Strategy´s Bitcoin mNAV Collapses to 1.174, Lowest Since February 2024

Wall Street's calm was shattered on Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump rattled markets with the threat of a "massive increase" in tariffs on Chinese imports over a rare earths dispute, sending indexes tumbling and volatility spiking.

In a Truth Social post, Trump also called off his planned meeting with China's President Xi Jinping in South Korea. He said Beijing had been sending letters to countries to tell them that it planned to impose export controls on every element of production related to rare earths.

The sharp selloff in indexes disrupted a relatively quiet week for markets, which had been gaining on hopes of dovish monetary policy, and underscored how sensitive investor sentiment remains to trade uncertainty.

A fresh flare-up in U.S.-China trade tensions could weigh on global growth and cloud the outlook for corporate America, which is already navigating higher costs.

"He's caught the market off guard again and he's thrown more question marks into it," said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth.

At 12:11 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Averagefell 554.58 points, or 1.20%, to 45,803.84, the S&P 500lost 105.34 points, or 1.56%, to 6,629.77 and the Nasdaq Compositelost 471.76 points, or 2.05%, to 22,552.86.

All three indexes were on track for weekly declines if current levels hold.

"We finally got through the worst of the tariff concerns, and now we find ourselves once again faced with another round of them," said Steve Sosnick, chief market analyst at Interactive Brokers.

The S&P 500 techsector lost 2%. Financialsfell 1.4% on the S&P 500, while energystocks declined 1.8%.

The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor indexdropped 3.7%, among the worst hit after Trump's announcement.

China produces over 90% of the world's processed rare earths and rare earth magnets, which are critical for products ranging from electric vehicles and aircraft engines to military radars.

Renewed tensions between the two largest global economies could trigger major supply chain disruptions, particularly for companies in technology, EV and defense space.

The CBOE volatility index, investors' fear gauge, spiked to the highest in a month.

U.S.-listed shares of Chinese companies dropped sharply, with heavyweights Alibaba Group Holding, JD.com Incand PDD Holdingsdown between 3.9% and 6.7%.

Qualcommfell 4.5% after China's market regulator said the country had launched an antitrust investigation into the semiconductor manufacturer over its acquisition of Israel's Autotalks.

Separately, a preliminary reading of the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index for October came in at 55, compared with the estimate of 54.2, according to economists polled by Reuters.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 2.73-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 3.36-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted 17 new 52-week highs and 12 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 93 new highs and 82 new lows.

Source: TradingView

Citigroup Inc. is joining a group of nine European lenders developing a regulated euro-based stablecoin, the latest move by a large financial institution into the fast-growing area of digital money.

The New York-based bank intends to take part in the consortium as part of its broader efforts on blockchain and digital assets, a spokesperson confirmed on Friday.

The group — which includes ING Groep NV, UniCredit SpA and DekaBank — revealed late last month that they had formed a new company based in the Netherlands to manage the project and which aims to issue the token in the second half of 2026.

The move would make Citigroup the only known non-European bank to join the effort. Other firms part of the project include Banca Sella, KBC Group NV, Danske Bank AS, SEB AB, CaixaBank SA and Raiffeisen Bank International AG. The goal of the project is to “to provide a real European alternative to the US-dominated stablecoin market, contributing to Europe’s strategic autonomy in payments,” a statement by the banks said at the time.

Stablecoins — tokens designed to maintain a constant value against a traditional asset like the dollar — have surged in popularity over the past year as banks and other large financial firms see them as viable alternative payments methods. They could be used for more than $50 trillion in annual payments by 2030, Bloomberg Intelligence estimates. That would see the fiat-pegged tokens capture as much as 25% of consumer transactions, up from less than 1% now.

New stablecoins rules in Europe and the US have provided more regulatory clarity needed for large firms to enter the space, spurring a flurry of recent activity.

A group of banks including Citigroup, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Bank of America Corp said earlier on Friday that they were joining forces to explore a stablecoin-like form of digital money. Earlier this week Citi’s venture arm made an investment in stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK. In July, Citigroup Chief Executive Officer Jane Fraser said on an earnings conference call that the bank was considering issuing its own stablecoin.

While the total amount of stablecoins in circulation has reached around $300 billion, the market is overwhelmingly dominated by dollar-denominated coins. Only about $477 million euro-tied coins are in circulation, according to crypto data tracker DefiLlama.

Big banks — including Citigroup — have also been developing other forms of blockchain-based payment services such as tokenized deposits. These are transferable digital coins that represent a deposit claim against a commercial bank. Proponents of the novel form of money suggest they could make transactions less costly and available 24/7.

Source: Bloomberg

Source: kitco

USDIDX broke above EMA100.

Pricing of further U.S. interest rate cuts in the futures market.

EURUSD on weekly interval.

Source: xtb

The Bureau of Labor Statistics said it will publish the September consumer price index on Oct. 24, marking a rare exception to release data during the government shutdown.

The report will come out that day at 8:30 a.m. in Washington, compared to the original publication date of Oct. 15, the agency said Friday.

“No other releases will be rescheduled or produced until the resumption of regular government services,” BLS said in a statement. “This release allows the Social Security Administration to meet statutory deadlines necessary to ensure the accurate and timely payment of benefits.”

Source: Bloomberg Europe

Honda, BYD, and Chery dealerships in Mexico City, Mexico.

Mexican lawmakers will pause until late November the discussion of a government proposal to impose tariffs of as much as 50% on cars, steel and other products imported from China and several Asian nations that don’t have a trade deal with the country, according to a top congressman.Ricardo Monreal, leader of the ruling Morena party in the lower house of Congress, said that lawmakers must be careful with the proposal and review it “very seriously.”“We’re going to put it on hold,” Monreal told journalists. “We can address it by the end of November.”

The Economy Ministry didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration sent the plan to Congress last month, seeking to raise levies on more than 1,400 categories of products coming from countries with which Mexico has no trade agreement. Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard said the proposal seeks to protect the Mexican industry from unfair competition.While the plan to Congress was initially made as part of the government’s proposed 2026 budget, lawmakers are now seeking to debate it separately from the spending plan.China, South Korea and India are among the exporters that would be hit under the proposed levies, which requires Congress approval. The import taxes would also affect items such as auto parts, toys and furniture, with rates of 10% to 50% depending on the category.

The proposal caused unease in China, which launched a trade barrier investigation aimed at safeguarding the interests of its industry, according to a statement from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce. The ministry reiterated that if Mexico goes ahead with the unilateral tariff hike, it will harm the interests of China and other trading partners, seriously undermine the predictability of Mexico’s business environment, and weaken investor confidence.“We have to be more careful, given that tariffs are being imposed on countries that, without being trading partners, engage in intense, and sometimes unfair trade with our products in Mexico,” Monreal added Thursday.

As part of the North American trade pact that includes the US, Canada and Mexico known as the USMCA, those trading partners would be unaffected by the tariffs. Sheinbaum’s proposal could favor trade negotiations between Mexico and the US ahead of the review of that trade agreement, which is scheduled for next year.Trump imposed a tariff of 25% on Mexican goods earlier this year, though most are exempted because they comply with the US-Mexico-Canada trade pact. Certain sectors including steel and autos have been affected by the levies.In late July, Trump agreed to continue talks with Mexico for a 90-day period, instead of further hiking tariffs as he did to other countries at the time.

Source: Yahoo Finance