January JOLTS: Staying Put 

Despite the impressive headline numbers from the January Employment Situation, the first Job Opening and Labor Turnover Survey for 2024 showed that labor market conditions continue to gradually cool. Job openings fell slightly in January to 8.86 million, 16% below their year-ago levels.

The moderating demand for workers signaled by the JOLTS report jibes with other indicators like the NFIB’s Small Business Hiring Index and Indeed job postings that show job opportunities are not as abundant as they have been over the past couple years.

The number of job openings per unemployed worker, a frequently cited metric by Fed officials, was little changed in January at 1.45, down from 1.82 a year ago. (…)

For now though, the JOLTS data signal that the jobs market is slowly settling down, consistent with wage, and thus inflation, pressures cooling without a worrisome slowdown in net job creation and overall economic activity. The gradual, rather than marked, softening in the labor market will likely keep the FOMC comfortable in waiting a little while longer before beginning to cut rates.

The labor market is normalizing, but very slowly. Openings remain 20-25% above their pre-pandemic levels.

Widely read John Authers’ comments will influence many people’s views…

The JOLTS followed Tuesday’s supply manager survey of the services sector that also moved in exactly the right direction to avert any risk of higher interest rates. After surprisingly strong readings a month earlier, businesses reported that both the prices they paid, and their employment, were falling back again:

… but ING warns us from reading too much into the recent ISM employment data:

Historically, there has been a very strong relationship between the ISM services employment index and the monthly change in nonfarm payrolls, but throughout 2023 and into January 2024 they have had an inverse relationship.

ISM services employment and nonfarm payrolls changes (000s)

Source: ING, Macrobond

S&P Global’s PMI survey sees continued growth in employment:

Total employment growth remained only modest midway through the first quarter. Although manufacturers stepped up their hiring activity, service providers indicated a historically subdued pace of job creation amid cost-cutting initiatives and labor shortages.

Apollo’s chief economist: Arguments for a Strong February Employment Report

1) Financial conditions have eased dramatically since the December FOMC meeting, with the S&P 500 at all-time highs and very tight IG and HY spreads. Significant wealth effects and lower borrowing costs are a major tailwind to consumer spending and capex spending, see the first and second charts.

2) Jobless claims remain very low, around 200,000, and the economy remains surprisingly resilient, with households and firms having locked in lower interest rates during Covid, see the third and fourth charts.

3) The fiscal deficit is running at a high 6% of GDP for an expansion, driven by the CHIPS Act, IRA, and Infrastructure Act, and associated positive effects on manufacturing construction, energy investments, and infrastructure investments.

4) The employment-to-population ratio is almost a full percentage point lower than pre-Covid, and immigration continues to be strong, suggesting there is still more upside potential to employment.

Powell Says Fed on Track to Cut Rates This Year The Fed chair characterized last year’s inflation slowdown as notable and widespread but said officials want more evidence it is cooling.

Rate cuts won’t be warranted until officials have “gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably” toward the central bank’s 2% goal, Powell told the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday during the start of two days of testimony on Capitol Hill.

“We want to see a little bit more data so that we can become confident,” Powell said. “We’re not looking for better inflation readings than we’ve had. We’re just looking for more of them.”

The recent strength of the economy and labor market “means that we can approach rate cuts carefully and thoughtfully,” he said. His comments did little to change expectations in interest-rate futures markets that the central bank will lower interest rates in June. (…)

“We are on a good path so far to be able to get there,” he said. Powell also said he saw “no reason to think” that the U.S. economy faces an immediate risk of falling into a recession. (…)

“We believe that our policy rate is likely at its peak for this tightening cycle. If the economy evolves broadly as expected, it will likely be appropriate to begin dialing back policy restraint at some point this year.”

On Wednesday, Powell characterized the recent slowdown in inflation as both notable and widespread, an indication the rise in January prices hadn’t changed the Fed’s outlook that inflation will continue to slow this year. (…)

Hmmm…

• Core CPI MoM (red bar is Cleveland Fed’s Nowcast for February.

• 16% Trimmed-Mean CPI and Median CPI:

Bank of Canada Keeps Policy Rate at 5%, ‘Too Early’ to Weigh Cuts The central bank seeks more evidence that underlying inflation and wage growth are on a sustainable slowing trajectory.

