to even the playing field.

“Approval is inevitable,” former SEC chair Jay Clayton told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday when asked what could happen this week. “There’s nothing left to decide. … This is a big step not just for bitcoin, but for finance generally.”

Bitcoin (BTC) breaks above the $47,000 level as investors await the SEC’s decision on a spot bitcoin ETF.

That would be a landmark decision for the cryptocurrency industry, which has anti-establishment roots but has demonstrated the value of bitcoin and ether to much of the institutional investing world. Fidelity, Invesco, VanEck, WisdomTree and Franklin Templeton are among the firms vying to launch a bitcoin ETF along with BlackRock.

Bitcoin’s big move also coincided with a decline in bond yields. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note lost nearly 4 basis points Monday.

The optimism around bitcoin helped push ether higher by 4%. Several of the same firms vying for a bitcoin ETF have also filed applications to launch spot ether ETFs. The SEC’s deadline on those will come later in the year.

The move pushed crypto equities higher, too. Coinbase edged higher by 3.5%. Miners enjoyed bigger gains.

Riot Platforms and Marathon Digital each were up more than 7%, while Iris Energy rose nearly 4% and CleanSpark advanced 5%.

Many investors say the day one effect of an approval has been overestimated, but that nevertheless, the event itself would create new pathways for inflows into bitcoin from institutions with a longer view.

Galaxy Digital, which has partnered with Invesco on its proposed bitcoin ETF, estimates the addressable market size of a U.S. bitcoin ETF to be roughly $14 trillion in the first year after a launch, and expanding to $26 trillion in the following year and $39 trillion in the third year.

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January 8, 2024
S&P 500 closes lower to begin 2024, Nasdaq notches worst day since October: Live updates

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on the first trading day of 2024 on January 02, 2024 in New York City.

Spencer Platt | Getty Images

The S&P 500 fell Tuesday, the first trading day of the year, as bond yields inched higher and investors took some money off the table following a surprisingly strong 2023.

The broad market index lost 0.57% to settle at 4,742.83. The Nasdaq Composite pulled back by 1.63% to 14,765.94, for its worst day since October. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 25.50 points, or 0.07%, to close at 37,715.04. Markets were closed Monday for New Year’s Day.

Apple shares slid more than 3% after Barclays downgraded the member of the Magnificent Seven market leaders basket to an underweight rating. On the other hand, the Dow remained in positive territory as defensive stocks like Johnson & Johnson and Merck strengthened.

The stock market finished 2023 with a bang, as the S&P 500 climbed for nine weeks in a row to end the year, notching its best weekly win streak since 2004. Risk assets enjoyed a big relief rally as the economy remained resilient and inflation cooled, while the Federal Reserve signaled an end to rate hikes and forecasted rate cuts later this year. The market also endured a regional banking crisis as well as wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Technology shares, especially megacap stocks, led the 2023 advance with Apple soaring 48%, Microsoft surging nearly 57% and Nvidia skyrocketing 239%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite ended the year up 43.4% for its best year since 2020.

The blue-chip Dow logged a 13.7% gain and notched a new record during 2023. Part of that rally was helped by a turn in interest rates. The 10-year Treasury yield had spooked investors by climbing above 5% at one point in October, before it topped out and closed the year out lower than 3.9%. On Tuesday, the 10-year yield was back up roughly 8 basis points, approaching 4% again. (1 basis point equals 0.01%.)

10-year Treasury yield, 6 months

That trend was reversing on Tuesday as the new year of trading began with megacap tech names declining. Apple shares fell after the negative call from Barclays. The firm said Apple could lose about 17% this year because of lackluster iPhone sales. Microsoft and Nvidia shares were also in the red.

This reversal is fairly common in the first day of trading, according to Infrastructure Capital Management CEO Jay Hatfield.

“This is perfectly normal, somewhat expected activity,” he told CNBC. “It’s a normal seasonal pattern that you have tax loss selling in the period before year-end, and then you have gain harvesting in the period after … And I would say the trigger point too was this Apple downgrade.”

Despite this slight pullback, Hatfield is still bullish on equities in the new year. He expects stocks to pick back up once earnings season rolls back around.

