Crypto-linked stocks advance after Trump signs stablecoin law
Trump signed the GENIUS Act late on Friday, marking a huge win for crypto supporters, who have for long lobbied for a regulatory framework to gain greater legitimacy for the industry.
The bill was passed in the House of Representatives by a vote of 308 to 122, with support from nearly half the Democratic members and most Republicans. It had earlier been approved by the Senate.
Bitcoin, the world's biggest crypotcurrency, climbed about 1% on Monday, though it remains more than 3% away from its all-time high of $123,153 hit last week.
The bill bans yields or interest payments on regulated stablecoins, which Deutsche Bank said is leading to a rise in Ethereum prices, on expectations that investors are moving into the world's second biggest cryptocurrency as an alternative for yield generation in decentralized finance.
Ether was last trading at $3,783.2, hovering near its highest level since December 2024.
U.S.-listed shares of companies, which have been adding cryptocurrencies to their coffers lately, were on the rise on Monday.
Shares of BitMine, where tech billionaire Peter Thiel is the top investor and whose chairman is Fundstrat's Tom Lee, advanced 5.3%. Other ether holding firms Bit Digital , BTCS and SharpLink Gaming climbed between 3.1% and 12.6%, respectively.
Stablecoin issuer Circle Internet rose 1.9%, while crypto exchange Coinbase Global gained 2%.
GameSquare Holdings jumped 4.6% after the Delaware-based company announced it was selling some of its shares to fund cryocurrency-related investments.
Companies such as GameStop have been rushing to add crypto to their balance sheets, following the footsteps of Strategy. Shares of the largest corporate holder of bitcoin have skyrocketed nearly 3,000% since 2020 and climbed 2.2% on Monday.
Other cryptocurrencies also advanced, with Solana hitting its highest level since February. The ProShares Ultra Solana ETF also jumped 16.2%.
The broader crypto sector's market value hit $4 trillion on Friday, according to CoinGecko data.
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Gulf Today
3 hours ago
- Gulf Today
Less selection, More prices
With summer in full swing in the United States, retail executives are sweating a different season. It's less than 22 weeks before Christmas, a time when businesses that make and sell consumer goods usually nail down their holiday orders and prices. But President Donald Trump's vacillating trade policies have complicated those end-of-year plans. Balsam Hill, which sells artificial trees and other decorations online, expects to publish fewer and thinner holiday catalogs because the featured products keep changing with the tariff rates the president sets, postpones and revises. 'The uncertainty has led us to spend all our time trying to rejigger what we're ordering, where we're bringing it in, when it's going to get here,' Mac Harman, CEO of Balsam Hill parent company Balsam Brands, said. 'We don't know which items we're going to have to put in the catalog or not.' Months of confusion over which foreign countries' goods may become more expensive to import has left a question mark over the holiday shopping season. US retailers often begin planning for the winter holidays in January and typically finalize the bulk of their orders by the end of June. The seesawing tariffs already have factored into their calculations. The consequences for consumers? Stores may not have the specific gift items customers want come November and December. Some retail suppliers and buyers scaled back their holiday lines rather than risking a hefty tax bill or expensive imports going unsold. Businesses still are setting prices but say shoppers can expect many things to cost more, though by how much depends partly on whether Trump's latest round of 'reciprocal' tariffs kicks in next month. The lack of clarity has been especially disruptive for the US toy industry, which sources nearly 80% of its products from China. American toy makers usually ramp up production in April, a process delayed until late May this year after the president put a 145% tariff on Chinese goods, according to Greg Ahearn, president and CEO of the Toy Association, an industry trade group. The US tariff rate may have dropped significantly from its spring high - a truce in the US-China trade war is set to expire on Aug. 12 - but continues to shape the forthcoming holiday period. Manufacturing activity is way down from a year ago for small- and medium-sized US toy companies, Ahearn said. The late start to factory work in China means holiday toys are only now arriving at US warehouses, industry experts said. A big unknown is whether tariffs will keep stores from replenishing supplies of any breakout hit toys that emerge in September, said James Zahn, editor-in-chief of the trade publication Toy Book. In the retail world, planning for Christmas in July