Europe

From his small suburban home in Basingstoke, just west of London, Jay Smith - the No. 1 cryptocurrency trader at online brokerage eToro - looks for reasons to buy more bitcoin and other digital tokens.

The 29-year-old high school dropout and one-time professional video-game player doesn't mind the volatility, as Bloomberg reports, his portfolio is up 295 percent in the past 12 months... "I just put in an order for a Tesla, and I don’t even know how to drive..."

Two years ago, when UBS looked at the world's most expensive housing markets, it found that London and Hong Kong were the only two areas exposed to bubble risk.

Submitted by Elijah Magnier, Middle East based chief international war correspondent for Al Rai Media

The decision of Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) leader Masoud Barzani to hold a referendum for Kurdistan independence will define the future of the Kurds in north-east Syria. The international community (headed by the US with numerous military bases in Syria) is directly concerned with the reactions, verbal threats, and measures announced by the countries with a Kurdish majority and bordering Iraqi Kurdistan, i.e. Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq.

Fitch has downgraded Deutsche Bank to BBB+ from A- due to continued pressure on earnings, combined with concerns over the prolonged implementation of its recovery strategy.

Moody's and S&P remain at A3 and A- respectively (on a like for like rating basis), and while DB bond yields had fallen to the lowest levels since March 2015, the last few weeks have seen risk picking back up (yields now at 2-month wides) and the stock remains near its recent lows...

Full Statement:

Yesterday, in its latest triennial Survey of Consumer Finances, the Fed admitted what had been obvious to everyone else: Fed policies unleashed over the past decade have made the rich richer, even as the American middle class has continued to shrink.