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January 2, 2024
Bitcoin shows its wild side once again, dropping $3,000 in minutes over the weekend

A worsening macroeconomic climate and the collapse of industry giants such as FTX and Terra have weighed on bitcoin’s price this year.

STR | Nurphoto via Getty Images

Bitcoin fell Monday as investors took profits after its December rally.

The price of the cryptocurrency was recently lower by about 5% at $41,557.62, according to Coinbase, after a big drop Sunday night that at one point took it as low as about $40,300. Bitcoin topped $44,000 last week and traded just below that level through the weekend.

Meanwhile, ether fell about 7% Monday to $2,205.11, while Solana’s SOL token slid 7% and Ripple’s XRP lost about 6%. According to Coin Metrics, bitcoin and ether are on pace for their worst days since Aug. 18 and March 9, respectively.

Crypto equities were dragged down, too. Coinbase and MicroStrategy fell about 6% each while bitcoin miners dropped double digits. Riot Platforms and Marathon Digital, the largest mining stocks, lost 12% and 11%, respectively. Wall Street favorites CleanSpark and Iris Energy were down 15% and 11%, respectively.

The moves come after a 12% advance for bitcoin in December, according to Coin Metrics, as expectations grew that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission could approve the first spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund in early January. Galaxy Digital estimates the addressable market size of a U.S. bitcoin ETF to be about $14 trillion in the first year after a launch, growing to about $26 trillion in the second year.

Bitcoin drops sharply as investors take profits from recent rally

“Bitcoin continues to stay red hot,” Wolfe Research’s Rob Ginsberg said in a recent client note. “The coin seems to be trading with a fervor not seen since the early months of ’21 when it ripped to its all-time high. The months of October and November saw price head another 56% higher.”

Bitcoin has been on a steady climb in recent weeks, following a long period of market apathy that saw the price trade in a narrow range for months.

The sudden pullback triggered a spike in liquidations. According to CoinGlass, bitcoin has seen $120 million in long liquidations over the past 22 hours, while ether has seen $86 million.

Ginsberg said there’s plenty of momentum left in the current bitcoin uptrend. Chart analysts agree the cryptocurrency would have to fall further still for them to reconsider the strength of the rally.

A bitcoin ETF would serve as just the first of a series of positive catalysts lined up for the cryptocurrency next year. While potential bitcoin investors are holding out for an ETF, others in the market are optimistic about a price increase in the months following the Bitcoin halving, which is expected to take place in spring 2024.

They’re also following moves by the Federal Reserve, particularly this week with its final policy meeting of the year scheduled to begin Tuesday, for clues about the likelihood that the central bank could cut rates sometime in 2024.

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December 11, 2023
Stock futures slip after S&P 500 closes at new high for 2023: Live updates

Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Aug. 4, 2022.

Source: NYSE

Stock futures were lower after the S&P 500 closed at a new 2023 high following a five-week win streak.

Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.2%. S&P 500 futures were down 0.3%. Nasdaq 100 futures inched 0.37% lower.

The large-cap equity index posted its highest close since March 2022 on Friday, bringing its year-to-date gains to almost 20%. The blue-chip Dow has also advanced for five weeks straight and is up 9.4% for the year. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite has popped 37% in 2023.

The rebound in stocks since October came as investors increasingly bet that the Federal Reserve will start cutting interest rates next year. Investors maintained this belief last week even as Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s tried to tamp down rate-cut expectations, saying it’s “premature” to anticipate easing in policy.

Some investors see the rally as unsustainable.

“At present things are very overdone,” Adam Crisafulli, founder of Vital Knowledge, said in a note. “The conversation on inflation, growth, the Fed, and earnings are all too binary, reductive, and facile.”

November was the best month for the 30-stock Dow since October 2022. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite both enjoyed their biggest monthly gains since July 2022.

Investors are awaiting the November jobs report, scheduled for release on Friday, for confirmation the Fed is done hiking rates. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect the economy to have added 190,000 payrolls.

Shares of Alaska Airlines declined more than 9% in premarket trading after news that it agreed to acquire rival Hawaiian Airlines in a $1.9 billion deal. The move marks an effort for both carriers to expand along the West Coast.

