Argentina May be Headed for Another Currency Crisis – Foreign Exchange Professionals Association

Top Headlines

Argentina May be Headed for Another Currency Crisis – MarketWatch

Argentina’s reliance on U.S. dollar funding, coupled with the depreciation of its own currency is sending the country in to the all-too-familiar direction: financial turmoil.

Argentina Stems Peso Bleeding but Remains Vulnerable to Capital Flows – Reuters
Argentina’s Effort to Become a ‘Normal’ Country Shocked by Currency’s Collapse – The Australian Financial Review
Argentina Keeps Faith with Macri Despite Peso Fall – Financial Times (subscription)

Bitcoin Almost Broke Through the $10,000 Mark—Then Warren Buffett and Bill Gates Came Along – CNBC
Bitcoin prices dropped Monday following criticism from some of the investment world’s best-known billionaires.

A Closer Look At: Bespoke FXPB Systems – Profit & Loss
Marcus Butt, global head of FX prime services and futures at NatWest Markets, talks about how the bank is developing its FX Prime Brokerage offering in response to changing client needs.

China Will Sign a Currency Swap Agreement with Japan: Chinese Government –Reuters
China will sign a bilateral currency swap agreement with Japan, the Chinese government said on Tuesday, citing an article written by Premier Li Keqiang that was published by Japan’s Asahi newspaper.

Equities Drive Gains in Bank of Israel Forex Reserves in 2017 – Reuters
Israel’s central bank made a return of 3 percent on its foreign currency reserves in 2017, handily beating its average return over three years of 1.7 percent, largely due to a boost in its allocation of equities, it said.

IMF Urges Nigeria to Expand Tax Base, Streamline Currency Policy – Bloomberg
Nigeria should widen its tax revenue base to finance growth-enhancing upgrades to the nation’s infrastructure and social programs, said a senior International Monetary Fund official.

Regulatory News

Republican Regulator Who Blasted Dodd-Frank Rules to Step Down – Wall Street Journal (subscription)
A Republican member of the Securities and Exchange Commission who was a frequent critic of post-crisis regulations and helped quash some rules embraced by Democrats plans to leave the agency in July.

Macquarie Group Lays Off European Research Analysts in Response to MiFID II – Finance Magnates
Macquarie Group announced on Monday that it would be laying off a number of its European division employees. The Australian investment bank said the move was in response to parts of the European Union’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) regulations that target equity research.

Macquarie Lays Off Analysts as Mifid Bites – Financial Times (subscription)

Forex Fraudster Can’t Stay CFTC Suit During Criminal Appeal – Law360 (subscription)
A New York federal judge on Monday refused to pause the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s suit while a Long Island man imprisoned for running a foreign exchange scheme pursues a criminal appeal.

Company News

BestX Partners with FastMatch for FX Tape Market Data Service – Profit & Loss
BestX is including the FX Tape, a service provided by FastMatch, a Euronext company, within the BestX Best Execution FX Analytics, allowing clients to choose to include the FX Tape as an additional benchmark against which they can analyse their trade portfolios.

BestX Partners with FastMatch for FX Tape Market Data Service – Finance Magnates

Saxo Bank Appoints CEO for MENA Region – Profit & Loss
Saxo Bank, which provides multi-asset trading and investment, today announces the appointment of Steve Weller as CEO of the MENA Region.

Kim Joins Sucden in Hong Kong – Profit & Loss
Phil Kim has joined Sucden Financial as head of e-FX sales for the Asia Pacific (APAC) region.

Continental Profit Falls After Currency Hit – MarketWatch
Continental AG (CON.XE) said Tuesday that net profit slipped in the first quarter, citing currency effects.

Market Savvy

Emerging Market Currencies Feel the Heat as US Economy Brightens – MarketWatch
A stream of broadly upbeat US economic data is opening up fissures in the foreign exchange markets. Market participants are recognising that the balance of risk is changing. Emerging markets, which have enjoyed substantive capital inflows, will not be immune to this process, and certain currencies are already feeling the heat.

Launch of Bitcoin Futures Dragged Down Prices, Fed Paper Shows – CNBC
Bitcoin’s decline following a climb to nearly $20,000 was directly tied to the launch of a futures market, according to research from the San Francisco Federal Reserve published
Monday

Iran Rial Near Record Lows as Trump Decision on Nuclear Deal Looms – Reuters
Iran’s rial traded near record lows against the dollar in the free market on Tuesday as Iranians tried to buy hard currency, fearing economic turmoil if U.S. President Donald Trump withdraws from a deal on Iran’s nuclear program.