Category: Story of Interest

By Nathan Reiff In the ever-changing world of cryptocurrencies, Craig Wright has become something of a fixture. The 46-year old computer scientist, who claims to have invented Bitcoin, has garnered both massive praise and skeptical criticism from those on different sides of the industry. Regardless of Wright’s own involvement in the earliest stages of Bitcoin, however, his work since then has been the focus of at least one company. nChain Holdings, a tech company based on Wright’s research, has been sold off to private investors. What could the sale of this company to a private equity firm mean for the future of blockchain and cryptocurrencies? Biggest Blockchain Deal Yet According to reporting by Reuters, the sale of nChain Holdings to High Tech Private Equity Fund SICAV, PLC was the largest deal involving blockchain technology-focused companies to date. The private equity fund, based in Malta, purchased the so-called “world leader in blockchain-centric … Continue reading Self-Declared Bitcoin Creator Sees Company He Inspired Sold to Private Equity

By: Stephen Smegal How is our Economy actually doing? It would appear that our economy is doing well because there is so much positivity and optimism, backed by the red hot real estate market valuations. Also aided by consumer confidence, which has soared to a 16 year high in a Conference Board poll released this week. In addition, small business owners and CEO’s of the top US companies have also shown stronger optimism now than at any time in the last seven years. So there should be no doubt that the economy is hot right? Optimism is not the same as hard quantifiable economic facts. There is a difference between what people feel about the economy and hard quantifiable economic stats about the economy. Quantifiable stats are actually saying that the economy finished last year growing at just a 2.1% annualized rate, which would make it one of the weakest … Continue reading Spreading Confidence

Yuxin Liang On March 8th, WTI crude oil price hit 3-month low and dropped 5.4% from $53.14 to $50.28 due to increase in crude oil inventories reported by American Petroleum Institution (API) and Energy Information Administration (EIA). The energy sector plummeted 2.5% on March 8th, it was the biggest drop in six months. The oil price crashed in March is inevitable. The API reported 11.6 million barrels of the week of March 3rd crude oil inventories on March 7th afternoon. It largely exceed market estimation and previous weekly data 1.66 million barrels and 2.502 million barrels respectively. API cumulatively recorded 35 million barrels increased since the first week of 2017. The EIA crude inventories increased for eight weeks consecutively. It released that it surged 8.2 million barrels exceed expectation by 2 million barrels. In terms of the production side, US production level recorded at 9,088,000 barrels per day that are … Continue reading Where is the future of crude oil?

By: Ramjeet Brar Recently in an article by Reuters, many outcomes of the Feds new outlook under the Trump Administration were presented. The Federal Reserve is planning on increasing its interest rates that are supported by the U.S. Dollar. Moreover, with the new Trump Administration, new plans are going to be set in place. One particular change might be a reduction in drug prices, shortly after Trump tweeted about this change, shares of Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) and Amgen Inc (AMGN.O) had dropped by approximately over 1%. The US dollar has also been increasing against other major currencies such as the British Pound (GBP) and Swiss Franc (CHF), which the US dollar saw increases of 0.29 and 0.14 against respectively. Likewise, with the strong US dollar, US Treasury yields have also seen an increase and many investors are anticipating a Fed rate hike soon. The monthly U.S. job report also had … Continue reading What will be the future of the US economy under President Trump

Week of March 10 Yuxin Liang On March 8th, WTI crude oil price hit 3-month low and dropped 5.4% from $53.14 to $50.28 due to increase in crude oil inventories reported by American Petroleum Institution (API) and Energy Information Administration (EIA). The energy sector plummeted 2.5% on March 8th, it was the biggest drop in six months. The oil price crashed in March is not evitable. The API reported 11.6 million barrels of the week of March 3rd crude oil inventories on March 7th afternoon. It largely exceed market estimation and previous weekly data 1.66 million barrels and 2.502 million barrels respectively. API cumulatively recorded 35 million barrels increased since the first week of 2017. The EIA crude inventories increased for eight weeks consecutively. It released that it surged 8.2 million barrels exceed expectation by 2 million barrels. In terms of the production side, US production level recorded at 9,088,000 … Continue reading is oil ready for another crash?

By: Alexander Karpenko On Wednesday, November 30th, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agreed to cut production for the first time since the 2008 Financial Crisis. The announcement signals a shift in OPEC’s stance, which over the past two years has focused on expanding market share, returning to its traditional role of managing markets. The agreement calls for a cut of 1.2 million barrels per day (mbpd) for six months, beginning 1 January 2017, conditional on non-OPEC countries such as Brazil, Mexico, and Russia cutting an additional 600,000 bpd of production. The details of the 600,000 bpd cut are scheduled to be finalized between OPEC and non-OPEC members in a meeting on December 10th.   While the announcement has lifted prices in the near-term, with West Texas Intermediate (WTI) closing at $51.63/bbl on Friday, recent changes to market fundamentals could significantly mitigate OPEC’s ability to influence prices in the … Continue reading Although an OPEC agreement has been reached, future obstacles remain

  Stocks have rallied since the U.S. election and surprised even the most steadfast of bulls. The S&P Bank index has posted an unprecedented +20.4% gain since President elect Trump gave his victory speech. The Russell 2000 posted a gain of +16% in two weeks. Such a rally is absolutely unheard of (at least in the recent past). The question here is – will this rally last? Or is the market sentiment too bullish? As the markets enter the final phase of the year, uncertainty remains high and no one seems to know how the near term will play out. So what does one expect in the weeks to come? Let’s assess the S&P 500 for a moment (SPX currently: 2,213.35 (+0.39%), Nov 25th). Market pundits are already warning that the period of panic buying is set to end. Indeed, the market does seem overbought, however, it might be prudent to … Continue reading Trumponomics: Why the current rally may not last!

The market’s view on Trump pre and post-election; a logical reassessment? While watching CNBC post-election, the pundits on Fast Money were guiding the public on where to invest in a “Trump World.” The consensus was not “outside of America,” which is somewhat surprising considering the sky was falling as votes were being tallied on November 9th, and the over-animated real-estate billionaire was assuming the most powerful position on earth. CNBC’s recommendations sparked questions about the market consensus on Mr. Trump before the election versus after, and the question are: could the markets have better priced a Trump victory, and is their bullish reassessment correct? A few high level reasons why the markets had a bearish outlook on a Trump presidency: No precedent for a Trump-like presidency which possesses uncertainty due to Trump’s lack of experience in public office, perceived lack of temperament and judgment. Markets cannot properly forecast results, causing … Continue reading Marketwatch Story of Interest

Where is the future of crude oil? On April 1, 2016, crude oil tumbled more than 4 percent on Friday, after a Saudi prince reportedly said the kingdom will not freeze output without Iran and other major producers doing so, and data showed the global crude glut was likely to grow. On the other hand, the dollar (.DXY) firmed after stronger-than-expected U.S. jobs data. Stronger dollar will absolutely affect the crude oil price even drive it go down further. Today’s crash has shown that the weak confidence of investors. So where the crude oil price would go in the future? I will share idea about crude oil price. At the beginning, let go over the 3 month crude oil price performance first. In this three month, oil price looks like on a roller coaster. It movement path is just like a “w”. At the beginning of this year, affected by … Continue reading Where is the future of crude oil?