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December 4, 2023
Cryptocurrencies dip as investors digest regulatory updates from industry heavyweights Binance, Kraken

Founder and CEO of Binance Changpeng Zhao, commonly known as “CZ”, attends the “CZ meets Italy” at Palazzo Brancaccio on May 10, 2022 in Rome, Italy.

Antonio Masiello | Getty Images

Cryptocurrencies were slightly lower Tuesday, as investors weighed a batch of regulatory updates from Washington involving some of the biggest names in crypto: Binance, Kraken and Tether.

Binance Coin slid 6% after the U.S. Department of Justice has brought criminal charges against Binance and its founder and CEO, Changpeng Zhao, also known as “CZ.” Earlier in the day the coin rose as much as 5% with hopeful investors eager to see the multi-year investigation into the world’s largest crypto exchange resolved.

The move weighed on the rest of the crypto market. Ripple’s XRP fell 4%, Solana was down by more than 6%. Polygon and Uniswap lost 9% and 6%, respectively. Meanwhile, bitcoin was off its lows but down by 1.66%, hovering just below $37,000. Ether was last lower by about 3% at $1,976.13.

Binance falls as the DOJ brings criminal charges against it.

“Markets are whipsawing with each new piece of information, but will start to settle as we head into the U.S. holiday,” said Michael Safai, cofounder and partner at Dexterity Capital. “Remember, most traders haven’t operated in a market where there is no CZ. Any upside from the settlement may be met with some temporary selling pressure as the market considers how Binance moves forward. But crypto veterans have seen this play out before.”

“It’s hard to see Binance losing its dominance, but this will certainly create room for newer players to fill any void,” he added.

Investors were also weighing news from another major crypto exchange: Kraken. On Monday evening, the Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that the company has been operating as an unregistered broker, clearing agency and dealer and that it commingled customers’ crypto assets with its own.

This is the second time this year the SEC has sued Kraken. In February the agency said Kraken failed to register the offer and sale of the crypto asset staking-as-a-service program.

Meanwhile, the DOJ on Tuesday commended Tether, the controversial operator of the biggest stablecoin in the crypto ecosystem, for its efforts in freezing $225 million of assets linked to a human trafficking syndicate in Southeast Asia.

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November 21, 2023
XRP coin surges after judge delivers a huge win to Ripple in its case against the SEC

A visual representation of the digital cryptocurrency, XRP.

S3studio | Getty Images

Ripple’s XRP token surged on Thursday after a judge in the Southern District of New York ruled that it’s “not necessarily a security on its face.”

The price of XRP was last higher by 70% at about 80 cents a coin, according to Coin Metrics. The news gave hope to crypto investors, who breathed a sigh of relief that other altcoins may not be considered securities after all. Polygon’s matic token gained 11%. Litecoin and the token tied to Solana jumped 8%, and Cardano’s token advanced 7%. Bitcoin and ether got a boost too, of 3% and 7%, respectively.

“The judgments today are a huge step forward for the industry,” Chris Martin, head of research at Amberdata, told CNBC. “By judging that XRP is not a security we’re starting to get clarity on what constitutes a security and what constitutes a commodity — the SEC will have to revise their tactics on several of their ongoing cases and I expect that this judgment will implicate several other tokens as non-securities.”

“The judgment that institutional sales of XRP by Ripple constitute securities also has massive implications for the industry with several ICO’s now likely in the spotlight,” he added. “For exchanges caught in ongoing SEC cases, it’s not clear how this judgment will affect them – they’ve only been involved in secondary sales for the most part. But as we can see with prices today, the market is very bullish on the judgments.”

XRP surges after judge rules it’s not a security

The news marks the end of a three-year battle between Ripple and the Securities and Exchange Commission, although this is a trial court decision and there’s a good possibility some of these items will be appealed and could be reversed. In 2020 the SEC initiated a lawsuit against Ripple for breaching U.S. securities laws by selling XRP without first registering it with the agency.

