US Close – Rotating out of Tech, Oil higher on demand hopes, Gold to attract buyers on every dip, Bitcoin’s outlook improves
US Close – Rotating out of Tech, Oil higher on demand hopes, Gold to attract buyers on every dip, Bitcoin’s outlook improves
Wall Street continues to see investors scale down their mega-cap tech bets and focus on beaten energy, industrial, materials, and consumer discretionary stocks. Tech’s meteoric rise couldn’t last forever, but by no means is it over. A tighter regulatory environment and higher taxes could be a drag for tech with a Biden presidency, but weakness should be limited to only a few percentage points.
Following President Trump executive orders over the weekend, expectations should be high that Congress gets their act together and reach a more comprehensive fiscal package for the economy. The pressure is on the Democrats to offer a meaningful concession and likely a deal will emerge in the $1.5-2.0 trillion area.
With the Fed buying credit and indirectly are saving US stocks, traders should not expect any major corrections even if the selling of tech stocks persists deeper into the trading week.
Oil
Crude prices are higher after Saudi Aramco’s optimistic outlook that demand could return to the mid-90’s by year end. Aramco’s positive view on the market was the first of four critical insights to the crude demand outlook for this week. On Tuesday, the EIA publishes their monthly short-term energy outlook, Wednesday, OPEC will release its monthly report, followed by the IEA on Thursday.
The general theme for the week should be the economic recovery is stalling across the globe and that stimulus efforts will intensify to support the economy. Oil prices are not ready to break above its recent trading range as demand fears will persist until we see how bad it gets during the fall wave of the coronavirus. OPEC+ is saying all the right things, but if the cheaters do not follow through on their promises, prices could sharply drop on oversupply worries. Oil might tentatively break out higher, but a sustained move is unlikely until the demand outlook strongly improves.
Gold
After skyrocketing for much of the last three weeks, gold was ready for a healthy pullback, especially after Congress wasted two weeks of negotiations over a much-needed rescue package. President Trump’s executive orders over the weekend to extend coronavirus relief will likely put the pressure back on Congress to get something done over the next couple weeks.
Gold will continue to see strong inflows as the fiscal standoff will still ultimately lead to another $1-2 trillion of stimulus getting pumped into the economy. Gold is also seeing steady safe-haven buying from the painfully slow deterioration of the US-China relationship. China retaliated over the sanctions of 11 Chinese officials and allies in Hong Kong with their own sanctions on 11 US citizens which include Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. This relationship appears unrepairable and could soon lead up to the tearing up of the phase-one trade deal. Both the US and China economies need each other given the fragile recovery from COVID-19 and an ultimate divorce between the two world’s largest economies will likely fuel strong safe-haven flows for gold.
Bitcoin
After a wild start to the trading week, Bitcoin and the other top cryptocurrencies are rising higher after Russia decided to avoid banning cryptocurrencies and as Facebook remains committed to creating a payments platform to run through all their projects. Bitcoin’s latest rally was predominantly following the unprecedented stimulus trade that triggered the dollar’s demise, but now the next move higher seems to be taking form on improving fundamentals for the crypto space. Bitcoin should continue to attract further institutional interest as big Tech breaks becomes a bigger part of daily transactional payments. Bitcoin seems poised to make a quick run towards the $12,000 level and eventually the $13,200 region.
Uncategorized
Roblox integrates XRP as payment method
Xsolla and BitPay now support Ripple’s digital currency for in-game purchases.
Roblox, an online game platform with more than 200…

Xsolla and BitPay now support Ripple's digital currency for in-game purchases.
Roblox, an online game platform with more than 200 million monthly active users, now accepts XRP as a payment method. The announcement was made on BitPay’s Twitter on Oct. 17.
News Alert @Xsolla now accepts XRP(@Ripple) with BitPay as a payment method for their games, such as @Smitegame and @Roblox. You can use your favorite cryptocurrency to buy, play, and enjoy gaming like never before.#BitPay #crypto #Smite #Xsolla #Roblox pic.twitter.com/NAg2EyOVGM
— BitPay (@BitPay) October 17, 2023
XRP as a payment option is now supported by the company, which manages the in-game payments in Roblox, a Los Angeles-based Xsolla. BitPay will act as a partner, responsible for the seamless connection with crypto wallets.
Available on all mainstream platforms, such as Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Xbox One and PlayStation 4, Roblox counts 65.5 million daily active users, 44% of whom are under the age of 13. Roblox users spent around $773 million on the in-game purchases in Q1 2023.
Related: Ferrari to accept crypto payments in the US
Xsolla has been quite active in its efforts to integrate crypto into its payment system. In August 2022, it partnered with automated crypto management platform Coinchange Financials Inc. and live-streaming social Web3 platform TradeZing to develop a non-fungible tokens (NFTs) payment solution. In August 2023, it joined forces with Crypto.com to integrate the latter’s checkout solution into Xsolla’s Pay Station platform.
The partnership between Xsolla and BitPay goes back as far as 2014 when the service started to accept payments in BTC. In Sept. 2023, BitPay and Xsolla rolled out PayPal USD (PYUSD) payments for merchants and consumers.
Magazine: Beyond crypto. Zero-knowledge proofs show potential from voting to finance
cryptocurrency crypto btc xrp cryptoUncategorized
Pension funds could use AI to cut costs, increase returns, says report
Artificial intelligence is touted to provide a number of benefits to the management of pension funds, according to research from Mercer.
…

