Good morning. Musk sells more Tesla shares, U.K. omicron curbs, Bitcoin tumbles and European diplomats’ warning on Iran. Here’s what’s moving markets.
Musk Sells Again
Elon Musk is accelerating his disposal of Tesla Inc. shares after last month’s Twitter poll, as he exercises more options. The world’s richest person offloaded another 934,091 shares for about $906.5 million to cover taxes on the exercise of 2.1 million options. He’s already sold almost 12 million shares since he pledged on Twitter to get rid of 10% of his Tesla stake — which would amount to about 17 million shares without taking into account his exercisable options.
Omicron Curbs
The U.K. promised to open hundreds more vaccination sites in the coming days, including at soccer stadiums and racecourses, as it tries to massively ramp up delivery of booster shots amid a surge in omicron cases. Also, Boris Johnson repeatedly declined to rule out imposing further coronavirus restrictions before Christmas to tackle the spread of omicron, as he confirmed the first U.K. death linked to the new coronavirus strain.
Bitcoin’s Slide
Bitcoin tumbled below a closely watched price level as the slide in the largest cryptocurrency from its all-time high extended into a fifth week. Monday’s decline pushed it below its average price over the last 200 days. The Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index also slumped while popular DeFi tokens such as Solana, Cardano and Polkadot fell as well.
Time Running Out
European diplomats are warning again that time is running out to revive the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, suggesting that the Persian Gulf nation’s rapidly advancing atomic work will soon make the landmark agreement obsolete. Envoys from France, Germany and the U.K. have been frustrated by Iran’s refusal to budge on new demands offered during the seventh round of negotiations in Vienna.
Coming Up…
European stocks are set for a muted start after declines in Asia, where markets fell as worries over omicron intensified. Today, Ocado gives a trading update, with Colruyt, Ceconomy, RWS Holdings and Chemring all reporting in a quiet day for earnings worldwide. There’s economic data in the form of U.K. jobless numbers, while inflation watchers will be eyeing U.S. factory-gate inflation. The Fed begins its two-day meeting, likely to result in a hawkish turn with CPI at the highest reading since 1982.
What We’ve Been Reading
This is what’s caught our eye over the past 24 hours.
And finally, here’s what Cormac is interested in this morning
Dollar bulls are in a more optimistic mood ahead of this week’s key Federal Reserve meeting, as a bullish technical setup is forming in the currency. After a period of consolidation in recent weeks, the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index has formed a pennant pattern, a break out of which can often lead to further gains. Bullish bets in the currency have waned since the end of October, with net-long leveraged fund positions falling for six straight weeks, according to data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. But if expectations of a hawkish turn by the Fed come good, that could rekindle some enthusiasm. Bloomberg Economics is calling for the signal from the so-called dot plot — a gauge of the Fed’s outlook for interest rates — to “substantially” exceed current market expectations. That would provide the catalyst for a push higher in U.S. yields and give a fresh leg up to the greenback.
Cormac Mullen is a Deputy Managing Editor in the Markets team for Bloomberg News in Tokyo.
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— With assistance by Cormac Mullen, and Gearoid Reidy
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