Fintech Focus For March 1, 2021

Quote To Start The Day: “Democracy is never a gift from heaven. It must be earned by many with strong will.”

Source: Jimmy Sham

One Big Thing In Fintech: The UK is leading the way in open banking due to regulatory requirements and a dedicated central program and platform, the Open Banking Implementation Entity, funded by the country’s nine biggest banks.

Australia, Mexico and Brazil have also introduced open banking legislation, while Canada has started the second phase of its “consumer-directed finance” consultation.

Source: Fintech News

Other Key Fintech Developments:

• Walmart taps two Goldman bankers.
• Klarna raises $1B at $31B valuation.
• Laws may incentivize crypto mining.
• Fetch.ai spinoff launching exchange.
• HSBC launching go-digital program.
• Stori raises $32.5M for credit cards.
• EU derivatives clearing is struggling.
• Why Ikea is eyeing fintech, banking?
• Affirm unveils new BNPL debit card.
• FinTech Sandbox looks to inclusion.
• Rally adds ex-Robinhood executive.
• Fed outage was an operational error.
• Unpacked: How Stripe powers retail.
• Kabbage to be relaunched by Amex.
• The SEC could approve a BTC ETF.

Watch Out For This: Texans are living through the collapse of a 40-year experiment in free-market fundamentalism, one that has also stood in the way of effective climate action.

Source: New York Times

Interesting Reads:

• Gov. Cuomo faces another accuser.
• EU signals short-selling crackdown.
• Atlassian acquiring Chartio platform.
• Mortgage lenders eyeing IPO boom.
• House is brewing tech antitrust laws.
• How AirAsia pivoted during COVID?
• California’s power pricing approach.
• Facebook launches TikTok-like app.
• Unpacked: Gas pump running slow.
• Even if BTC falls, adoption remains.

Market Moving Headline: U.S. stock index futures auctioned lower last week.

This came alongside (1) a material divergence in bond and equity market volatility, as well as (2) a convergence in the 10-year Treasury rate and S&P 500 dividend yield.

Key Takeaways:

- High doses of stimulus yet to be fully felt.

- Hedge funds add to long, short exposure.

- Economies eye growth, uneven recovery.

- Powell kept stressing inflation downsides.

- Traders price in a quarter-point rate hike.

- 10-yr yield, S&P 500 dividend yield cross.

- Bond, equity market volatility separations.

- JPMorgan does not see a market bubble.

In the coming sessions, participants will want to pay attention to the VWAP anchored from the $3,959.25 peak and $3,657.00 low, as well as the $3,840.00 HVNode.

In the best case, the S&P 500 opens and remains above the $3,840.00 volume area.

Auctioning beneath $3,785.00 would (1) leave the $3,840.00 HVNode as an area of supply — offering initiative sellers favorable entry and responsive buyers favorable exit — and (2) portend repair of poor structures (e.g, the $3,785.00-$3,777.00 gap) left in the wake of a prior advance.

Source: Physik Invest