Under Armour — Shares of the athletic apparel maker jumped 11.6% after the company reported better-than-expected earnings for its latest quarter, along with revenue that was roughly in line with Wall Street forecasts.
Etsy — Shares of the e-commerce platform jumped 12.8% after the company posted third-quarter results that beat expectations. The platform also reported having more active buyers and sellers than estimated by StreetAccount.
Zillow — The stock jumped more than 12% after Zillow’s third-quarter earnings and revenue beat expectations. The real estate tech company reported earnings of 38 cents per share on revenue of $483 million. Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv forecast earnings of 11 cents per share on revenue of $456 million.
Robinhood — Shares of the trading app soared 9.7% after the company reported a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss as well as revenue that topped analyst forecasts. Investors also cheered that Robinhood lowered its operating expense forecast for the full year. The stock is still down about 30% this year.
Crown Holdings — Shares of the beverage-can maker jumped more than 9% after The Wall Street Journal reported that activist investor Carl Icahn has amassed an 8% stake in Crown, which makes him the second-largest shareholder. Deutsche Bank thinks investors should follow Icahn’s suit as the firm sees a 45% upside in the stock.
Tal Education — The Chinese education company saw its shares climb 8% after UBS upgraded its shares to buy from neutral. UBS highlighted Tal’s strong topline beat and improved profitability outlook.
Royal Caribbean — Shares gained more than 5.4% after Royal Caribbean reported third-quarter earnings that beat profit and sales forecasts. The cruise operator earned 26 cents per share, excluding certain items, on revenue of $2.99 billion. Analysts expected a profit of 19 cents a share on sales of $2.97 billion, Refinitiv data shows.
Fortinet — Shares dropped 11.8% after Fortinet reported fourth-quarter billing guidance that came in below expectations. The cybersecurity company otherwise beat profit and sales expectations, according to consensus estimates on FactSet.
Fidelity National Information Services — FIS tumbled 25% after missing profit and sales expectations in its third quarter, according to consensus estimates on FactSet. The company also issued “below consensus CY22 guidance,” and provided a cautious outlook on the possibility of a recession, according to a Thursday note from Wedbush following the results.
Lincoln National — Shares dropped 33% after Lincoln National missed earnings per share expectations in its third quarter, despite surprising to the upside on its sales forecast. The insurance company was downgraded to equal weight from overweight by Morgan Stanley, which said in a Thursday note that an “outsized charge from the company related to lower lapses in its individual life insurance operations” will weigh on investor confidence in the stock.
Peloton — The fitness company fell as much as 16.1% after it reported a wider-than-expected loss for the recent quarter and shared a disappointing outlook for the holiday quarter. Peloton’s reported revenue was also below analysts’ expectations, falling 23% year over year. The stock later recovered to trade 1% higher.
Qualcomm — Shares of Qualcomm slipped 6.1% after the company gave a first-quarter guidance that fell below expectations, citing weak demand in China and inventory problems. The company reported adjusted earnings per share of $3.13, in line with Wall Street expectations. Revenues in the quarter were $11.39 billion compared to the estimate of $11.37 billion.
Roku — Shares of Roku fell 3.1% after the streaming platform said it sees lower fourth-quarter revenues and a larger loss than Wall Street expected. For the third quarter, the company lost 88 cents per share, less than a Refinitiv forecast of a $1.28 per share loss.
Nikola — Nikola shares dropped 5.4% after electric heavy truck maker cut its full-year production guidance, and declined to provide its 2023 forecast. Otherwise, the company reported a strong third-quarter earnings report, beating on the top and bottom lines.
Tempur Sealy — Shares jumped 9% after Tempur Sealy reported a beat on earnings expectations for the third quarter, while slightly missing on revenue forecasts. The mattress maker earned 78 cents per share on revenue of $1.28 billion. Analysts expected the company would report 75 earnings per share on $1.29 billion of revenue, according to consensus estimates from Refinitiv.