Macklem said rate cuts are not in the immediate offing. “It’s still too early to consider lowering the policy interest rate,” he said, adding senior officials believe headline inflation will remain close to the 3% level until midyear.

He reiterated the central bank required more evidence that core inflation is on a sustainable downward trajectory. “One month doesn’t make a trend, you need to see a few months,” Macklem said at the press conference. (…)

Macklem said labor-market activity is cooling, with job growth lagging behind the increase in population. One particular concern for the central bank has been annual wage growth in the 4% to 5% range. Central bank officials have previously warned that those levels of wage gains, amid declines in productivity, posed a headwind to reaching 2% inflation.

“There are some signs that wage growth may be easing,” Macklem said, adding that “with the labor market coming into better balance, we are looking for further evidence that wage growth is moderating.”

Other factors the central bank is monitoring before contemplating rate cuts are business and household inflation expectations, which surveys indicate remain elevated, and corporate pricing behavior. “We don’t want to give a sense of false precision” on rate cuts, said Macklem, when asked about possible forward guidance on policy easing.

• ECB on Hold But Forecasts to Boost Case for Rate Cuts The ECB president is likely to again signal an initial reduction in June, when there’ll be more clarity on whether Europe’s labor market is cooling.

US regulators expected to significantly reduce Basel capital burden

U.S. regulators are expected to significantly reduce the extra capital banks must hold under a proposed rule that has drawn aggressive pushback from Wall Street, said eight industry executives in regular contact with the agencies and regulatory officials.

Bank regulators led by the Federal Reserve in July unveiled the “Basel III” proposal to overhaul how banks with more than $100 billion in assets calculate the cash they must set aside to absorb potential losses.

The agencies said it would increase aggregate capital by around 16% for the roughly three dozen affected lenders. That figure is expected to fall sharply as regulators embark on a sweeping rewrite of the draft, the people said.

The regulatory discussions are in their early stages and no decisions have been made, the people said. The agencies have said they are analyzing hundreds of public comments and data from banks on the impact of the proposal.

The biggest capital savings will come from changes to how banks will have to calculate potential losses from operational risks, which is the costliest plank of the proposal, three people said. In that section, banks had been pushing regulators to reduce the risk weights for fee income associated with lending services, such as investment banking.

Officials are also expected to scrap or reduce higher risk weights on mortgages to low-income borrowers and on renewable energy tax credits, the people said. (…)

On Wednesday, Powell told lawmakers he anticipates the rewritten rule will include “broad, material” changes.

The WSJ adds:

The banking industry says that more-stringent requirements aren’t needed and has asked regulators to scrap the original plan and start again with a new proposal.

A truck drove by the central bank’s headquarters on Wednesday carrying an ad by a big-bank industry group opposing the capital rules. The ad, by the Bank Policy Institute, said the capital plan would harm consumers, small businesses and the economy.

Yi Gang Proposes Plan to Help China Real Estate Developers Access $139 Billion Ex-PBOC governor suggests insurance system for pre-sales funds

China’s former central bank governor Yi Gang has suggested a new way for Chinese real estate developers to use pre-sale funds, which could help the country’s ailing property market.

Under the proposed system, developers would be able to withdraw 1 trillion yuan ($139 billion) immediately if the central government or People’s Bank of China insured pre-sale proceeds, Yi said at the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference assembly meeting on Thursday.

The central government or the People’s Bank of China could insure pre-sale proceeds — money from buyers before the building is complete — of about 10 billion yuan a year from 2024 to 2026, which would total 30 billion yuan. Yi said the insured funds would account for about 1% of the country’s pre-sale regulatory fund balance, and developers would be allowed to use a proportion of the funds in a lawful and compliant manner.

“There is no shortage of funds in the market currently — what is lacking is capital that can bear risk,” Yi said. “We should focus on supporting most real estate companies, especially top private real estate firms, to continue stable operations and focus on solving their liquidity difficulties.” (…)

China Intensifies Push to ‘Delete America’ From Its Technology A directive known as Document 79 ramps up Beijing’s effort to replace U.S. tech with homegrown alternatives.

Document 79 was so sensitive that high-ranking officials and executives were only shown the order and weren’t allowed to make copies, people familiar with the matter said. It requires state-owned companies in finance, energy and other sectors to replace foreign software in their IT systems by 2027.

