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Cryptocurrencies have resumed their sell-off as the US and China deepened their renewed trade war.
Bitcoin, the largest digital asset, slumped by as much as 4.6pc towards $110,000 after Beijing raised the stakes in its economic battle with Washington.
More than $129bn (£97bn) was wiped off the total cryptocurrency market in the last 24 hours, according to CoinGecko, as China imposed restrictions on American subsidiaries of one of South Korea’s biggest shipbuilders. The move was in retaliation to US measures against its own shipping sector.
Crypto’s total market cap has plunged by $116bn just today, according to CoinDesk Data.
The fresh sell-off of crypto comes amid a general shift away from riskier assets towards safe havens, with the gold and silver hitting record highs as stock markets fall.
The Dax in Frankfurt, the Cac 40 in Paris and the FTSE 100 were all down following a short-lived rebound on Monday after US treasury secretary Scott Bessent accused China of trying to hurt the world’s economy with its sweeping fresh controls on exports of rare earth materials, which are critical for a range of industries.
“This is a sign of how weak their economy is, and they want to pull everybody else down with them,” Mr Bessent told the Financial Times.
The latest crypto sell-off comes after around $400bn (£300bn) was wiped off the value of the crypto market in a span of less than 24 hours last week after Donald Trump late on Friday promised to impose steep new levies on Chinese imports within weeks.
The risk of the UK falling into a recession is rising, a Bank of England official has warned
Alan Taylor, a member of the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee, said the likelihood of the UK economy experiencing a hard landing “was a remote and low probability event a year ago, but the risk is rising”.
In a speech at King’s College Cambridge Mr Taylor warned that weak demand in the economy “can lead to a more forceful downturn, where recession dynamics start to kick in that can be very difficult to contain or even reverse.”
He added the probability of a hard landing for the UK economy “is now not trivial”.
Mr Taylor also warned the UK “has been flirting with zero growth” and cautioned that a contraction in GDP would change the course of the economy.
It comes after the economy flatlined in July, with the UK recording no GDP growth during the month according to the latest official statistics.
Britain’s growth prospects have been downgraded by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) just weeks before Rachel Reeves launches another tax raid in the Budget.
The IMF trimmed its forecast for UK growth next year and said a trade deal struck with the US would not offset the damage from higher tariffs imposed by Donald Trump.
In a further blow, it also warned that prices in Britain were rising even faster than in some developing economies, such as Peru and Senegal, as higher taxes and rising household bills keep inflation higher for longer.
Nvidia’s nearest rival in the manufacture of AI processors has announced a deal with the data centre giant Oracle.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) said it would expanding its partnership with the founded by Larry Ellison, an ally of Sir Tony Blair.
Oracle will deploy 50,000 AMD graphic processing units beginning in the third quarter of next year with further expansion to follow.
The so-called AI “supercluster” is a massive, interconnected group of high-performance computers designed to work together as a single system.
AMD shares jumped 3pc before the bell Tuesday, while Oracle’s slipped 1.8pc.
The boss of Goldman Sachs warned the Wall Street bank was focused on managing risks as concerns grow that an AI-fuelled rally in stocks is poised for a correction.
Chief executive David Solomon said he was aware “conditions can change quickly” as the bank revealed profits that beat analyst expectations.
Goldman Sachs’s investment banking fees surged 42pc to $2.7bn (£2bn) in the three months to the end of September, well ahead of forecasts for a 14pc jump. Overall quarterly profit stood at $4.1bn, or $12.25 per share, exceeding Wall Street expectations of $11 per share.
Mr Solomon said echoed caution from his counterpart Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan who warned of a “heightened degree of uncertainty”.
US stocks declined in premarket trading over renewed concerns about a US-China trade conflict, which comes just as analysts have warned of stretched stock market valuations. The S&P 500 has fallen more than 1pc since a sell-off on Friday.
Mr Solomon said: “This quarter’s results reflect the strength of our client franchise and focus on executing our strategic priorities in an improved market environment.
“Across our business, clients continue to turn to us for their most complex and consequential matters. We know that conditions can change quickly and so we remain focused on strong risk management.
“Longer term, we are prioritising the need to operate more efficiently to seamlessly deliver the firm to our clients helped by new AI technologies.”
