Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
- Latest: 444,000 initial claims last week, lowest since March 2020
- Economist: Jobless claims moving in right direction
Earlier:
- UK factory output growth fastest since 2018
- Export orders weaker than domestic demand
- Kingfisher warns supply chain problems could last six months
- Trainline shares slide as UK reforms railway tickets maze
- Bitcoin back over $40,000 after Wednesday’s plunge
Trade news: Australia’s biggest cattle farmer has predicted that the nation’s beef exports to the UK could rise as much as tenfold if the two countries strike a free-trade deal.
Boris Johnson is determined to push through a free-trade deal with Australia, despite warnings from the National Farmers’ Union over the “irreversible damage” such a deal would do to UK agriculture. It was discussed by ministers at a cabinet meeting on Thursday.
“We are looking forward to the conclusion of free-trade negotiations with the UK.”
Related: Australia’s beef exports to UK ‘could rise tenfold’ on free-trade deal
The Financial Times have an interesting piece tonight on yesterday’s crypto flash crash, explaining how the use of leveraged bets on prices going up accelerated the wave of selling:
Here’s a flavour:
When the price is crashing, everyone that leveraged and [bet on rising prices] sees their leverage ratio blow up,” said David Fauchier, a fund manager at crypto specialist Nickel Digital, noting that the market went through two so-called “liquidity cascades” in less than an hour when bitcoin crashed.
In established asset markets, traders use cash as collateral to finance leveraged bets. In cryptocurrencies, however, they often use bitcoin. That meant that when bitcoin fell heavily, leveraged bets were quick to fold.
The bitcoin flash crash has exposed how “systemic issues” under the surface of the cryptocurrency market, combined with leverage offered by many leading exchanges, exacerbate episodes of volatility. https://t.co/Wd6hsIIIRC @eva_szalay @staffordphilip