I still talk a lot about blockchain, distributed ledgers, cryptocurrencies and more, but often feel it’s falling on deaf ears. The price of bitcoin flies around in the $7,000 a coin bracket, having risen from a tenth of that amount a year ago; and many people talk about blockchain and distributed ledger interchangeably, as did…
Odds are you’re going to be seeing a LOT of your family of the next week (and possibly month), and the discuss of retirement planning may come up in one of those many discussions. One of the main things that family and friend like to ask me about are ETFs — a simple and effective…
Previous: On Monday the 20th of November, trading on the euro/dollar pair closed down. The euro was under pressure from the off due to the fact that German chancellor Angela Markel has failed to reach an agreement with other parties to form a coalition government. After a drop to 1.1722 (-73 pips), the euro hit a…
Four Pillars of GDP: Driven by private consumption Taiwan’s GDP has been growing at a slow pace of late, 2.4% in the most recent quarter. Private consumption and investment have been the main contributors to GDP growth, but exports have put a slight drag on overall growth. Good profitability and the highest dividend in Asia…
Industrial metals such as iron, aluminum, and copper are essential to regular technology and infrastructure. President Trump’s promise to go on an infrastructure binge naturally gave a boost to the price of industrial metals. Growth in U.S. GDP and continued improvement in end-use sectors like automotive, aerospace, construction and packaging also bode well for metals. In fact,…
Oil prices were fairly stable on Tuesday despite predictions that U.S. output would climb more quickly than expected, causing perhaps as much as an 18 percent increase in active rigs in 2018. Energy consultancy FGE said on Tuesday morning that the production cuts by OPEC and its non-member partners could reduce the stocks surplice to approximately…
The Pension Crisis is brewing rapidly and we will begin to see this make headlines much more so around the world. There is hardly a country not in trouble (Norway the exception), where pensions are underfunded as governments have relied upon tax revenue. As the crisis in Spain brews, it will be the pension crisis…
Crude oil prices paused to consolidate amid a lull in top-tier news flow, as expected. The weekly API inventory flow report is now in focus. Official EIA statistics due on Wednesday as expected to show a 1.7 million barrel drawdown and this release will be judged against that baseline. A larger outflow is likely to boost prices while a smaller…
The gold versus Bitcoin debate is complex, nuanced and still in its embryonic stages when put into the perspective of gold’s known 2,700-year use as money versus Bitcoin’s very modest eight-year track record. From a pure investment perspective, as the following Bloomberg chart shows, Bitcoin has obviously “wiped the floor” with its esteemed rival and,…
USD/CAD is facing 1.2819 resistance once again. A breakout of this level could take price towards 1.2916 previous high. Near-term support is at the rising trend line on the 4-hour chart. Only a clear break below the trend line will indicate that the short-term uptrend from 1.2666 is complete, then deeper decline to test 1.2666…