The decision was widely seen as a key hurdle to clear in the second half of 2023 as crypto assets are still still contending with a challenging macro environment and have spent the past several weeks under immense pressure from U.S. regulators. That scrutiny includes lawsuits brought by the SEC against Coinbase and Binance in June.

Coinbase shares were last up 18% after the ruling. Robinhood and Block, both of which offer crypto trading services, rose 4% and 7%, respectively. Bitcoin proxy Microstrategy gained 6%. Miners surged double digit percentages.

A complex ruling

Investors are upbeat about Thursday’s ruling, but it’s not a clear-cut victory. The notion that XRP is plainly not a security is wrong, according to Stephen Palley, a partner at Brown Rudnick.

Still, he added, “if I were an XRP holder, I’d be happy right now.”

The ruling is divided into three sets of factual circumstances regarding sales of XRP: institutional sales, programmatic sales and “other distributions,” such as employee compensation.

The court sided with the SEC when it came to “Ripple’s Institutional Sales of XRP to sophisticated individuals and entities,” saying they were securities transactions and constituted an investment of money. Ripple won when it came to “programmatic” sales, however, or sales made through trading algorithms, as well as other distributions.

“Having considered the economic reality and totality of circumstances, the Court concludes that Ripple’s Programmatic Sales of XRP did not constitute the offer and sale of investment contracts” and “the Other Distributions do not satisfy Howey’s first prong that there be an ‘investment of money’ as part of the transaction or scheme,” the filing said.

Palley highlighted another significant issue: whether or not crypto exchanges like Coinbase need to register as securities exchanges. The SEC has been clear that most crypto assets being traded should be considered securities. However, the court didn’t reach a conclusion on the matter, which is another win for Ripple, Palley said.

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July 13, 2023
Fundstrat’s Tom Lee names 3 trades investors should get into right now — and bitcoin’s one of them

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June 21, 2023
S&P 500 rises slightly, hovers near a 9-month high: Live updates
Financial stocks outperform

Financial stocks pulled the S&P 500 into positive territory.

The sector gained 1.1%, while the broad index added just 0.1%. Zions Bancorporation and Comerica led the sector up, with each gaining more than 6%.

In all, eight of the 11 S&P 500 sectors traded up in Tuesday’s session. Health care, consumer staples and information technology were the three down in the session.

— Alex Harring

VIX hits lowest level since July 2021

The Cboe Volatility Index, known as the VIX and the Wall Street’s fear gauge, hit a low of 14.32 Tuesday, reaching its lowest level since July 2021 on an intraday basis. The VIX closed below 15 on Friday, the first close below that threshold since February 2020.

The VIX, which tracks the 30-day implied volatility of the S&P 500, has dipped nearly 4 points in June after gaining over 13 points in May. The index looks at prices of options on the S&P 500 to track the level of fear on Wall Street.

— Yun Li

Intel shares rise following Monday’s selloff

Intel shares advanced 3.5% — making it the best performer in the Dow — on Tuesday as the chipmaker rebounded from the prior session’s slide.

The stock dropped 4.6% on Monday after Apple revealed a new chip during its annual Worldwide Developers Conference.

— Alex Harring

Regional bank ETF on pace for third positive day in four

The SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF gained more than 4% during morning trading, putting it on pace for its third positive day in four.

The fund is also on track to close well above its 50-day moving average for the third consecutive day.

Some of the biggest gainers include PacWest, Independent Bank, BankUnited and Western Alliance, all up at least 6% or more.

— Gina Francolla, Samantha Subin

Regional bank ETF gains for the third day in four

Construction materials stocks show under-the-radar strength, Strategas says

Daily notices from Wall Street note the narrowness of this year’s stock market rally, but Strategas Research says there are pockets of strength beyond the usual suspects, if you use a strong enough magnifying glass.

“In a market where it’s been very difficult to find any sustained leadership outside of the
Technology/Semi/AI category, the Construction Materials group remains a continued source of strength,” wrote Chris Verrone, head of technical and macro research.

Although the four biggest stocks — Vulcan Materials, Martin Marietta Materials, Eagle Materials and Summit Materials — only have a combined market value of some $65 billion, “all remain in clear absolute + relative uptrends.”

