What Will the Stock Market Do Today, Aug. 18? 3 Big Stories to Watch.

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Good morning and welcome to the stock market today! Investors are carefully waiting for the July minutes from the Federal Reserve to come out today and vaccines are also in focus. The U.S. will officially begin distributing booster shots of the Covid-19 vaccine in September. So beyond making new plans to get vaxxed, what will the stock market do today?

Street sign for Wall Street pictured in front of several American flags representing american stocks

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  • The S&P 500 is down 0.03%
  • The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 0.11%
  • The Nasdaq Composite is up 0.11%

So what else will the stock market do today? Here are some of the top stories.

What Will the Stock Market Do Today? Talk China.

The last 48 hours have done a lot to rock confidence in Chinese equities.

Officials kicked things off yesterday by releasing a draft of new antitrust legislation aimed at curbing anticompetitive practices. This comes after top companies — like Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) and Tencent (OTCMKTS:TCEHY) — have found themselves in trouble with the government. In fact, antitrust woes forced Alibaba to halt its Ant Group IPO at the end of 2020. These new guidelines would prevent internet companies from blocking rival platforms and controlling user traffic.

Beyond anticompetitive practices, the use of consumer data has also been under scrutiny. Just days after its debut on the New York Stock Exchange, ride-hailing giant Didi (NYSE:DIDI) saw its app get removed from stores. This came after Chinese officials accused Didi of mishandling consumer data. Didi has since updated its management team and made improvements to driver pay.

Now, in addition to the draft antitrust legislation, China has published a list of 43 apps that break rules around transferring user data. This list includes WeChat, a Tencent app.

These latest regulatory moves follow up several others that have shaken U.S. investors. Education companies are quickly pivoting their business models in the face of regulation, and other Chinese companies have halted U.S. IPO plans. Chinese President Xi Jinping is also upping pressure on affluent individuals and companies to redistribute their wealth.

So what is the bottom line? Some famed investors like Cathie Wood have trimmed their exposure to Chinese stocks, and it seems more are about to do the same. However, not everyone on Wall Street is ready to give up. Ray Dalio says this is nothing more than short-term volatility. But perhaps the best path forward is to buy Chinese stocks that can survive regulatory threats. Here are three that stand out to InvestorPlace analyst Luke Lango now.

Vitalik Buterin Just Threw Dogecoin a Bone

Over the last two weeks, a handful of celebrities have ushered in a resurgence of interest in Dogecoin (CCC:DOGE-USD). The meme cryptocurrency saw prices stabilize, and saw bullish price targets of $1 once again come into focus. It turns out that Jack Dorsey, Elon Musk and Mark Cuban really are a powerful trio when it comes to DOGE.

However, long-term supporters are still eager for some real sustainability with Dogecoin. Its non-profit Dogecoin Foundation designed to support research and new projects eventually dissolved.

Now though, Ethereum (CCC:ETH-USD) co-founder Vitalik Buterin wants to help change that. Buterin has signed onto be an advisor of the new Dogecoin Foundation. Joining him will be Dogecoin developers, a representative of Musk, and even Billy Markus will be playing a role.

Importantly, the back-in-action Dogecoin Foundation wants to raise a multi-year budget to support longer-term projects. To start, these will mostly focus on building out its Core Wallet. As InvestorPlace Assistant News Writer Brenden Rearick put it, this combination of funding and expertise could take DOGE to the next level.

One more story to watch: Cryptocurrency prices may be experiencing great volatility these days, but in general, the market is moving up. A new index suggests that international crypto adoption is up 880% year-over-year. Users in Vietnam and Nigeria are leading the push, and Kate Marino wrote for Axios that “digital assets are becoming deeply embedded in the global financial system.”

What Else We’re Watching

On the date of publication, Sarah Smith did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.

Sarah Smith is the Editor of Today’s Market with InvestorPlace.com


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2021/08/what-will-the-stock-market-do-today-aug-18-3-big-stories-dogecoin-prices-chinese-stocks/.

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