IP E-Game seeks digital banking license

LISTED IP E-Game Ventures, Inc. announced on Wednesday that it is applying for a digital banking license with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

IP E-Game authorized the Mario A. Oreta and Partners law firm to apply for its digital banking license with the BSP and other pertinent agencies, the company said in a disclosure to the stock exchange.

The company announced in January its plan to engage in the financial technology (fintech) business.

IP E- Game, which was formed to engage in the business of gaming, entertainment, and content distribution, among others, is also changing its corporate name to Oasis Financial Group, Inc.

The listed firm also used to engage in the business of hotel, tourism, leisure, food and beverage.

The company likewise plans to engage in venture capital investment, financing, P2P, remittances, and foreign exchange, among others.

“The change in corporate name and purpose is in relation to the corporation’s plans to transform the company into a company engaged in financial technology,” it said on Jan. 26. Also on Wednesday, the company announced the resignation of Jaime C. Gonzalez, chairman and member of its board of directors.

“Due to the current pandemic situation, Mr. Jaime C. Gonzalez would like to lessen his increased load of multiple corporate responsibilities,” the company said in a separate disclosure.

Juan Kevin G. Belmonte was elected as the new chairman.

Mr. Belmonte is the president and chief executive officer of Philstar Global Corp., the owner and operator of Philstar.com.

He previously served as director of IP E-Game.

NEW YORK — Wall Street reversed course late Tuesday, with the S&P 500 and the Dow whipsawing to positive territory by the closing bell in a tug-of-war between stocks that thrived amid lockdowns and those that stand to benefit most from a reopening economy.

The Nasdaq was the only major US stock index to lose ground on the day.

Market-leading growth stocks, which thrived amid pandemicrelated lockdowns, weighed on stocks for much of the day as investors favored shares that stand to gain most as ongoing vaccine deployment allows economic restrictions to be lifted.

“People are buying the dip, a move that’s been rewarded for months in a one-sided market,” said Dennis Dick, head of market structure and a proprietary trader at Bright Trading LLC.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell pushed back against concerns that the central bank’s economic support increased the risk of spiraling inflation, and insisted that the central bank’s accommodative monetary policy would remain in place for “some time.”

Testifying before the Senate Banking Committee, Mr. Powell said the economic recovery was “uneven and far from complete,” adding that investors are mostly responding to an anticipated rebound as vaccine deployment curbs the pandemic.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 15.66 points or 0.05% to 31,537.35, the S&P 500 gained 4.87 points or 0.13% to 3,881.37 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 67.85 points or 0.5% to 13,465.20.

Of the 11 major sectors in the S&P 500, seven closed in positive territory, but consumer discretionary and tech shares suffered the largest percentage losses.

Tesla, Inc. lost 2.2% to close in negative territory for the year, pulled down amid the tech selloff and falling bitcoin, which lost 12.0%. Tesla recently invested $1.5 billion in the cryptocurrency.

Cryptocurrency miners Riot Blockchain, Inc. and Marathon Patent Group, Inc. plunged 24.6% and 23.0%, respectively, while bitcoin bank Silvergate Capital Corp. slid 20.1%.

Home improvement retailer Home Depot, Inc. posted betterthan-expected quarterly earnings. But it cast doubt on whether spiking sales, driven by homebound consumers taking on do-it-yourself projects amid COVID lockdowns, are sustainable going forward. Its shares were the heaviest drag on the Dow, falling 3.1%.

Smaller rival Lowe’s Companies, Inc., expected to report its results early Wednesday, also lost ground.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) by a 1.59to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.58-to-1 ratio favored decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 51 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 171 new highs and 54 new lows.

Volume on US exchanges was 16.52 billion shares, compared with the 16.06 billion average over the last 20 trading days.