23rd December 2023 – 30th December 2023 | Another week in the markets
| S&P 500 | Nasdaq | VIX | DJIA | Russell 1000 | NYSE |
| 4,769.83 | 15,011.35 | 12.45 | 37,689.54 | 2,622.14 | 16,852.89 |
| 0.32% | 0.12% | -4.45% | 0.81% | 0.29% | 0.49% |
| Nifty 50 | Gold | Silver | Brent crude | USD-INR | EUR-INR |
| 21,731 | $2,071.80 | $24.02 | $77.08 | 83.19 | 91.81 |
| 1.79% | 0.35% | -1.82% | -2.29% | -0.18% | 0.22% |
Source: MarketWatch
Hello Saturday,
This week, Maine becomes the second state to bar Donald Trump from 2024 primary ballots, Huawei pencils in a 9% revenue growth for 2023 and the Finance Ministry shoots off show-cause notices to nine cryptocurrency platforms for non-compliance with anti-money laundering laws.
- In a major setback to Donald Trump, Maine’s chief election official barred him from contesting in the 2024 primary ballots. Maine is the second state to escalate the opposition against Trump after Colorado’s highest court held last week that Trump is ineligible to appear in the state’s primary ballot.
- Chinese hardware giant Huawei projected 9% revenue growth for the year 2023 indicating that the company’s telecom infrastructure business remains on a strong footing.
- The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) under the Finance Ministry has shot off show-cause notices to nine cryptocurrency platforms including the likes of Binance and Kucoin for non-compliance with anti-money laundering law.
- The New York Times sued Microsoft and OpenAI alleging copyright infringement, triggering a larger debate on the uses and applications of generative AI and its consequences for the news publishing business.
- British and Swiss banks are asking Indian HNIs to close bank accounts because of lower-than-required bank balances and RBI’s diktat against keeping idle funds overseas.
Taking stock | Trump and dump| Back on track | Cryptic communique | Battle of the Giants | No bank for HNI’s bucks | Invest wisely | Another week in the markets
Taking stock
All three major US indices ended the year on a jolly note. Indices continued on their hot streak by delivering gains for the ninth straight week. The S&P500 index is now less than a percent shy of the all-time-high in January. Dow Jones ended the week with a 0.81% gain, and Nasdaq with an up move of 0.12%.
Trump and dump
Former US President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign seems to be running into troubled waters. On Thursday, Maine’s topmost election official barred Trump from appearing in the state’s 2024 primary ballot.
This is the second adverse development that Trump’s presidential bid has had to face. Earlier, on December 19, Colorado’s highest court held that Trump was ineligible to contest the primary ballots.
The election official as well as the court cited the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, which disqualifies individuals who have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” from vying for public office.
At the heart of the argument against Trump’s appearance in primary ballots is the focus on the January 6, 2021 attack on the US capitol following Trump’s loss in the 2020 elections.
Trump has been barred by the Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat. On the other hand, Trump accused his opponent of robbing the voters of their constitutional rights by citing questionable legal arguments. A Trump camp spokesperson said that the election official herself is guilty of “a hostile attack on American democracy”. The camp also dubbed her “a virulent leftist”.
Earlier, the Trump camp managed to fend off another attack on his presidential bid in Michigan, when a Michigan state court ruled out the possibility of stalling the Republican front-runner from contesting in the state primary ballot.
The U.S. Supreme Court remains the final arbiter of all these matters, and Trump is expected to file an appeal against these rulings.
Back on track
Chinese telecommunication major Huawei has projected a 9% topline growth for 2023 signalling the company’s return to more sanguine business conditions after facing years of crackdown, in the avatar of sanctions, by the US government.
Huawei, in a note, said that it expects to rake in annual revenue of 700 billion yuan, sizably up from the 642 billion yuan recorded in 2022.
The company’s chairman Ken Hu said that the telecom infrastructure business seemed robust and the devices business, which also includes smartphones, had exceeded expectations as the company was restarting large-scale shipping of smartphones.
Huawei’s business which had been suffering on account of US export norms resumed selling smartphones in August. These smartphones equipped with US-manufactured chips are helping the manufacturer deliver ultra-fast data connections and put up strong competition against the market leader, Apple.
Cryptic communique
The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the Finance Ministry dropped a bombshell on cryptocurrency platforms this week after it shot off a show-cause notice for non-compliance with anti-money laundering laws.
If that wasn’t enough, the ministry also directed the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to block URLs of the nine platforms that are “operating illegally” without complying with the provision of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in India (PMLA).
The nine platforms include Binance, KuCoin, Huobi, Kraken, Gate.io, Bittrex, Bitstamp, MEXC Global and Bitfinex.
In its missive, the FIU said that these digital platforms are facilitating activities such as an exchange between virtual digital assets and fiat currencies, transfer, and the safekeeping of virtual digital assets. All these entities are required to be registered as ‘Reporting Entity’ with the FIU and must mandatorily comply with the norms of the PMLA.
Earlier, in March, the Indian government had extended the regulatory monitoring coverage to virtual digital assets service providers, and brought them under the aegis of an anti-money laundering framework. Subsequently, 31 virtual assets service providers registered with the FIU. Meanwhile, there were other platforms, which despite catering to a large segment of Indian customers, refused to comply with the regulatory requirements.
Battle of the Giants
A legal battle waging between the New York Times on one side and Microsoft and OpenAI on the other could have massive implications for the uses and applications of generative AI in the coming years.
The newspaper has sued the technology companies contending that they exploited NYT’s content to create artificial technology products, without first seeking permission from the publisher.
Taking ChatGPT and Microsoft’s CoPilot in the crosshairs, the newspaper has argued that these AI engines were trained on millions of news articles and other content of the newspaper. NYT also argued that ChatGPT continues to rely on its content to provide answers to its users.
New York Times filed the suit after months of failed commercial negotiations between the newspaper and the tech companies. In its plaint, NYT has argued that it is one of the largest sources of information for OpenAI and Microsoft’s AI offerings. The AI platforms allegedly divert reader traffic away from the publication’s digital addresses robbing the company of critical advertising and subscription revenue.
An OpenAI spokesman said that their conversations with the New York Times had been “productive” and “moving forward constructively”, and seen from that lens, they were “disappointed with this development” of NYT pursuing legal recourse.
Microsoft had no comments to offer.
New York Times has delivered a little over 50% returns in one year
Source: Google Finance
No bank for HNI’s bucks
HNIs have been in for some rude shocks.
British banks and Swiss lenders are showing Indian HNIs the door by asking them to close their bank accounts. This development comes in light of the less-than-required bank balance maintained by them, and the restrictions imposed by RBI on parking funds abroad.
As per a report in The Economic Times, the HNIs, in focus, had transferred funds overseas under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme of the RBI, as per which an Indian national could invest up to $250,000 a year in equities, properties or for expenses incurred by their relatives and near-and-dear ones.
However, two factors contributed to hamstringing these bank accounts.
Firstly, average bank balances in these international banks generally surpass the $1 million mark. Secondly, the RBI bar on sending funds over $250,000 works against the interest of the foreign banks. Several international banks have recently re-engineered their operations to place greater emphasis on earning fee income. Bank accounts of Indian HNIs operating with monetary restrictions were hardly able to generate fee income for foreign banks, which led to the booting.
Invest wisely
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Warm regards,
Another week
in the markets