usually involves mapping out seasonal marketing and promotion strategies. Dean Smith, who co-owns independent toy stores JaZams in Princeton, New Jersey, and Lahaska, Pennsylvania, said he recently spent an hour and a half running through pricing scenarios with a Canadian distributor because the wholesale cost of some products increased by 20%. Increasing his own prices that much might turn off customers, Smith said, so he explored ways to 'maintain a reasonable margin without raising prices beyond what consumers would accept.' He ordered a lower cost Crazy Forts building set so he would have the toy on hand and left out the kids' edition of the Anomia card game because he didn't think customers would pay what he would have to charge. 'In the end, I had to eliminate half of the products that I normally buy,' Smith said. Hilary Key, owner of The Toy Chest in Nashville, Indiana, said she tries to get new games and toys in early most years to see which ones she should stock up on for the winter holidays. This year, she abandoned her product testing for fear any delayed orders would incur high import taxes. Meanwhile, vendors of toys made in China and elsewhere bombarded Key with price increase notices. For example, Schylling, which makes Needoh, Care Bear collectibles and modern versions of nostalgic toys like My Little Pony, increased prices on orders by 20%, according to Key. All the price hikes are subject to change if the tariff situation changes again. Key worries her store won't have as compelling a product assortment as she prides herself on carrying. 'My concern is not that I'll have nothing, because I can bring in more books. I can bring in more gifts, or I can bring in just things that are manufactured in other places,' she said. 'But that doesn't mean I'm going to have the best stock for every developmental age, for every special need.' The retail industry may have to keep taking a whack-a-mole approach to navigating the White House's latest tariff ultimatums and temporary reprieves. Last week, the president again reset the rates on imports from Brazil, the European Union, Mexico, and other major trading partners but said they would not take effect until Aug. 1. The brief pause should extend the window importers have to bring in seasonal merchandise at the current baseline tariff of 10%. The Port of Los Angeles had the busiest June in its 117-year history after companies raced to secure holiday shipments, and July imports look strong so far, according to Gene Seroka, the port's executive director. 'In my view, we're seeing a peak season push right now to bring in goods ahead of potentially higher tariffs later this summer,' Seroka said Monday. The pace of port activity so far this year reflects a 'tariff whipsaw effect' - imports slowing when tariffs kick in and rebounding when they're paused, he said. 'For us consumers, lower inventory levels, fewer selections and higher prices are likely as we head into the holidays.' Smith, who co-owns the two JaZams stores with his partner, Joanne Farrugia, said they started placing holiday orders two months earlier than usual for 'certain items that we felt were essential for us to have at particular pricing.' They doubled their warehouse space to store the stockpile. But some shoppers are trying to get ahead of higher prices just like businesses are, he said. He's noticed customers snapping up items that will likely be popular during the holidays, like Jellycat plush toys and large stuffed unicorns and dogs. Any sales are welcome, but Smith and Farrugia are wary of having to restock at a higher cost. 'We're just trying to be as friendly as we can to the consumer and still have a product portfolio or profile that is gonna meet the needs of all of our various customers, which is getting more and more challenging by the day,' Smith said. Balsam Brands' Harman said he's had to resign himself to not having as robust a selection of ornaments and frosted trees to sell as in years' past. Soon, it will be too late to import meaningful additions to his range of products. 'Our purpose as a company is to create joy together, and we're going to do our very best to do that this year,' Harman said. 'We're just not going to have a bunch of the items that consumers want this year, and that's not a position we want to be in.' Associated Press
Khaleej Times
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Trump job cuts: US space agency Nasa to lose nearly 4,000 employees, 20% of workforce
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Gulf Today
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Wall Street, dollar firm ahead of a big week for market risk