American tech giants had long thrived in China as they hot-wired the country’s meteoric industrial rise with computers, operating systems and software. Chinese leaders want to sever that relationship, driven by a push for self-sufficiency and concerns over the country’s long-term security.

The first targets were hardware makers. Dell, International Business Machines and Cisco Systems have gradually seen much of their equipment replaced by products from Chinese competitors. 

Document 79, named for the numbering on the paper, targets companies that provide the software—enabling daily business operations from basic office tools to supply-chain management. The likes of Microsoft and Oracle are losing ground in the field, one of the last bastions of foreign tech profitability in the country.

The effort is just one salvo in a yearslong push by Chinese leader Xi Jinping for self-sufficiency in everything from critical technology such as semiconductors and fighter jets to the production of grain and oilseeds. The broader strategy is to make China less dependent on the West for food, raw materials and energy, and instead focus on domestic supply chains. (…)

Revelations by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden in 2013 that U.S. authorities had hacked into Chinese mobile phone communications, universities and private companies strengthened Xi’s resolve. (…)

As China focused on replacing hardware, IBM’s China revenues have steadily declined. It downsized its China research operations in Beijing in 2021, more than two decades after it opened.

Cisco, once a technology powerhouse in China, said in 2019 that it was losing orders in the country to local vendors because of nationalist buying. American PC maker Dell’s market share in China almost halved in the past five years, to 8%, researcher Canalys said.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise, or HPE, which makes servers, storage and networks, got 14.1% of its revenue from China in 2018, according to estimates from database provider FactSet. By 2023, that had fallen to 4%. (…)

In software, Adobe, Citrix parent Cloud Software Group and Salesforce have pulled out or downsized direct operations in the country over the past two years.

Microsoft, the world’s biggest software provider, historically dominated computer operating systems in China. A Morgan Stanley poll of 135 chief information officers in China found that many expected the share of computers powered by Microsoft’s Windows operating system installed in their companies to fall over the next three years. They expected Linux-based UOS, or Unity Operating System, an effort co-led by a state-owned company, to gain in the shift. (…)

Microsoft President Brad Smith said in a subcommittee hearing last September that China made up just 1.5% of the company’s overall sales. The company posted sales of $212 billion in the last fiscal year. (…)

But in addition to growing more advanced, China’s own technology is also well plugged into the local ecosystem. Providers of domestic business software allow interoperability with WeChat, a ubiquitous chat messaging app widely used in place of email among Chinese businesses.

The buy local policy is trickling down to privately run companies, which are showing greater inclination to buy domestic software, according to Morgan Stanley’s CIO survey. (…)

China-based vendors took more than half of that market [database software] in China—worth $6.3 billion overall—for the first time in 2022, and continue to grow, according to researcher Gartner. Tenders examined by the Journal also show more state-linked entities and companies have opted for Huawei’s databases in recent years.

China’s banks, brokerage firms and insurers have sped up procurement of homegrown databases, Yang Bing, chief executive of Chinese database company OceanBase, said at a Beijing conference in November. OceanBase, developed by Alibaba and its fintech affiliate Ant Group, replaced Oracle databases at Alibaba and Ant in 2016. (…)

• Temu’s Push Into America Pays Off Big Time for Meta and Google The e-commerce platform’s parent company spent nearly $2 billion at Meta last year and it was a top advertiser at Google

(…) The volume of advertising from Temu, which launched in 2022, has caught executives off guard at both tech companies, which have long been the dominant players in digital advertising.

Temu, fast-fashion giant Shein and other online shopping platforms with Chinese roots are spending aggressively to reach American consumers, pushing up digital advertising prices, poaching logistics employees and delivering so many products that they have become a boon to the shipping industry.

The ensuing ad battle in the e-commerce space is welcome news for Meta and Google, helping the tech giants’ ad businesses rebound after they were hampered by an advertising slowdown and new Apple policies that hurt the platforms’ ability to target ads.