The market is currently in a news-driven environment where the prices of cryptocurrencies have been determined by news agenda rather than fundamentals.
Bitfinex analysts have warned crypto investors to be cautious as bitcoin’s (BTC) recovery over the weekend is not a sign that its correction is over; the asset could witness more bloodshed in the near term.
In the latest Bitfinex Alpha report, experts deemed the market’s reaction this week critical, especially as supply alleviated over the weekend could return when traditional markets open.
“No Man’s Land”
Since Saturday, bitcoin has risen almost 10% from $57,600 to $63,000, closing last week in the green. The asset has surged above the 125-day range low of $60,200, which it broke through earlier this month after news of the German government’s massive BTC selling hit the market.
Market sentiment began to improve after reports that wallets linked to the German government were almost empty. However, the positive sentiment may not be sustained for long as the BTC the German authorities moved to trading desks and exchanges are yet to be sold.
While the supply from Germany appears to have been factored into bitcoin’s market price, Bitfinex analysts believe the end of selling pressure depends on how the involved trading desks execute their trades in the coming days.
Although the shift in sentiment underscores the market’s capacity to integrate new information and adjust expectations quickly, analysts think the market’s reaction over the first two trading days of the week cannot be overlooked for two reasons.
First, the low support level in the $60,200 range has now become a potential resistance line. Second, trading patterns over the past three months suggest that weekends are usually favorable for markets, especially on Saturdays when supply pressure seems to subside.
“We are now in no man’s land until we get clear resolution above or below this level,” the analysts said.
A News-Driven Environment
Besides the potential resistance level and three-month weekend trading pattern, the market is currently in a news-driven environment, where the prices of cryptocurrencies have been determined by news agendas rather than fundamentals.
Since selling pressure concerns are not yet completely obsolete due to upcoming Mt Gox creditor distributions, Bitfinex analysts expect such headlines to continue to have some impact on price movements. As such, the analysts urged investors to exercise caution in their trading strategies.
BlackRock’s IBIT led with $117.25 million in inflows on July 15, also being the most traded Bitcoin ETF.
The US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a daily net inflow of $301 million on July 15th. This extended their winning streak to seven consecutive days amidst a broader market recovery.
None of the ETFs recorded outflows for the day.
Bitcoin ETFs Rake in $16.11B in Net Inflows Since Jan
According to the data compiled by SoSoValue, BlackRock’s IBIT, the top spot Bitcoin ETF by net asset value, recorded the largest net inflows of the day at $117.25 million. IBIT was also the most actively traded Bitcoin ETF on Monday, with a volume of $1.24 billion. Ark Invest and 21Shares’ ARKB came in close behind with net inflows of $117.19 million.
Fidelity’s FBTC experienced net inflows of $36.15 million on Monday, while Bitwise’s BITB saw $15.24 million in inflows. VanEck’s HODL, Invesco and Galaxy Digital’s BTCO, and Franklin Templeton’s EZBC funds also recorded net inflows. Meanwhile, Grayscale’s GBTC and other ETFs, such as Valkyrie’s BRRR, WisdomTree’s BTCW, and Hashdex’s DEFI, registered no flows for the day.
A total of $2.26 billion was traded on Monday. The trading volume for these ETFs was less than in March when it exceeded $8 billion on some days. Meanwhile, these funds have collectively attracted $16.11 billion in net inflow since their January launch.
What’s Next For Bitcoin?
Earlier this month, bitcoin’s price decline was mainly due to fears of massive selling pressure from Mt. Gox and the German government’s BTC sales.
But the assassination attempt on pro-crypto former US President and presumptive Republican candidate Donald Trump at Saturday’s rally seemed to spark a recovery in the world’s largest digital asset, and experts are bullish on the asset’s price trajectory going forward. Bitcoin surged more than 9% over the past week and was currently trading slightly below $64,000.
