Bank of Korea: cannot rule out possibility of economy contracting in Q1

Malaysia's Ringgit ticks lower to 4.4110 per USD

🚨Billionaire Tim Draper says Bitcoin is going to $250k this year.

China Shanghai: supports private listed companies in using buybacks and shareholder increases for market cap management

🚨Fitch Ratings: The intensifying US-China tariff conflict is set to severely disrupt trade flows between the two countries.

🚨Fitch Ratings revises their U.S. inflation forecast upward to over 4%, which implies stagnation in real wages.

Europe Market Open: Powell sends stocks lower despite "Big Progress" on US-Japan trade talks

Stablecoin transactions outpaced Visa payments for the first time in history

Goldman Sachs warns of $800bn US outflows from China stocks in extreme scenario should US investors be forced to offload Chinese equities

BoJ's Nakagawa: US tariffs will likely push Japan economy downward through reduced trade, corporate profits and impact on markets.

ECB Policy Announcement today at 12:15 GMT/08:15 ET. The ECB is expected to cut by 25 bps bringing the deposit rate to 2.25%. Two more rate cuts expected by year-end.

On April 16, US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a total net outflow of $169.9M, with Fidelity's FBTC [retail] leading with -113M flows. Blockrock's IBIT [institutional] saw a net inflow of $30M.

On April 16, US spot Ethereum ETFs recorded a total net outflow of $12M.

Swiss gold exports to the US in metric tons.

Trump's net approval sunk by 15% in Q1

China Commerce Ministry, on Trump saying ball in China's court: Ministry maintaining normal communication with US counterparts. Urges US to stop threat and blackmail, resolve issues on basis of mutual respect.

🚨NVIDIA Corporation CEO Jensen Huang arrived in Beijing today at the invitation of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT). This visit comes three months after Huang publicly affirmed NVIDIA's intent to "continue collaborating with China" during his previous trip to the country.

🚨OVHCloud’s CEO: trade tensions are now reshaping how Europe picks cloud providers, not just about tech, but about trust. It’s a sign that global uncertainty is spilling into core infrastructure, which could mean more market volatility and defensive plays ahead. [crypto is an inflation hedge, BTFD!]

Reuters poll: short bets build on China's yuan, Indonesia's rupiah

🚨China preparing to sell 15,000 BTC (valued at $1.2bn) to meet the increasing financing needs of local governments. The Bitcoin was seized during high-profile investigations on international markets.

Time to go long USD?