Meta’s stock price surged in early February after it posted its best quarterly sales growth in more than two years. Revenue from the company’s China operations nearly doubled last year, reaching $13.69 billion, a big reversal from the prior year, when revenue fell almost 3% to $7.4 billion. By contrast, revenue growth from U.S.-based customers was up only 5.5% to $49.78 billion for 2023. (…)

“Temu is likely losing money on every sale, as it attempts to invest their way into a position in the marketplace,” said Brian Wieser, an advertising analyst. “If it doesn’t work, or if it decides that they’ve spent enough money on advertising,” that would become a headwind for big tech companies such as Meta. However, Wieser noted that because spending coming from China is so broad, a pullback by Temu wouldn’t make a significant dent in Meta’s overall growth. (…)

Temu dropped tens of millions of dollars on its Super Bowl marketing effort, which included airing several commercials during CBS’s broadcast of the big game. It ran a 30-second ad four times during Super Bowl LVIII and again during the post-game coverage. This year, brands paid roughly $7 million for 30 seconds of ad time during the Super Bowl, the priciest ad real estate on TV. (…)

FYI: China’s exports to the U.S. rebounded to 5% growth in the January-February period from a 6.9% decline in December, while the trend line of falling year-over-year exports to Europe narrowed, according to Wall Street Journal calculations based on Thursday’s data release. (WSJ)

In 2023, U.S. exports of goods to China declined 4%. Goods and Services: –2.7%. Exports of “Advanced Technology Products” declined 7.6%.

FYI #2, related:

Data: N.Y. Times/Siena College, Wall Street Journal, CBS News/YouGov, Fox News. Chart: Axios Visuals

US service sector reports sustained expansion in February

The seasonally adjusted final S&P Global US Services PMI Business Activity Index posted 52.3 in February, down slightly from 52.5 in January but up from the earlier released ‘flash’ estimate of 51.3. The latest expansion extended the current sequence of growth to just over a year and was the second-fastest since last July.

Panellists stated that greater output was due to a further rise in new business. February data indicated a sustained rise in sales volumes at service providers, as new orders expanded for the fourth month running. The rate of growth eased to the weakest in three months, however, as companies suggested that reduced purchasing power at some customers dampened demand conditions.

Growth in total sales was led by domestic demand, as foreign customer interest dwindled and drove a renewed fall in new export orders in February. Moreover, the pace of export decline was the quickest since September 2023.

Meanwhile, service sector firms recorded a slower rise in input prices midway through the first quarter. Although companies attributed cost inflation to higher wage and fuel bills, many stated that lower prices for materials led to a moderation in the overall pace of increase. Furthermore, the rate of cost inflation eased to the weakest since October 2020 and was slower than the long-run series average.

In contrast, efforts to pass higher costs on to customers led to a sharper rise in selling prices in February. The pace of charge inflation was among the slowest in the current near four-year sequence of increase, but it was in line with the series’ long-run average.

Service sector firms continued to hire additional workers during February. That said, anecdotal evidence suggested that hiring was focused on part-time and temporary staff amid cost-cutting initiatives which also hampered total job creation. The rate of employment growth slowed to the weakest since last November.

Firms were able to process incoming new business in a timely manner, as backlogs of work fell in February. Incomplete business declined for the seventh time in the last eight months, albeit at only a marginal pace.

Softer demand conditions also led to dampened expectations regarding activity over the coming year. Service sector firms recorded the lowest level of optimism for three months, and one that was historically muted. Weighing on business confidence were reports of reduced purchasing power at customers and efforts to cut costs.

The final S&P Global US Composite PMI Output Index posted 52.5 in February, up from 52.0 in January. The latest data signalled a thirteenth successive monthly expansion in business activity at private sector firms, supported by a renewed upturn in manufacturing production and further rise in service sector activity.

New order growth eased slightly, however, amid a softer increase in services new business in February. Nonetheless, the overall rate of expansion was the second-steepest since mid-2023. The overall upturn was aided by a renewed rise in new export orders for goods.

February data indicated a broad-based easing of cost pressures, as input prices rose at the slowest pace since October 2020. Firms sought to pass-through higher costs to customers, however, as selling price inflation quickened from January, albeit remaining the second-lowest since mid-2020.

Meanwhile, total employment growth remained only modest midway through the first quarter. Although manufacturers stepped up their hiring activity, service providers indicated a historically subdued pace of job creation amid cost-cutting initiatives and labor shortages.

The goods and services producing sectors are collectively reporting the sharpest growth since last June, hinting at a further quarter of solid GDP growth.

The acceleration occurred despite a cooling of growth in financial services, linked to the recent pull-back in rate cut expectations. Demand for consumer goods and services has, however, picked up further in February amid the easing of the cost of living crisis and healthy labor market conditions, meaning consumers are once again at the forefront of the economic expansion

A concern is that alongside this faster growth, the survey has seen price pressures revive. Although average prices are still rising at one of the slowest rates seen over the past four years, the rate of inflation picked up for goods and services alike in February to hint at some broad-based firming of price pressures that could worry policymakers about cutting interest rates too early.