Veteran trader Peter Brandt discussed bitcoin’s price outlook, suggesting a potential major rally. He referred to a pattern he terms “Hump->Slump->Bump->Dump->Pump” and highlighted that the July 5 double top attempt was a bear trap, confirmed by the July 13 close. He sees a likely continued upward trend but warned that a close below $56,000 would negate this bullish view.
“Bitcoin $BTC could be unfolding its often-repeated Hump…Slump…Bump…Dump…Pump chart construction. Jul 5 attempt at the double top was a bear trap, confirmed by Jul 13 close. Most likely scenario now is that bears are trapped. Close below $56k negates this interpretation”
PeckShield alert reveals LI.FI’s protocol vulnerability is similar to a March 2022 attack, with the same bug recurring.
The decentralized finance (DeFi) platform LI.FI protocol has suffered an exploit amounting to over $8 million.
Cyvers Alerts reported detecting suspicious transactions within the LI.FI cross-chain transaction aggregator.
LI.FI Issues Warning After $8 Million Exploit
LI.FI confirmed the breach in a statement on July 16 via X: “Please do not interact with any http://LI.FI powered applications for now! We’re investigating a potential exploit.” The team clarified that users who did not set infinite approval are not at risk, emphasizing that only those who manually set infinite approvals seem to be affected.
According to Cyvers Alerts, more than $8 million in user funds have been stolen, with the majority being stablecoins. According to on-chain data, the hacker’s wallet holds 1,715 Ether (ETH) valued at $5.8 million and USDC, USDT, and DAI stablecoins.
Cyvers Alerts advised users to revoke relevant authorizations immediately, noting that the attacker is actively converting USDC and USDT into ETH.
Crypto security firm Decurity provided insights into the exploit, stating that it involves the LI.FI bridge. “The root cause is a possibility of an arbitrary call with user-controlled data via depositToGasZipERC20() in GasZipFacet, which was deployed 5 days ago,” Decurity explained on X.
“In general, the risks behind routers, cross-chain swaps, etc. are about token approvals. Raw native assets like (unwrapped) ETH are safe from these kinds of hacks b/c they don’t have approvals as an option. Most users & wallets also no longer do “infinite approvals” which gives a smart contract total control on removing any amount of their tokens. It’s important to understand which tokens you’re approving to which contracts.
This dashboard looks for all transactions of a user that intersects Lifi. Not all of these transactions indicate risk- but you can see how, broadly, integrations & layers of tech (like how Metamask bridge uses Lifi on BSC) can complicate how users do or don’t put their assets at risk. Revoke Cash is the most well known approval manager app.
But it’s also good security practice to simply rotate your address. New addresses start with 0 approvals, so starting fresh by moving your tokens to a fresh address is another good security practice.” – commented Carlos Mercado, Data Scientist at Flipside Crypto.
Recent Exploit Mirrors March 2022 Attack
Further analysis by PeckShield alert revealed that the vulnerability is similar to a previous attack on LI.FI’s protocol that occurred on March 20, 2022. That incident saw a bad actor exploit LI.FI’s smart contract, specifically the swapping feature, before bridging.
The attacker manipulated the system to call token contracts directly within their contract’s context, making users who had given infinite approval vulnerable. This exploit resulted in the theft of approximately 205 ETH from 29 wallets, affecting tokens such as USDC, MATIC, RPL, GNO, USDT, MVI, AUDIO, AAVE, JRT, and DAI.
“The bug is basically the same. Are we learning anything from the past lesson(s)?” PeckShield Alert said in a July 16 X post.
Following the 2022 incident, LI.FI disabled all swap methods in its smart contract and worked on developing a fix to prevent future vulnerabilities. However, the recurrence of a similar exploit raises concerns about the platform’s security measures and whether adequate steps were taken to address the vulnerabilities identified in the previous breach.
LI.FI is a liquidity aggregation protocol that allows users to trade across various blockchains, venues, and bridges.
