Maiden trading of bitcoins started on December 10. This resulted in a steep rise in the digital currency price. Heavy traffic caused an outage on the website of the exchange provider. The contract in bitcoins with a January expiry date opened at $15,000. It went up to $16,660 within the trading's first six months. It then dropped and rebounded. According to Alex Wijaya, participants in the market are interested in the rise of bitcoin. There is a fair chance that profits from stocks sold in Asian markets could be re-invested in this cryptocurrency. Wijaya heads AxiCorp Financial Services with responsibilities over the southeastern Asia region.

When it came to stocks, the latter went up higher both in Asia and in Europe on December 11. The second week of December is all set to be a busy week as it will be invariably influenced by policy decisions scheduled to be taken by three important central banks. Inflation also got fresh readings. There was a 0.1 percent upswing in Stoxx Europe 600 during early trading. This was the best week from July.

Futures hinted at an opening gain of 0.2 percent for Standard & Poor 500 after there was a rebound in technology shares. A better-than-anticipated hiring assisted to lift the US indexes. The latter achieved weekly gains on December 8.

The FTSE 100 showed better results compared to other European indexes. It went up 0.6 percent as British pound went south a little -0.1 percent- to $1.3370. This loss only deepened the losses of the GBP. The pound went down on December 8 as well.

If forecasts by analysis come true, then trading will be quiet during the earlier part of the second week of December. This calm is expected to persist until policy statements are made by European Central Bank, Federal Reserve, and Bank of England. According to strategists, the Federal Reserve will stick to the present plans. Rates will go up gradually by about three times within 2018. There could, however, be concerns about the continued low inflation. Flattening of the US yield curve will send an increasing number of cautionary signals to Federal Reserve. Asian stocks gained strength on December 11 post a quiet start.

The banking sector went up 0.6 percent in Europe. This pushed the index north. Steinhoff International Holdings shares spiked 14 percent post a downfall of 86 percent after there was a disclosure of highly possible irregularities in accounting.