• ISM Services Signals Less Runway for Patience

The ISM services index slipped to 52.6 in February as prices paid cooled more than five points. For the second time in three months, the employment component was in contraction territory. Attention now shifts to Friday’s employment report for confirmation that job growth is indeed cooling.

Source: Institute for Supply Management and Wells Fargo Economics

The prices paid component fell more than five points to 58.6, that is still consistent with rising prices, but at least higher prices are becoming less widespread. Between that and an employment reading that was in contraction for the second time in three months, the upshot is a bit less complacency around the timing of rate cuts. (…)

From Bloomberg:

At the same time, other demand measures strengthened. The gauge of new orders placed with service providers — a proxy of future demand — increased to 56.1, the highest since August. “The majority of respondents are mostly positive about business conditions,” Anthony Nieves, chair of the ISM Services Business Survey Committee, said in a statement.

ING:

However, employment was particularly soft, dropping into contraction territory at 48.0. This is the second sub-50 print in the past three months with the six-month moving average also now below the 50 line. Historically, there has been a very strong relationship between the ISM services employment index and the monthly change in nonfarm payrolls, but throughout 2023 and into January 2024 they have had an inverse relationship.

ISM services employment and nonfarm payrolls changes (000s)

Source: ING, Macrobond

The BLS will report February’s payrolls this Friday. Current consensus is +190k after +353k in January.

WHAT RESPONDENTS ARE SAYING

• “Business remains strong across the U.S. industrial construction sector. Construction materials levels have returned to pre-coronavirus pandemic levels, and the outlook for 2024 is strong.” [Construction]
• “Continued inflationary pressures and labor price increases are challenging, but we continue to push forward.” [Health Care & Social Assistance]
• “Employers remain cautious about hiring direct employees and are considering utilizing contract labor to cover project and interim work demands as concerns about the economy continue to be front of mind.” [Management of Companies & Support Services]
• “Production continues steady increase.” [Mining]
• “High demand for services, although inquiries from contractors for opportunities seem to be only inching upward. Layoffs in many large industries, but many businesses are desperate for workers. Lots of contradictions.” [Public Administration]
• “Business is good. Inflation is under control and trending downward. Pricing of commodities is going up at a slower pace. Manufacturing is good, with no sign of any change in the near future.” [Retail Trade]
• “Labor continues to be in highest demand. Finding qualified and available crews and administrative staff (is still) difficult. [Utilities]
• “Moderate increases in business activity so far. Improved supplier fill rates and steady pricing have resulted in increased levels of restocking as businesses prepare for spring and summer selling seasons.” [Wholesale Trade]

In all, the February PMIs confirmed that manufacturing is past the low point in the inventory cycle while services are gradually recovering towards their more normal trend rates.

Goldilocks soft landing or reflationary no-landing? How about a reflationary soft landing? February PMIs were mild enough on the inflation front to hope for the former. But the Cleveland Fed Inflation Nowcast pins February’s core CPI at +0.32% (red bar) after January’s surprise +0.39% print.

And watch wages, particularly in services.

As I wrote last Monday (Perfect Storm Forming?):

Real spending on services is almost back on trend after logging consecutive 0.4% monthly growth rates in each of the last 3 months, +4.9% a.r.. This is twice the “normal growth rate”.

The good news from that is that, as a result, services employment has accelerated from +182k on average between June and November (+1.6% a.r.) to +312k in December-January (+2.7% a.r.).

The potentially not-so-good news is that the only labor slack left in the U.S. economy is in services (unemployment of 5.2% in January compared to 2.9% in durable goods). If this slack gets quickly used up, growth in wages of service providers, responsible for the slowdown in total wage growth since the fall of 2022 (from 5.4% YoY to 4.4%), could accelerate towards goods-producing wages which have kept inflating 5.5-6.0%.

