Gapping down
In reaction to earnings/guidance:
- SUMO -13.5%, COOK -12%, ZUMZ -5.3%, AOUT -4.7%, TTWO -1.6%
Other news:
- APLS -31.5% (phase 3 DERBY study of pegcetacoplan did not meet endpoint; OAKS study met the primary endpoint)
- IMPL -12.9% (prices offering of 3 mln shares of common stock at $15.00 per share)
- CLVT -5.2% (stock offering)
- MRVI -5.1% (prices secondary offering of 20 mln shares of common stock at $50.00 per share)
- BXMT -3.2% (stock offering)
- NFE -2.3% (NFE and Norsk Hydro finalize terms for natural gas supply to refinery)
- WSC -1.8% (prices secondary offering of 21,410,019 shares at $28.50 per share)
- VICI -1.4% (prices offering of 100 mln shares of common stock at $29.50 per share)
- MCFE -1.4% (prices offering of 20 mln shares of common stock at $22.50 per share)
- BMBL -0.8% (prices secondary offering of Class A common stock at $54.00 per share)
Gapping up
In reaction to earnings/guidance:
- AFRM +22.5%, AMRK +9.1%, PLAY +8.6%, IMOS +4.4%, ZS +2.9%, FIZZ +2.6%, ALB +2%, VRNT +1.1%, TSM +0.7%
Other news:
- ISEE +59.1% (in reaction to peer APLS study results)
- TTOO +24.6% (T2SARS-CoV-2 panel proves capable of detecting the Mu B.1.621 and Iota B.1.526 variants)
- ENDP +18.6% (settles opioid cases in New York)
- CBIO +12.8% (in reaction to peer APLS study results)
- CDR +8.5% (confirms initiation of dual-track review of strategic alternatives; also names new CFO)
- SANW +7.7% (INGR enters into stevia pilot production supply agreement with SANW)
- CORT +4% (to present results from Phase 2 trial of relacorilant)
- CTSO +3.8% (announced FDA Breakthrough Device Designation granted to DrugSorb-ATR)
- GOED +3.2% (Issues Statement Regarding Director Candidate Nominations From Kanen Wealth Management)
- OVV +2.8% (announces new capital allocation framework)
- PRCH +2.7% (acquires CSE Insurance and American Home Protect)
- DXLG +2.7% (prices offering of 5,733,076 shares of common stock by Red Mountain Partners at $6.10 per share)
- GLBE +2.2% (prices 12.0 mln share secondary offering at $64/share)
- WFC +2% (issues statement on OCC enforcement action)
- AVID +1.9% (authorizes $115 mln share repurchase program)
- OCDX +1.5% (prices secondary offering of 22 mln shares of common stock at $17.50 per share)
- ATAI +1.4% (ATAI announces usability study of Introspect's digital therapeutic app technology)
- UIHC +1.2% (provides estimated catastrophe losses for Q3)
- SE +1.2% (prices offering consisting of 11 mln ADSs at $318.00 per share and 2.5 bln of its 0.25% convertible senior notes due 2026)
- HELE +1% (announces new $500 mln share repurchase authorization)
- SPNE +1% (KIDS enters into distribution agreement with SPNE for 7D Surgical FLASH Navigation platform)
Analyst comments:
- EDIT +3.6% (upgraded to Outperform from Perform at Oppenheimer)
- ALLE +1.5% (upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman)
Switzerland Gives Green Light to Crypto Trading Exchange
Stock exchange SIX’s digital arm SDX will let investors, via regulated institutions, trade, settle and store digital tokens
Switzerland cleared the way Friday for more trading of bitcoin and other digital assets in the country by authorizing a new digital stock exchange.
Stock exchange SIX said its new SIX Digital Exchange, or SDX, will let investors, via regulated institutions, trade, settle and store digital tokens through one venue, underpinned by “the highest Swiss standards of oversight and regulation.” Financial regulation around cryptocurrencies and digital assets is a hodgepodge globally, with some countries welcoming the upstart industry and others seeking to ban it.
Many of the largest crypto exchanges are largely unregulated, such as Binance, which in recent weeks was barred in some countries from offering certain investments. Some exchanges have tried to work within the purview of regulators, hoping that official approvals would boost trust and legitimacy among investors in the booming sector.
Switzerland has long sought to be a hub for products and markets developing around cryptocurrencies and other digital assets. Some of its banks offer bitcoin trading and custody, and a section of the country dubbed Crypto Valley is a hub for crypto-finance companies and startups.