EasyJet has become a takeover target after it was linked to a bid from the world’s biggest shipping container company.
Shares in the budget airline surged as much as 11.5pc in early trading following reports Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) had tapped an unnamed investment fund to explore a potential offer.
A spokesman for the shipping giant denied any involvement. Shares in easyJet, which declined to comment, fell back but remained up more than 3pc at the top of the FTSE 100. It suggests investors believe the airline may now be a takeover target.
Cryptocurrencies have resumed their sell-off as the US and China deepened their renewed trade war.
Bitcoin, the largest digital asset, slumped by as much as 4.6pc towards $110,000 after Beijing raised the stakes in its economic battle with Washington.
More than $129bn was wiped off the total cryptocurrency market in the last 24 hours, according to CoinGecko, as China imposed restrictions on American subsidiaries of one of South Korea’s biggest shipbuilders. The move was in retaliation to US measures against its own shipping sector.
The fresh sell-off of crypto comes amid a general shift away from riskier assets towards safe havens, with the gold and silver hitting record highs as stock markets fall.
It comes after around $400bn (£300bn) was wiped off the value of the crypto market in a span of less than 24 hours last week after Donald Trump late on Friday promised to impose steep new levies on Chinese imports within weeks.
The gold and silver market could be poised for a slowdown as their record runs begin to show “signs of maturity”.
Bullion has hit a new peak of $4,179 today, while silver hit an unprecedented $53.50 as investors continued to clamour for precious metals.
However, both have seen sharp falls since touching their new records, with gold declining as much as 2.1pc from its peak and silver down as much as 4.9pc.
Michael Hsueh of Deutsche Bank Research said: “We can see the rally in precious metals as a combination of ongoing fundamental tightness in silver and platinum, the desire to limit dependence on the dollar in central bank reserves, and resource nationalism in the context of great power competition.
“There has always been a strong correlation amongst the precious metals, and our observation from last week was that there are some signs of maturity showing in the Sep-Oct gold rally.
“That kind of maturity usually results in higher realised volatility, and that may be what we are seeing today in both the gold and silver price.”
The boss of Wall Street’s biggest bank warned the US economy faces a “heightened degree of uncertainty” amid the trade war with China.
Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JP Morgan, said investors were faced with “complex geopolitical conditions, tariffs and trade uncertainty, elevated asset prices and the risk of sticky inflation”.
However, he said the US “economy generally remained resilient” as the bank revealed profits climbed to $14.4bn (£10.9bn), or $5.07 per share, in the three months ended September 30.
Mr Dimon said: “As always, we hope for the best, but these complex forces reinforce why we prepare the Firm for a wide range of scenarios.”
The Wall Street veteran, who has led JP Morgan since 2006, warned last week he was “far more worried than others” about the prospects of a sharp stock market correction.
Investment banking fees at JPMorgan rose 16pc in the third quarter, its results showed, while trading revenue also soared.
China has escalated its trade war with the US by imposing sanctions on the American subsidiaries of a South Korean shipping giant.
Beijing’s Commerce Ministry said Tuesday it was banning dealings by Chinese companies with five US units of Hanwha Ocean.
It also threatened more trade measures as it announced an that it was investigating a probe by Washington into China’s growing dominance in world shipbuilding.
“China just weaponised shipbuilding,” said Kun Cao, deputy chief executive at consultant Reddal.
“Beijing is signalling it will hit third-country firms that help Washington counter China’s maritime dominance.”
The pound fell to its lowest against the dollar in more than two months after weak employment figures.
Sterling was down as much as 0.6pc to $1.325 after traders bet there was a 38pc chance that the Bank of England could cut interest rates again before the end of the year. The pound was down 0.4pc against the euro at €1.148.
The change in money markets followed jobs data showing unemployment was at a four-year high just as wage growth fell to its weakest level in three years..
Modupe Adegbembo, an economist at Jefferies, said: “We continue to believe markets are underestimating both the likelihood of further Bank of England rate cuts this year and how low rates could ultimately go.”
Money markets indicate there is a 38pc chance of another rate cut in this year’s remaining two meetings of the Monetary Policy Committee.
Derivates trades indicate the market expects rates to fall two more times over the next year from 4pc today to 3.5pc.
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