BrieflyTreasury’s Yellen calls for more regulation of cryptocurrenc[…]

Treasury’s Yellen calls for more regulation of cryptocurrencies after ‘Lehman moment’

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Wednesday that the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX was a “Lehman moment” for the cryptocurrency industry, which she continues to view with skepticism.

Speaking at The New York Times DealBook summit, Yellen described cryptocurrencies as “very risky assets” and said she was thankful their recent volatility had not spilled over into the mainstream banking sector. The comments came amid growing concerns about the risks of investing in digital assets and as lawmakers have been calling for more regulation of the industry.

“I have been skeptical, and I remain quite skeptical,” Yellen said.

The Treasury secretary praised banking regulators for having been careful when it came to cryptocurrencies.

“It’s a Lehman moment within crypto,” Yellen said, referring to the investment bank that filed for bankruptcy in 2008. “And crypto is big enough that we’ve had substantial harm of investors and particularly people who aren’t very well-informed about the risks that they’re undertaking, and that’s a very bad thing.”

Job openings dip in October to 10.7 million

U.S. job openings dropped in October but remained high, a sign that businesses became slightly less desperate for workers as the Federal Reserve ramps up interest rates in an effort to cool the economy.

Employers posted 10.3 million job vacancies in October, down from 10.7 million in September, the Labor Department said Wednesday.

Even with the drop, openings were slightly lower in August, when they dipped below 10.3 million before rebounding the following month.

Corporate job cuts coming to DoorDash

San Francisco-based Delivery company DoorDash is eliminating more than 1,200 corporate jobs, about 6% of its total workforce, saying it hired too many people when demand for its services increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.

CEO Tony Xu said in a message to employees on Wednesday that DoorDash was undersized before the pandemic and sped up hiring to catch up with its growth.

It is cutting approximately 1,250 people. Impacted employees will receive 17 weeks of compensation and their February 2023 stock vest.

Beef up protocols for Twitter, EU tells Musk

A top European Union official has warned Elon Musk that the company needs to beef up to protect users from hate speech, misinformation and other harmful content to avoid violating new rules.

The EU’s commissioner for digital policy, Thierry Breton, told Musk on Wednesday that the social media platform will have to significantly increase efforts to comply with the rules that threaten big fines or even a ban in the 27-nation bloc if tech giants don’t comply.

The two held a video call to discuss Twitter’s preparedness for the rules. Breton says Musk told him that the new EU rules were “a sensible approach to implement on a worldwide basis.”

Markets exit November with a strong showing

Wall Street closed out a solid November with a broad market rally Wednesday after Jerome Powell said the central bank could soon begin easing up on its aggressive interest rate increases aimed at taming inflation.

Stocks roared higher following Powell’s midafternoon remarks. The S&P 500 rose 3.1%, snapping a three-day losing streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 2.2% and the Nasdaq composite climbed 4.4%.

The major indexes ended November with their second straight month of gains, though they remain in the red for the year.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury dropped to 3.65% from 3.75% late Tuesday. The yield on the two-year note, which tends to track market expectations of future Fed action, fell to 4.34%. It was trading at 4.48% late Tuesday and had been as high as 4.53% shortly before Powell’s speech.

Apple rose 4.9% and Microsoft jumped 6.2%.

Compiled from Associated Press reports.