The Swiss regulator, Finma, said it granted SIX two licenses, as a stock exchange and central securities depository. The licenses let it open up its infrastructure to supervised financial institutions, rather than directly to end clients, Finma said, which had been an option.
Finma said it had to balance innovation with market safety, and that now “a closely-knit value chain ranging from issuance and trading through to the settlement and custody of tokenized assets has been facilitated.”
The new Swiss digital exchange uses distributed ledger technology to record transactions.
SIX has been working on the digital exchange since 2018. Executives involved in the project have said they see Swiss approval as a steppingstone to creating a global network of digital asset trading. SIX is also working on a similar platform in Singapore.
SIX didn’t say when SDX will launch in Switzerland but executives have said it was ready to go as soon as the Finma approvals were in.
Early premarket gappers
- Gapping up:
- ISEE +40.6%, AFRM +24.2%, TTOO +23.5%, SANW +14.1%, ENDP +13.8%, CDR +8.5%, PLAY +7.9%, AMRK +7.6%, FIZZ +4.5%, CBIO +4.1%, CORT +4%, ZS +3.8%, DXLG +3.5%, GOED +3.5%, OVV +3.3%, PRCH +2.7%, OCDX +2.4%, AVID +1.9%, WFC +1.8%, BIGC +1.6%, SE +1.5%, ATAI +1.4%, UIHC +1.2%, VRNT +1.1%, HELE +1%, SPNE +1%, GEO +0.9%, INGR +0.8%, IMOS +0.7%, REGN +0.6%, TSM +0.6%
- Gapping down:
- APLS -31.3%, IMPL -16.2%, SUMO -13%, COOK -9.9%, AOUT -5.4%, ZUMZ -5.3%, BXMT -4.2%, BILL -2.6%, NFE -2.3%, AGL -2.1%, MCFE -1.8%, TTWO -1.4%, VICI -1.3%, BMBL -1.2%
>>> Up
* ASML PT Raised to 900 euros from 760 euros at Oddo BHF (+)
* Dermapharm PT Raised to 94 euros from 82.50 euros at Berenberg
* Fabege Raised to Buy at DNB Markets; PT 160 kronor (+)
* Hamburger Hafen Raised to Buy at Nord/LB; PT 23 euros
* LVMH Raised to Buy at HSBC; PT 760 euros
* Nordic Semiconductor PT Raised to 350 kroner at Deutsche Bank
* Norma Raised to Buy at HSBC; PT 49 euros
* Norma Raised to Buy at HSBC; PT 49 euros
* Piovan Raised to Outperform at Mediobanca SpA; PT 10.10 euros (+)
* Secunet Security Networks Raised to Buy at M.M. Warburg (+)
* SIG Raised to Buy at Liberum; PT 65 pence
* Spire Healthcare Raised to Overweight at Barclays; PT 280 pence
* Vossloh PT Raised to 58 euros from 50 euros at Berenberg
>>> Down
>>> Down
* Aker BioMarine ASA Cut to Hold at Arctic Securities
* BNP Paribas Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan; PT 61 euros
* Cerved Cut to Reduce at Equita; PT 10.50 euros
* Cerved Cut to Reduce at Equita; PT 10.50 euros
* EasyJet Cut to Add at AlphaValue/Baader
* Fresenius Medical Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan; PT 60.80 euros
* M1 Kliniken Cut to Hold at Hauck & Aufhaeuser; PT 8.60 euros (+)
* Snam Cut to Hold at SocGen; PT 5.20 euros
* Somfy Cut to Hold at SocGen; PT 180 euros
>>> Initiation
>>> Initiation
* Endeavour Mining Rated New Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley
* GENinCode Rated New Buy at Stifel; PT 175 pence (+)
* Diversified Energy Co PL Rated New Buy at Peel Hunt
>>> Call
* Diversified Energy Co PL Rated New Buy at Peel Hunt
>>> Call
* Dermapharm PT to Street-High at Berenberg on Vaccine Outlook
* Endeavour Mining a Quality Stock at Fair Value: Morgan Stanley
* Holcim’s Brazilian Sale Is Positive For Shares, Analysts Say (+)
* LVMH Better Placed Than Luxury Peers, HSBC Upgrades to Buy
* Sampo Shares Price in EU5 Each of Capital Returns: Citi (+)
* SIG’s Strategy Could Double Stock Price, Raise to Buy: Liberum
* SIG’s Strategy Could Double Stock Price, Raise to Buy: Liberum
Mastercard to buy CipherTrace as bet on crypto deepens
Deal for anti-money laundering company is payment giant’s latest move into digital assets
Mastercard has agreed to buy blockchain analytics company CipherTrace, which sells cryptocurrency anti-money laundering services, as the payments company deepens its bet on digital assets.
