Usa Financial News

International Criminal Court has jurisdiction over potential war crimes carried out by Hamas militants in Israel and Israelis in the Gaza Strip, even though Israel is not a member state, the ICC's top prosecutor told Reuters on Thursday. The occupied Palestinian territories including the Gaza Strip fall under the jurisdiction of the ICC, meaning the court has the authority to prosecute Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that rules Gaza. «If there is evidence that Palestinians, whether they're Hamas or Al Quds Brigades or the armed wing of Hamas or any other person or any other national of any other state party, has committed crimes. Yes, we have jurisdiction wherever they're committed, including on the territory of Israel,» ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said in an interview. In his first comments since Hamas launched brutal attacks on Israel on Saturday and Israel responded with devastating bombings of the Gaza Strip, he said the images are «heartbreaking».

United Nations officials to relocate from North Gaza to southern areas within 24 hours as it prepares for a ground assault on Gaza which is likely to be extremely brutal. Yet, there is nervousness in Israel, the American military and the political elite over the risk of a trigger getting pulled on Israel's northern border with Lebanon — an attack by Hezbollah, the battle-hardened Lebanese terror group which is more organised and better-equipped than Hamas. The fear of Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia, is palpable as all eyes are watching it for any move to join Hamas against Israel.

Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com fell as much as 13% to a record low on Friday after several banks and brokers cut price targets and revenue growth forecasts for the firm, citing a weaker-than-expected recovery in consumer spending. The brokerages and banks including Citi, Daiwa and Jefferies, which issued notes to clients on Thursday and Friday with the revised estimates. JD.com, which is listed in Hong Kong and the United States, is expected to report quarterly financial data in mid-November following China's main online shopping festival, Singles' Day. Shares in JD.com, which is also China's largest home appliance retailer, closed at their lowest level since their June 2020 debut. A debt crisis in the key property sector has contributed to slowing China's economic growth after the pandemic, while many Chinese have cut back on spending due to concerns over the economy and job security, hurting the retail sector. In March, JD.com warned it would take time to rebuild consumer confidence post-pandemic as it missed fourth-quarter revenue forecasts. Citi Research lowered its revenue assumption for JD.com by 3.4% and 4.3% for the third and fourth quarter, saying that it now estimates 0.8% and 1.3% growth respectively. The bank's analysts cited a «relatively muted consumption trend, high base, intense competition, and on-going impact from restructuring adjustment» for the change in estimates. Nomura said JD.com had yet to see any meaningful improvement in retail since the third quarter, adding that the company had also missed on any positives from the stimulus policies China has rolled out since September to rescue the property market. JD.com said it had no comment on the analyst revisions and its share price

Traditional financial institutions have arrived at a critical crossroads in the course of their digital transformation. They have built up a level of consumer trust that is on par with that of their digital-first rivals. As of the 28th of September in the year 2023, GFT, a global digital transformation company, and Thought Machine, a cloud-native banking technology firm, have joined forces to enable incumbent U.S. banks to flourish in the digital era. This partnership builds upon their multi-year collaboration, the focus of which has been on ushering in new digital infrastructures while steering traditional banks away from legacy technology and toward embracing truly cloud-native systems.

Blockchain analytics firm Spot On Chain reported a significant movement in a crypto wallet associated with the historic FTX hack on September 30, 2023. The wallet, labeled 0x3e957, transferred 2,500 ETH (approx. $4.2 million) amidst the anticipation surrounding the launch of Ethereum-based ETFs in the U.S. This marks the first activity in the wallet since the hack, with the wallet still holding 12,500 ETH.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the United States has recently announced the postponement of its decision regarding several proposals for spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). This decision impacts applications from well-known entities such as BlackRock, Invesco, Bitwise, and Valkyrie, as stated in separate filings made on September 28.

Wheebox, India's online testing firm, on October 3 was sold to Educational Testing Service (ETS), a US-based nonprofit educational assessment organization with an aim to expand the firm's foothold globally, said the company through its press release. Following the acquisition, Wheebox which was a a subsidiary of PeopleStrong will continue to operate independently as a subsidiary of ETS.

Amidst fluctuating global events, Bitcoin is once again in the spotlight. As it currently trades at $26,831, marking a slight uptick of over 0.10% on Friday, but it fell nearly 3% in the last seven days. The entire cryptocurrency market holds its breath in anticipation of various influencing factors. 

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission will soon reach its deadline to appeal the court decision that ruled in favor of Grayscale Investments, forcing the regulator to review the fund manager’s application for a spot Bitcoin (BTC) fund.

Do Kwon-founded Terraform Labs has again pointed the finger at market maker Citadel Securities for its role in an alleged “concerted, intentional effort” to cause the depeg of its TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin in 2022.

