Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - Bitcoin is back

After a series of collapses, scandals and one very high-profile federal conviction, crypto—and specifically Bitcoin—actually looks to be making a comeback. The funny money topped $42,000 for the first time in 19 months as frenzied speculation in cryptocurrencies (as if there were another kind) extended a rally in the largest digital token to more than 150% this year. Bitcoin rose as much as 6.1% on Monday in New York, on track for the biggest annual gain since 2020. Smaller tokens such as Ether and meme-crowd favorite Dogecoin also pushed higher. Bitcoin Cash jumped 8% and a gauge of the largest 100 crypto coins added more than 3.3%. So what’s driving this? Three letters: ETF. —Natasha Solo-Lyons and David E. Rovella

Wall Street kicked off the week with losses, with both stocks and bonds down in a signal that traders’ aggressive pricing of interest-rate cuts by the Federal Reserve may have gone too far. Here’s your markets wrap.

Spotify is cutting 17% of its workforce, marking at least the third time that the streaming service has carried out mass firings this year in an effort to shrink costs. Employees to be terminated were to be notified on Monday, the music streaming company said. Roughly 1,500 jobs are being eliminated, a spokesperson said.

Mark Zuckerberg is selling Meta stock for the first time in two years after the social media giant rebounded following a tumultuous 2022. The Meta co-founder’s trust as well as entities for his charitable and political giving unloaded about 682,000 shares worth almost $185 million.  

Mark Zuckerberg Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

Consulting giants and law firms are looking to artificial intelligence to speed up the time it takes junior staffers and associates to make partner as the technology eliminates vast swaths of repetitive, time-consuming tasks that typically fill up their first few years.

Israel is expanding its invasion into southern Gaza, putting at further risk hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who escaped the north during weeks of bombardment that leveled much of the area. US officials have voiced growing concern about the two-month war’s toll on civilian lives and have pleaded with Israel to make more of an effort to precisely target Hamas. Israel has killed almost 16,000 Palestinians and displaced close to 2 million, according to Gaza health authorities and the United Nations.

Bitcoin is a big deal in El Salvador. Investments in the digital asset there recently turned profitable, according to former President Nayib Bukele, who is running for election again. Bukele, who stepped down last week to focus on the campaign, said on social media that the country’s Bitcoin investments are up 2.84%, netting it $3.6 million in profit. 

Calls to tax assets in addition to income have grown since Democratic US Senator Elizabeth Warren ran for the White House on the issue in 2020. Even President Joe Biden’s 2024 budget requested a “billionaire minimum tax” to ease the federal deficit and reverse tax cuts for the wealthy amid spiraling costs for social and medical safety nets. But in a case set for argument Tuesday, the Republican-appointee controlled Supreme Court will consider whether the Constitution effectively precludes Congress from putting a levy on stock holdings, real estate and other wealth. And then there’s the issue of Samuel Alito, a newspaper article and a lawyer for the plaintiffs.

Samuel Alito Photographer: Alex Wong/Getty Images

• Alaska Air agrees to buy Hawaiian in $1.9 billion deal.
• US border asylum app has migrants waiting for months in danger.
• Here’s how to invest in gold as it hits an all-time high.
• How suspects laundered billions of dollars in Singapore for years.
• Harvard alums make $1 donations in rebuke over antisemitism.
• A J&J executive’s son died. That prompted a policy change at the top.
• A groundbreaking new restaurant opens with food rarely seen in NYC.

Holiday party season is upon us, and if you aren’t hosting your own (we’ve got you covered there), don’t show up empty-handed to wherever you’re invited. Any one of these easily shared gifts will make you the favorite guest: Here are the best wines and spirits to give as gifts this holiday season.

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