The strength in construction materials is part of what Strategas sees as industrial stocks’ “steady source of leadership in our work all year domestically, in Europe, and most potently in Japan.” Eagle Materials has climbed 25% so far this year, Martin Marietta is ahead 24% in 2023, Summit has risen 18% and Vulcan by 16%. Pretty good for crushing rocks.

— Scott Schnipper, Michael Bloom

Stocks fall in early trading

The Dow slid about 50 points, or 0.2%. The S&P 500 pulled back 0.2% and the Nasdaq fell 0.4%.

— Fred Imbert
Stocks making premarket moves
Here are some of the names making the biggest moves in the premarket:

Mobileye — The stock tumbled 3.8% following a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Monday showed an Intel subsidiary will sell 35 million Class A shares in a secondary offering. Mobileye will not receive any proceeds from the sale.

Thor Industries — The RV manufacturer soared nearly 10% after the company reported an earnings and revenue beat. Thor also upped its full-year earnings guidance.

Epam Systems — Shares dropped about 2%, a day after the software firm posted second-quarter earnings and revenue guidance that was below analysts expectations. Epam Systems also lowered its full-year earnings and revenue guidance to below analysts’ expectations.

To see more stocks making premarket moves, read the full story here.

— Michelle Fox
Coinbase shares tumble more than 15% as fallout from lawsuit continues

Shares of Coinbase sank more than 15% in premarket trading after the Securities and Exchange Commission sued the crypto company, alleging that Coinbase was acting as an unregistered broker and exchange.

The move comes shortly after the SEC filed suit against Binance on similar grounds. SEC Chair Gary Gensler taken an increasingly aggressive stance toward cryptocurrency in recent months, arguing that most of them qualify as securities and fall under his purview.

— Jesse Pound

Bud Light selloff was ‘over-done’ but volumes could still decline, Bernstein says

The massive selloff on Bud Light parent Anheuser-Busch stock could be an overreaction, according to Bernstein.

The firm added that volumes for the beer could still head lower, though, stemming from customer backlash over the company’s social media partnership with a transgender influencer.

Anheuser-Busch stock.

“We also assume that Bud Light volumes will take a permanent -15% haircut with an associated drag on operating leverage,” analyst Trevor Stirling said.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read the full story here.

— Brian Evans

Analysts update investors on Apple outlook after Vision Pro unveil

Major analysts on Wall Street have updated their outlook on Apple stock after the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference.

Firms including Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan all remained optimistic on the stock after Apple’s rollout of its first mixed reality headset.

“While Vision Pro might not drive significant volumes given its premium price point, it could be the potential catalyst for the the AR/VR market as Apple has proven in the past that consumer engagement can deliver willingness to pay premium pricing…” JPMorgan analyst Samik Chatterjee said.

Read the full story here.

— Brian Evans

Treasury yields dip as investors weigh economic outlook

U.S. Treasury yields fell slightly on Tuesday as investors reflected on recent economic developments, including the debt ceiling crisis, and considered what could be next for the economy. That includes whether there will be an economic downturn and if the Federal Reserve will pause its interest rate-hiking campaign when it next meets on June 13-14.

At 4:07 a.m. ET the yield on the 10-year Treasury was down by over three basis points to 3.6621%. The 2-year Treasury yield was trading by more than three basis points lower at 4.4432%.

European equity markets open mixed

European stocks opened mixed Tuesday, echoing downbeat sentiment in other global markets.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was 0.1% higher around market open. Major bourses and sectors traded across positive and negative territory, with minor gains led by a 0.7% uptick in mining stocks. Tech stocks made the biggest losses with a 0.7% drop.

— Hannah Ward-Glenton

Australia’s central bank hikes rates by 25 basis points, defies expectations

The Reserve Bank of Australia again defied market expectations and raised its benchmark rate to 4.1%.

Economists polled by Reuters were widely expecting the central bank to hold its rates steady.

The Australian dollar rose by 0.73% to 0.6667 against the U.S. dollar shortly after the decision as the central bank grapples with the latest inflation rate of 7% for March quarter.

Australian stocks fell further, and the S&P/ASX 200 last traded 1.14% lower.