The deal will allow Mastercard to “differentiate its card and real-time payments infrastructure” by helping its customers to comply with regulations as they increasingly “build their own virtual asset offerings”, the company said on Thursday. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The ability to hold most cryptocurrencies anonymously has made them attractive to criminals that are looking to launder dirty funds. However, every transaction is typically recorded on an immutable blockchain, leaving a visible trail for researchers.
CipherTrace is one of an increasing number of crypto forensics start-ups that use sophisticated technology coupled with human intelligence to analyse blockchain transactions, helping companies and law enforcement monitor suspicious activity and map out the crypto-criminal ecosystem.
The deal comes after Mastercard announced in February that it would start supporting selected cryptocurrencies directly on its network this year, following in the footsteps of fintech rivals PayPal and Square. Meanwhile, US regulators are increasingly circling the growing but loosely regulated industry.
“Digital assets have the potential to reimagine commerce, from everyday acts like paying and getting paid to transforming economies, making them more inclusive and efficient,” said Ajay Bhalla, president of cyber and intelligence at Mastercard.
“With the rapid growth of the digital asset ecosystem comes the need to ensure it is trusted and safe. Our aim is to build upon the complementary capabilities of Mastercard and CipherTrace to do just this.”
Founded in 2015, CipherTrace was initially funded by the US government’s Department of Homeland Security and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and is backed by Silicon Valley investors, including WestWave Capital and Third Point Ventures.
According to its website, it has 150 customers, including banks, cryptocurrency exchanges, agencies and regulators. Rivals include New York’s Chainalysis, which raised $100m at a more than $4bn valuation earlier this year, and London-based Elliptic, whose investors include Wells Fargo.
“This is a real coup for the legitimisation of the industry in financial services,” Dave Jevans, CipherTrace’s chief executive, told the Financial Times.
Mastercard said that the acquisition was part of a wider strategy “in the digital assets space to help provide customers, merchants and businesses with more choice in how they move digital value” and follows a number of similar investments.
Earlier this year, Mastercard announced that it was partnering with US crypto exchange Gemini, founded by the Winklevoss twins, to launch a crypto rewards card. It has similar initiatives with Uphold and BitPay. It also said that it had invested in ways to support the growing market for non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, and was developing platforms to test central bank digital currencies.
Hedge funds’ private eye
For hedge funds competing with venture capital and private equity, it’s increasingly becoming a case of “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em”.
A new wave of investors led by the likes of Tiger Global Management, Coatue Management and Altimeter Capital Management are elbowing their way into Silicon Valley at an unprecedented pace, with a record-smashing $153bn worth of investments in private companies by hedge funds in the first six months of 2021.
Data from Goldman Sachs Prime Services highlight how hedge funds, typically known for investments in publicly traded assets, have been drawn to private markets in an effort to fire up largely lacklustre returns.
It also shows how private equity and venture capital have exploded in popularity over the past decade, particularly within the past three years. The asset class has soared to more than $7tn in value and is expected to double again by 2025, while the number of US public companies has roughly halved since 1996.
All in all, it’s resulting in increasingly blurry lines between different asset classes, said Diana Dieckman, Goldman’s global head of capital introduction in prime services.
The biggest players such as Tiger Global and Coatue have raised billions of dollars for dedicated venture capital and private equity funds — separate from their traditional, evergreen hedge funds — helping to fuel the steep increase in dealmaking this year. Tiger Global is now attempting to raise a record $10bn fund for venture-style investments.
It’s worth noting that only a relatively small set of hedge funds are responsible for these private investments, with 75 per cent of the capital invested by just 10 firms.
Competition is also an issue. Roughly three out of every four private deals done by hedge funds are in early-stage companies, and there’s a record amount of private capital looking to invest in start-ups.
In Silicon Valley, where venture capitalists have marked their turf, hedge funds’ two-pronged pitch to companies is this: they can hold their shares well beyond a public listing, a point at which many VCs drop off, and coach executives on the ins and outs of being a public entity, according to Goldman.
Based on the sheer amount of capital flooding into an industry that has been culled over the past decade, that pitch appears to be working.