Stock market news today August 10

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Global stocks are getting slammed and major currencies
are going haywire on a wild Friday in markets

A slew of unnerving headlines this week from the United Kingdom,
Russia, and Turkey has culminated in a wild Friday for global
markets.

Turkey is front and center of the chaos on Friday, with its
currency plunging to a record low against the US
dollar. A diplomatic tussle between the US and its NATO ally
deepened Friday after President Donald Trump said he had
authorized the doubling of tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminum.

The turmoil in Turkey raised fears over what it means for the
eurozone, sparking a sell-off in bank stocks and other assets in
the region.

Facebook has talked to crypto project Stellar about its
blockchain efforts

Facebook is speaking with a number of crypto projects
as it explores ways in which it can use blockchain
technology.

In recent months, Facebook’s blockchain team, led by former
PayPal executive David Marcus, has met with open source payments
technology company Stellar about some of those opportunities,
people familiar with the talks told Business Insider. While the
talks were early stage, they could shed light onto Facebook’s
ambitions to push into finance and take on big banks.

2018 is shaping up to be a record year for private
investing

In Silicon Valley, startups valued at $1 billion or more are
nicknamed “unicorns” because originally they were so few and far
between.

But
according to new data from Crunchbase, 2018 is
quickly diminishing the rarity of the unicorn status: After the
first seven months of the year, 65 companies are already newly
minted unicorns.

If the trend continues, 2018 will be a record-making year for
billion-dollar companies.

In markets news