TSMC shares rise as Apple moves to its own silicon on all its computers

Shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co climbed slightly after U.S. tech giant Apple announced its new Mac Pro will use Apple silicon. This means that the entire Apple computer lineup will now use the company’s own processors.

While Apple does not reveal its suppliers, the new Apple M2 Ultra chip in the new Mac Pro is reportedly manufactured using TSMC’s process, which has also reportedly been used to manufacture Apple’s M1 and M2 series of chips.

The Apple announcement sent shares of Intel down, as this would mean that no Apple computers released after 2020 use Intel chips.

Apple first released its homemade M1 chip in November 2020, after only using Intel chips on its computers since 2006.

Philippines inflation rate slows for fourth month in a row

The inflation rate in the Philippines slowed for the fourth month in a row to 6.1% in May, down from the 6.8% recorded in April and slightly lower than the 6.2% expected from economists polled by Reuters.

Core inflation, which excludes some selected food and energy items, eased to 7.7% in May from 7.9% in April.

The country’s statistics authority explained that the downtrend was due to transport prices coming in at -0.5% compared with last year, versus the 2.6% increase in April

Prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages also registered a lower inflation rate of 7.4% in May, compared with 7.9% the month before.

Restaurants and accommodation services also saw a slower inflation rate of 8.3%, down from 8.6% the month before.

— Lim Hui Jie

Japan’s household spending falls more than expected in April

Japanese household spending fell 4.4% in April from a year earlier, a larger drop than the 2.3% expected by economists polled by Reuters.

This is its sharpest drop since July 2021 and the fifth time in six months that household spending has dropped since November 2022.

On a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, household spending dropped by 1.3% compared with March, versus an expected gain of 0.6%.

— Lim Hui Jie

D.A. Davidson downgrades Apple to neutral

Wall Street is reacting to Apple’s launch of its Vision Pro mixed-reality headset – and D.A. Davidson is downgrading shares of the tech giant to neutral from buy.

The headset’s price tag – $3,499 — is one of the structural challenges facing Apple, even as it has unveiled a highly anticipated piece of hardware, according to analyst Tom Forte.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more about D.A. Davidson’s call on Apple here.

–Darla Mercado

Mobileye shares fall 4% after SEC filing shows Intel subsidiary will sell 35 million shares

Mobileye shares dropped 4% in after-hours trading.

The action came after a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed that an Intel subsidiary will sell 35 million Class A shares of Mobileye in a secondary offering – valued at about $1.5 billion. The autonomous driving tech company will not receive any proceeds from the deal.

Intel will hold 98.7% of the voting power of Mobileye’s common stock after the offering.

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley will be the joint lead book-running managers.

Intel acquired Mobileye in 2017 and spun it off in an initial public offering in 2022.

–Darla Mercado

Healthequity shares jump following strong earnings

Healthequity rallied nearly 5% in extended trading on the back of better-than-expected first-quarter earnings and positive guidance for full-year performance.

The medical-technology company reported 50 cents in earnings per share ex-items on $239.4 million in revenue in the quarter. Both were better than the consensus estimates of analysts polled by FactSet, who forecasted 41 cents earned per share and $239.4 million in revenue.

Healthequity also raised guidance on both markers for the full-year, with the new estimates above respective Wall Street forecasts.

— Alex Harring

GitLab soars after hours on earnings beat, strong outlook

GitLab shares shot up nearly 24% in Monday’s postmarket as investors cheered a better-than-expected earnings report and upbeat guidance.

The software stock posted smaller-than-expected losses in earnings per share in the first quarter, coming at a loss of 6 cents compared with the 14-cent consensus estimate of analysts polled by FactSet. Operating income also fell smaller than expected, while revenue came in higher than anticipated at $126.9 million versus a $117.8 million forecast.

GitLab also guided for second quarter and full-year earnings per share and operating income losses to come in smaller than estimated, while revenue for both the current quarter and full year should exceed Wall Street expectations.

— Alex Harring

Stock futures are down slightly

Stock futures are modestly lower shortly after 6 p.m. ET.

Futures tied to the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 each slipped around 0.1%.

— Alex Harring

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June 6, 2023