Recently:

• Germany’s Trade Surplus Widened in January Demand for German goods could be recovering.
• Exports SA (M/M): 6.3% (exp 1.5%; R prev -4.2%)
• Eurozone Industrial Production Unexpectedly Expands Amid Signs Recovery for Sector
• South Korea’s Exports Get off to Strong Start in 2024
• South Korea Inflation Reaccelerates, Backing BOK’s Hawkish Stance
• Canada GDP Rebounds in 4Q With 1% Growth
• #China Jan-Feb Exports Rose About 10% on Year, State Planner Says – DJ
• America’s top executives are strikingly more confident about the economy than they were three months ago, Axios’ Courtenay Brown and Neil Irwin write from the Business Roundtable’s quarterly gauge of CEO sentiment.

Credit Managers’ Index

The National Association of Credit Management’s seasonally adjusted combined Credit Managers’ Index (CMI) for February 2024 improved 1.3 points to 52.4. “The CMI improved this month, but the index remains stubbornly in a tight band just above the contraction line with no obvious trend,” said NACM Economist Amy Crews Cutts, Ph.D., CBE.

The big driver this month is the dramatic drop in the dollar amount beyond terms index, which went from being
deep in contraction to just above the neutral line, meaning the dollar amount owed on accounts beyond terms was
essentially unchanged from last month but at a level that is substantially higher than a year ago. I’ve been watching
this factor for a while as it is a strong leading indicator of business stress.

This indicator has been trending negatively since July 2021 and went into contraction in July of last year. Respondents have regularly noted that they are having trouble getting paid on time, a growing concern among credit managers. (…)

“Taken together, the sudden leveling off of the dollar amount owed that is beyond terms and the long run of a rising number of accounts being referred to collections, I think credit managers are tiring of promises to pay and cries for extensions. Instead, they are moving more accounts to collections to stem losses. This to me is the strongest indication yet of the deep stresses affecting businesses. We did not fall into formal recession in 2023 and we mightnot in 2024 but for many credit managers, it’s as if the recession is well underway.”

Canada: Business insolvencies surge to a multi-year high in January

At the industry level, the surge was the most important in the accommodation & food services, transportation & warehousing, professional/scientific/technical services, retail trade, and construction sectors. While January’s increase was certainly exacerbated by the end of COVID-era subsidy programs, restrictive monetary policy is certainly playing a role as well. It will be interesting to see how the Bank of Canada tweaks its guidance at tomorrow’s rate-setting meeting (the benchmark rate is expected to remain unchanged) to guard against a potential disappointment in job creation when the February employment report is released on Friday.

Tether’s $100 billion stokes stablecoin stability concerns

As Tether toasts $100 billion in circulation this week, the rapid rise of the world’s biggest stablecoin has highlighted concerns about potential risks to wider financial markets.

The digital dollar-pegged token is designed to keep a constant value, something Tether says that it does by holding dollar-denominated reserves for every token it creates.

Crypto traders say the tokens are essential for moving funds in crypto quickly, without using the regulated banking system. (…)

Tether is also growing fast. Around $29 billion worth was created in the last year, it said in a statement on Tuesday. (…)

But with Tether now holding nearly $100 billion worth of reserves in traditional banking institutions, Rajeev Bamra, Head of DeFi and Digital Assets Strategy at Moody’s Investors Service said “anything going wrong with Tether is going to impact those banking institutions at the end of the day”.

“I think the concentration risk in Tether is huge,” Bamra added, referring to Tether’s dominance within the crypto world.

S&P Global Ratings ranked Tether as a 4 in a stablecoin stability assessment last year, the second lowest on a scale of 1 to 5, citing a lack of information on custodians, counterparties or bank account providers of its reserves.

Tether agreed to quarterly reserve reports under a 2021 settlement with the New York Attorney General’s office.

At the end of 2023, Tether’s latest report says, its reserves held $63 billion of U.S. Treasuries, $3.5 billion of precious metals, $2.8 billion of bitcoin, $3.8 billion of “other investments” and $4.8 billion of “secured loans”.

Paul Brody, global blockchain leader at Ernst & Young, said that a reserve report does not constitute a full financial statement audit. (…)

Tether Holdings Ltd, which is registered in Hong Kong and owned by a company registered in the British Virgin Islands, says on its website it is “fully transparent”, but it does not give details about where its reserves are held. (…)

Bubbling? Memecoins have been surging as speculative fervor grips the market. This brings back memories of Cabbage Patch Kids, Furbys, Pokemon Cards, and Beanie Babies. (The Daily Shot)

  

  

VALUATIONS WATCH

Source: Goldman Sachs; @MikeZaccardi