Wall Street and the dollar firmed on Friday as investors girded themselves for the week ahead, which includes a Federal Reserve policy meeting, crucial corporate results and US President Donald Trump's August 1 deadline for negotiating trade deals. 'Some deals will be done and talks will continue, and Trump may push out the deadline further,' said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder in New York. 'Trump's process is to shock and then be reasonable in terms of tariffs.' All three indexes were modestly green in early trading, and were on course for weekly gains. Gold lost some shine, pressured by the dollar as healthy risk appetites lured investors away from the safe-haven metal. With Trump's negotiating deadline just a week away, the US and its trading partners are scrambling to reach trade agreements, with European negotiators heartened by the deal with Japan announced on Tuesday. Intel's shares INTC.O dropped 8.8% after the chipmaker forecast steeper-than-expected quarterly losses and said it had halted or scrapped new factory projects in the US and Europe. More than a third of the companies in the S&P 500 have posted results, 80% of which have beaten estimates, according to LSEG data. Analysts now expect year-on-year second-quarter earnings growth of 7.7%, compared with the 5.8% estimate as of July 1. Four members of the Magnificent 7 group of Artificial Intelligence-related megacap stocks - Amazon, Apple , Meta and Microsoft are on next week's earnings docket, and market participants will scrutinize the companies' conference calls for signs that AI expenditures are beginning to pay off and whether tariff-related uncertainties continue to weigh on forward guidance. US economic data released on Friday showed an unexpected decline in new orders for core capital goods, as companies hold back on big ticket purchases amid the fog of ongoing trade talks. The Fed is expected to convene next week for its two-day monetary policy meeting, which is expected to culminate in a decision to let its federal funds target rate stand in the 4.25% to 4.50% range. The meeting comes at a moment in which Fed Chair Jerome Powell is facing criticism from Trump for not cutting rates. 'I don't expect Powell to change what he does, nor should he,' Ghriskey added. 'The idea of lower interest rates should scare us because Fed has had this huge job of bringing down inflation, and to ease rates at this point is clearly going to be inflationary.' The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 113.54 points, or 0.25%, to 44,806.30, the S&P 500 rose 16.19 points, or 0.26%, to 6,379.67 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 44.40 points, or 0.21%, to 21,102.36. European shares gave back some of the previous session's gains as market participants parsed mixed corporate earnings and awaited developments in the U.S.-EU trade negotiations. MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe fell 1.01 points, or 0.11%, to 940.34. The pan-European STOXX 600 index fell 0.29%, while Europe's broad FTSEurofirst 300 index fell 5.34 points, or 0.24%. Emerging market stocks fell 10.36 points, or 0.82%, to 1,256.93. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed lower by 0.95%, to 661.07, while Japan's Nikkei fell 370.11 points, or 0.88%, to 41,456.23. US Treasury yields drifted higher in a subdued trading as investors braced for a data-heavy week, updates on US trade talks, and a Federal Reserve policy meeting. The yield on benchmark US 10-year notes rose 0.2 basis points to 4.41%, from 4.408% late on Thursday. The 30-year bond yield rose 0.5 basis points to 4.9543% from 4.949% late on Thursday. The 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve, fell 0.6 basis points to 3.919%, from 3.925% late on Thursday. The dollar gained strength but remained on course for its biggest drop in a month as investors focused on tariff negotiations and central bank meetings on the calendar for next week. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, rose 0.28% to 97.72, with the euro down 0.2% at $1.173. Against the Japanese yen, the dollar strengthened 0.4% to 147.57. In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin fell 3.08% to $115,133.22. Ethereum declined 2.63% to $3,641.43. Oil prices softened as investors mulled the global demand outlook and a potential supply increase from Venezuela. US crude fell 0.56% to $65.63 a barrel and Brent fell to $68.91 per barrel, down 0.39% on the day. Gold prices dropped in opposition to the firming dollar, amid growing optimism surrounding U.S.-EU trade talks. Spot gold fell 0.93% to $3,336.52 an ounce. US gold futures fell 0.85% to $3,342.50 an ounce. Canada's main stock index edged higher on Friday, led by technology shares, even as US President Donald Trump suggested the United States may not reach a negotiated trade deal with Canada. The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 0.2% to 27,427.78 points, remaining on track for a modest weekly gain. Trump said on Friday that the United States may not reach a trade agreement with Canada, hinting his administration could set a tariff rate unilaterally. Agencies
