Weekly news summary for December 29 to January 4

Friday, Dec. 29: Nvidia Releases New Version of RTX 4090 in China

Shares in Nvidia Corp. fell more than 1.0% on Friday after the semiconductor giant released a new albeit slower gaming chip designed to meet US export restrictions on China.

The company introduced the GeForce RTX 4090D Series graphics processing unit (GPU) on its Chinese website, stating that it features artificial intelligence- (AI) enabled graphics, although it delivers performance via power draw that is 5.9% lower than the version Nvidia launched in 2022.

Monday, Jan. 1: Australian Home Prices Logged 8.1% Surge in 2023

Australian home prices climbed in 2023, marking a significant improvement from the decline in the previous year, although higher interest rates and ongoing pressures on the cost of living slightly held growth back in the last months of 2023.

Data from property analytics provider CoreLogic Inc. showed prices down under increased 8.1% last year from the 4.9% slide in 2022 but fell short of the 24.5% rise posted in 2021, while prices logged a 0.4% gain in December to mark the smallest monthly surge since February 2023.

Tuesday, Jan. 2: Bitcoin Hits 21-Month High on ETF Approval Hopes

Bitcoin surged to a 21-month high on Tuesday, driven by the market’s significant expectation of an approved spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) for the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap.

Bitcoin gained 6.0% to $45,168.6, marking its highest since April 2022, as speculations that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is close to approving one or a few of the 14 notable applications for a spot Bitcoin ETF grew.

Wednesday, Jan. 3: Saylor Starts Sale of $216M in MicroStrategy Stock

MicroStrategy Inc. co-founder and executive chairman Michael Saylor has started the sale of $216 million worth of stock options of the US software company, planning to sell 5,000 shares per trading day in the next four months, subject to a minimum price condition.

A regulatory filing with the SEC stated that Saylor has proposed selling 315,000 shares, purchased via stock options in 2014 and are set to expire in April, as he aims to address personal obligations and acquire additional Bitcoin for his own account.

Thursday, Jan. 4: Japan Airline Estimates $105M Loss from Collision

Japan Airlines (JAL) Co. Ltd. expects the collision of its Airbus A350 with a Coast Guard plane at the Haneda airport on Tuesday to generate an operating loss of about ¥15 billion ($104.81 million).

The company stated on Thursday that insurance would cover the loss of the two-year-old jet, the first-ever hull loss for the A350 model, and they were examining its impact on their consolidated financial forecast for the fiscal year ending March 2024.