Morning Brief: Top Stories Dominating Financial Media on Tuesday, March 15

CNBC

China's Fintech Specialist Sees Digital Yuan Challenging US Dollar

• Richard Turrin sees China's nascent digital yuan challenging the U.S. dollar's dominance of international trade settlements in the next decade.
• Turin admitted that the world's second-largest economy was currently ahead in all financial technology by a decade while the U.S. would take "easily another five years" to get out of planning and trials for a potential digital dollar.

Google Scores Poorly On Pay, Promotion As Per Internal Survey

• Alphabet Inc's GOOG GOOGL Google's internal survey disclosed an unhappy workforce regarding critical issues like pay package and an ability to accomplish career goals, CNBC reports.
• Contrastingly, Google's mission and values fetched the highest scores.
• CEO Sundar Pichai won a favorable rating of 86% with less-flattering responses to specific Pichai questions.

Reuters

BofA Survey Shows Investors' Growth Outlook Weakest Since 2008

• Citing a monthly fund manager survey by BofA, Reuters reported that investors have more concerns regarding the global growth outlook since the financial crisis in 2008, and they have ramped up their cash holdings to a two-year high.
• The majority of investors managing about $1 trillion in assets polled expect an equity bear market in 2022, and allocations to global equities have dropped to the lowest levels since May 2020.

Fed To Throw Its Pandemic Emergency Measures Into Reverse

• Reuters revisits March 15, 2020, when the U.S. Federal Reserve, in the words of its boss Jerome Powell, "crossed a lot of red lines that had not been crossed before."
• Fed is expected to throw its pandemic emergency measures into reverse, as on Tuesday it starts a two-day meeting that should deliver a 25 basis-point rate rise and could signal how far and fast policy tightening might go, reported Reuters.

Binance Wins Crypto-Asset Service Provider License In Bahrain

• Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, has been granted a crypto-asset service provider license from the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB), reported Reuters.
• It is the first such license in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The license permits crypto-asset trading, custodial services, and portfolio management.

SEC Warns Brokers To 'Remain Vigilant' To Market, Counterparty Risk

• The commission prompted broker-dealers to closely monitor counterparty risk, collect "margin" or collateral from counterparties to "the fullest extent possible," and stress test their positions.

Bloomberg

Nickel Trading To Resume In London With Curbs on Wednesday After Week-Long Halt

• Nickel trading will resume on the London Metal Exchange on Wednesday following a week-long suspension due to a historic short squeeze, Bloomberg News reported.
• The trading will resume with a few curbs at 4 am ET (8 am, London time) on March 16.
• The new curbs include daily price limits on nickel and other metals to avoid the wild price swings that led to vast margin calls last week and sent nickel prices to a record high in less than 24 hours.

RWE AG May Be Forced To Cover Risk Of Soaring Energy Prices

• German electricity producer RWE AG RWEOY could set aside capital to manage soaring energy prices if Russian gas imports are halted due to the Ukrainian crisis in the long term, Bloomberg reported.
• Energy companies and traders have been facing the jitters as the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the consequent sanctions have disturbed commodity markets.

Amid looming Skepticism, Several US States Consider Rolling Back Gasoline Taxes

• Several U.S. states will temporarily roll back their gasoline taxes, a move the Biden administration is considering backing on the federal level as the fuel cost has passed $4 a gallon.
• According to the auto club AAA, the average price of a gallon of unleaded gasoline in the U.S. was $4.32 on Sunday.

Cryptocurrency Exchange FTX Wins License In Dubai

• Cryptocurrency exchange FTX has received a virtual asset license in Dubai, Bloomberg reported.
• The exchange also has plans to set up a regional headquarters in Dubai.
• The firm will offer "complex crypto-derivatives products with a centralized counterparty.

15 Million Crypto Addresses Linked To Criminal Activity In Russia Identified By Forensics Firm

• Cryptocurrency forensics firm Elliptic has found millions of cryptocurrency wallets possibly linked to criminals in Russia, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing its co-founder Tom Robinson.
• According to the report, Elliptic identified over 15 million digital wallet addresses associated with Russia-based criminal activity and "several hundred thousand" tied to sanctioned Russians and their associates.
• The firm also observed a tripling of activity across the 400 virtual asset services that allow users to buy cryptocurrency in rubles.

Financial Times

Banks Fear Swift Will Be Next Russian Cyberattack Target

• The cyber specialists of the big banks have set an alert as concerns brew amongst the big banks over Swift's vulnerability to Russian cyberattacks, the Financial Times reports.
• The attacks ended, kicking seven of the country's lenders off the global payments messaging system. Swift plays a crucial role in global banking, facilitating trillions of dollars worth of daily transactions.

Benzinga

Coinbase To Launch NFT Marketplace 'Soon'

• Coinbase Global Inc's COIN non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace is likely to be launched soon, according to an update from the official Coinbase NFT Twitter account.
• "Wen Coinbase NFT? Soon," tweeted the Coinbase NFT team on Tuesday.

Tesla Hikes Prices In Both US, China For The Second Time Within A Week

• On Monday, Tesla Inc TSLA raised the prices of its electric vehicles in the U.S. and China, the second such hike in a week amid inflationary pressure on raw material and logistics.
• Price Hikes In U.S.: Austin, Texas-based Tesla has raised prices for the entire lineup in the U.S. with hikes up to $12,500, the company's website shows.
• The Elon Musk-led EV maker bumped up the prices for Model 3 variants between $2,000 to $4,000 range.

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