Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day

All eyes on the debut of Bitcoin futures, central bank decisions from the Fed, ECB and BOE this week and China’s continuing crackdown on the debt binge. Here are some of the things people in markets are talking about.

Trading in bitcoin futures began at 8:00a.m. Tokyo time, with Cboe Global Markets becoming the first major exchange to offer the contracts pegged to the cryptocurrency. Fewer than 120 January contracts traded in the first seven minutes of trading, with the price getting as high as 16,660 before slipping below 16,000. Bitcoin itself spiked briefly as the futures opened, nearly reaching $16,000. The virtual currency, which has divided opinions among executives and central bankers worldwide about its legitimacy as an asset, has been on a wild ride in the past two weeks and at one point flirted with the $20,000 level. Cameron Winklevoss, said to be one of the largest holders, predicted it will rise as much as 20-fold as investors come to view it as an upgrade to gold. Meanwhile, New Zealand central bank governor Grant Spencer warned the gains resemble a speculative bubble and it's too unstable to be useful in the future. Similar contracts start trading in a week on CME Group, another Chicago-based exchange, in a test of whether institutional money will go after bitcoin, which so far has mainly lured individual investors.