US stocks rally back higher; GBP slides on no-deal concerns

Summary:

• US stocks rally on the open; Biogen plunges

• Stock of the week: Deutsche Bank

• DE30: FT reports sends Wirecard lower

• GBP slides as no-deal concerns rise; BoE stay pat

• Coinmarketcap on Nasdaq, Bloomberg and Reuters

Today’s session for US stocks could well prove decisive after an initial rally following an even more dovish than expected Fed saw equities fall back near their lows on the close.  On the European close there’s solid gains of around 1% for most US indices, and how they end this evening could be pivotal. Shares in Biogen (BIIB.US on Xstation) have lost more than a quarter of their value this afternoon as the stock swoons following news that it has halted a key trial for it’s Alzheimer’s drugs. The Pharmaceutical company and Japanese partner Eisai announced they would cancel their late-stage trial in an event that Guggenheim describes as “investors’ worst fears come true.” The two companies said they would scrap their global late-stage trials, ENGAGE and EMERGE, designed to "evaluate the efficacy and safety of aducanumab in patients with mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer's disease and mild Alzheimer’s disease dementia."

What was rumoured for a long time time is slowly becoming a reality. Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank announced over the past weekend that they are launching formal merger talks. The two lenders saw their stock prices plummet as turnaround efforts were slow to take effect. However, the success may depend on the actions of the German government. In this analysis we will take a look at the story behind merger as well as advantages and risks coming along with it. To read more on Deutsche Bank please visit here.

Wirecard (WDI.DE) is trading lower today after the Financial Times issued another report on the company. FT said that company’s executives authorized four suspicious payments worth around half a million euro each. Such an allegation is, of course, in contrast with what Wirecard was saying. However, it should be noted that even if FT reports turn out to be true the reaction on the market may have been overblown. Aforementioned payments are said to be worth around €2 million total, what is more or less 0.1% of Wirecard’s revenue in 2018. Since was FT report was published Wirecard share price plunged almost 40%.

It’s turning into quite a big down day for the pound with the markets seemingly waking up to the threat of a no-deal Brexit. The Largest declines seen against the USD, JPY and CHF. As was widely expected the rate-setters for the Bank of England have voted unanimously to keep the base rate on hold at 0.75%. It’s not surprising the bank have decided to remain in wait-and-see mode given the major political uncertainty at present, and don’t expect anything drastic from them until there’s greater clarity on Brexit.

Top cryptocurrencies have launched Thursday trading quite calmly as major cryptos have not experienced any major price movements. In general, March seems to be quite a boring month on the cryptocurrency market so far. Will cryptocurrencies surprise investors this month? According to CoinMarketCap, the capitalization of the whole crypto market stands a little below the $142 billion handle whereas the market capitalization of altcoins sits a little below the $70 billion handle on Thursday. CoinMarketCap, the premier price-tracking website for cryptocurrencies, announced that its two crypto-related indices would be listed on Nasdaq Global Index Data Service, Bloomberg Terminal, Thomson Reuters Eikon and Boerse Stuttgart. The indices show a market capitalization of 200 weighted cryptocurrencies. First of them is the CMC Crypto 200 Index, and it includes Bitcoin (the index covers more than 90% of the crypto market). The latter is the CMC Crypto 200 ex BTC Index, which is quite similar to the first one, but it excludes Bitcoin - the largest cryptocurrency accounts for roughly 50% of the total crypto market cap.