A 75-minute secretly recorded audio clip of Caroline Ellison has revealed the exact moment 15 former Alameda Research staff found out the hedge fund was “borrowing” user funds from FTX. 

A commissioner for the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission has slammed Voyager Digital for its mistakes that eventually led to the loss of billions of dollars in customer funds.

Americans are uneasy as war returns to another part of the world, and Washington is slow to confront the growing danger. Priority No. 1 is an all-out national effort to expand U.S.

(Exciting news! Mint is now on WhatsApp Channels Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest financial insights! Click here!) On the domestic front, India's headline retail inflation rate, or the Consumer Price Index (CPI), cooled down to a three-month low of 5.02% in September led by drop in vegetable prices, according to data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation on Thursday. Inflation print for August was 6.83%.

Voyager Digital Ltd on Thursday, saying the executive and the crypto lender misled customers about the safety of their assets while taking «excessive risks» that led to the firm's demise. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) accused Stephen Ehrlich, who helped launch Voyager in 2018, of committing fraud from February to July 2022. Ehrlich and Voyager promised customers a safe haven for digital assets stored on their platform — at times valued at more than $2 billion — while «recklessly» loaning to high-risk counterparties, including four firms that are also now bankrupt, the CFTC said in a lawsuit filed in federal court in New York. Voyager was one of several crypto firms to collapse in 2022, along with Celsius Network and BlockFi, after crypto prices plummeted amid interest rates and worsening macroeconomic conditions. In a statement, Ehrlich said he was «outraged and deeply dismayed» by the allegations.

«So I think, I would look at it not really, you know, coming up very quickly, unless US will come down or maybe we see much softer inflation, which does not look like coming very quickly,» says Jayesh Mehta, BofA. Let us talk about bond yields specifically. Last week was a bit of a scare when bond deals after the credit policy shot up. And now can bond yields come back to normal levels post the inflation data? I think currently, what we are seeing is, if you really look at it, general public poll expectation from the RBI on the policy. It was supposed to be a hawkish pause. And that is what RBI actually did. So at that point of time, you did not do any action on the hawkish side, but you did make a couple of announcements that is, 4% is the target, and we might do OMO sales for liquidity purpose, very well clarified in the press conference also. But that also depends a lot on where US yields were. So I think where the US yields were, that is where the market was a little heavy and they did consider that. And that is where we spiked up. I think it will still now track US yields tomorrow, it does not look like, but if hypothetically, if US will drop down, then definitely we will see some relief there on the bond side.

U.S. regulators have initiated legal actions against former Voyager Digital CEO and co-founder, Steve Ehrlich, accusing him of engaging in fraudulent activities and deliberately misrepresenting the level of government protections afforded to his customers. 

Blinken on Friday began a tour of Arab capitals as he seeks to build pressure on Hamas while Israel readies a likely massive offensive on the Gaza Strip following the militants' attacks. The top US diplomat will meet Jordan's King Abdullah II, a longtime US partner, and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in Amman and will then visit Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. Blinken spent Thursday in Tel Aviv where he promised unwavering solidarity to US ally Israel after the surprise October 7 offensive by Hamas, who killed over 1,200 people and took about 150 more hostage. The United States has publicly blessed reprisals by Israel, which on Friday called for the immediate relocation of 1.1 million people in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, which is already under an Israeli blockade. Israel has killed more than 1,400 people in strikes in the Gaza Strip since the Hamas attack and has cut off food, water and electricity. Qatar, where Blinken will head immediately after Jordan, has longstanding ties with Hamas and has been seen as an intermediary in freeing the hostages. «We'll continue pressing countries to help prevent the conflict from spreading, and to use their leverage with Hamas to immediately and unconditionally release the hostages,» Blinken said late Thursday in Tel Aviv. «We'll also discuss how we can continue to make real our affirmative vision for a region that's more peaceful, more prosperous, more secure, more integrated. »In fact, that is the choice, and the choice in some ways has been made even more stark by the actions of Hamas." Saudi Arabia in the weeks before the attacks had spoken of progress in US-led diplomacy to normalise relations with Israel — a landmark step for the

BlackRock filed for a spot bitcoin ETF with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It filed its application through the company that manages its family of ETFs — iShares. It set off a trend with several other traditional finance and crypto-heavy financial institutions refiling for spot ETFs.

The US House Committee on Oversight and Accountability has issued a warning to Gary Gensler, Chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), asking him to cooperate or face disciplinary action.

The former CEO of a Miami-based investment firm has pled guilty to a conspiracy to commit commodities fraud involving crypto futures contracts and now faces up to five years in prison.