Artificial intelligence is touted to provide a number of benefits to the management of pension funds, according to research from Mercer.
Artificial intelligence could be used by pension funds to cut costs, increase investment returns and highlight possible risks, but there are still “significant challenges to overcome” with its use, says the Mercer CFA Institute global pension report.
On Oct. 17, the annual joint report from the consulting firm and investment professional association marked AI as useful for helping pension fund managers trawl through mass amounts of data that could highlight opportunities and build custom investment portfolios.
“AI will affect the operations of pension systems around the world,” lead author and Mercer senior partner Dr. David Knox wrote. “It has the potential to greatly improve the member experience as well as members’ retirement outcomes.”
Natural language AI tools could also be used by pension funds to analyze their members — scraping data from emails and calls so the fund can personalize its marketing and outreach efforts based on how each individual communicates.
AI-assisted analysis is touted to identify patterns and discover market sentiment and signals to suggest unconventional future investment opportunities.
“This can lead to improved asset allocation and/or better diversification, resulting in higher long term returns and lower volatility.”
AI could also help investors take stock of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations. The technology is also expected to enable automation of middle and back office environments, lowering costs that can narrow differentials between passive and active investment strategies.

AI is also expected to enable the prediction of member behaviour in response to a variety of possible economic and political circumstances that can impact cash flows of a pension fund.
“For example, a stock market crash can lead to members switching to defensive asset classes, whereas a newly elected government may lead to some retirees withdrawing their accrued benefits.”
However, AI tools can generate fake or misleading information and uncertainty around AI use is likely to remain as models are “unlikely to be able to predict market prices with accuracy.”
The report also highlighted the need for “strong defenses against cyberattacks, scammers and other security breaches”
Related: Dev platform Stack Overflow axes 28% of staff as AI competition grows
The author outlines that AI is already being leveraged in investment markets to make decisions based on the analysis of data, reports, risks and market trends. The advent of programmable trading has been in use since the 1980s, with high-frequency trading changing the way in which investments are managed.
Algorithmic trading is reported to contribute to a significant amount of automated trading, contributing up to 73% of United States equity trading in 2018 alone.
Additional reporting by Jesse Coghlan.
Magazine: AI Eye: Real uses for AI in crypto, Google’s GPT-4 rival, AI edge for bad employees
cryptoUncategorized
TrueCoin’s third-party vendor breach potentially leaks TUSD user data
TrueCoin’s internal systems were not impacted or accessed, as the company confirmed that the attack was an isolated incident and limited to a third-party…

TrueCoin’s internal systems were not impacted or accessed, as the company confirmed that the attack was an isolated incident and limited to a third-party vendor.
Stablecoin TrueUSD (TUSD) announced a potential leak of certain Know Your Customer (KYC) and transaction history data as one of TrueCoin’s third-party vendors got compromised.
TrueCoin was the operator of the TUSD stablecoin till July 13, 2023. On Oct. 16, a third-party vendor’s security team informed TrueCoin of “an anomalous account change within [TrueCoin’s] organization made by a compromised support vendor.” As a result, TrueCoin suspects the compromise of some of TUSD’s existing customer data.
TUSD team was informed by TrueCoin that they received a third-party vendor's notification that the vendor’s Security Team detected “an anomalous account change within [TrueCoin’s] organization made by a compromised support vendor.”
— TrueUSD (@tusdio) October 16, 2023
TrueCoin’s internal systems were not impacted or accessed, as the company confirmed that the attack was an isolated incident on a third-party vendor. “TUSD system is SECURE and not attacked. Both TUSD system and TUSD's reserves are UNAFFECTED,” affirmed TrueUSD through its official X (formerly Twitter) account.
Data collected from such breaches — names, email addresses and phone numbers, among others — are typically used for phishing attacks. Attackers reach out to unwary investors by mimicking various crypto services, often promising high profits in short amounts of time.
The impact of the attack and the resultant data leak is yet to be identified, as the total number of users’ data was not revealed during the announcement.
TrueUSD has not yet responded to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.
Related: TrueUSD stops minting via Prime Trust, loses dollar peg
TrueCoin recently distanced itself from Nevada-based Prime Trust right after the latter abruptly halted all fiat and cryptocurrency deposits and withdrawals.
TrueUSD announced that “it is not affected by the situation” at Prime Trust while emphasizing its diversified partnerships and maintaining “multiple USD rails” elsewhere.
“PrimeTrust has suspended all deposits of fiat and digital assets. #TrueUSD (#TUSD) is not affected by this situation. We have no exposure to Prime Trust and maintain multiple USD rails for minting and redemption. Rest assured, all your funds are safe with TUSD,” TrueUSD stated.
Magazine: Beyond crypto: Zero-knowledge proofs show potential from voting to finance
cryptocurrency crypto crypto-
Spread & Containment21 hours ago
How we’re using evidence to tackle net zero, slow economy and new hybrid working – sign up for Conversation partnership events and reports
-
Uncategorized3 hours ago
FTX customers could get $9B shortfall claim payout by mid-2024
-
Uncategorized14 hours ago
SEC plans scrutiny of crypto dealer-brokers, transfer agents, per 2024 exam guide
-
International22 hours ago
Asian currencies see falling data amid global conflict
-
International18 hours ago
Salmon cooling stations
-
Uncategorized17 hours ago
The “bearish steepening” and the death of refinancing
-
International17 hours ago
Key Events This Busy Week: Retail Sales, Housing, Earnings And Torrent Of Fed Speakers Including Powell
-
International21 hours ago
Synaffix joins forces with Sotio on $740M ADC licensing deal, plans expansion after Lonza acquisition