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Showing posts from August, 2019

A currency war officially started

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From the very beginning of his presidency, Trump complained about the strength of the dollar and that the main US trading partners are "robbing" Americans, gaining competitive advantages through artificially weakening their currencies. These accusations were made against Japan, and against Germany, and especially against China. Since the beginning of the tariff war with China, Trump has been relentlessly increasing criticism of the Fed, scaring the market with a currency war. By the way, while there is a tariff war with China, the US trade deficit with China is growing. China's response is effectively reducing US imports to China, but Trump's tariffs, as practice shows, can't effectively block Chinese imports to the United States. Chinese goods remain competitive in any event. Moreover, Chinese manufacturers bypass tariff barriers through third countries. This situation gave rise to the expectation of an aggressive Fed rate cut to weaken the dollar. Whe

Disney is leaning back

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The shareholders of the Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) have every reason to be disappointed with the company's latest quarterly report. The main negative point of this release was the end of profit growth, which previously pushed the company's shares to a record high. The Mickey House shares experienced its worst session almost four years after the company failed to live up to its earnings predictions for the quarter that opened the most anticipated theme park attraction in the company's history. The shares eased by almost 5%, although the company partially recouped the losses, completing trading at $ 137.89. The corporation's US fleet revenue dropped in the fourth quarter after the opening of the Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge theme zone in Anaheim, California, which failed to attract enough visitors by pulling the segment down. Another disappointment was the poor performance of the film division. Despite the releases of Avengers: The Finale (the highest-grossi

Denmark began issuing a mortgage for 20 years at 0%

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Mortgage rates in Denmark dropped to historic lows. For the first time in the country's history, a local bank offered a mortgage for 20 years at 0%. Another lender set a negative rate for 10-year loans - agreed to pay borrowers instead of taking interest from them. Nordea Bank Abp in Denmark declared that it would offer a 20-year mortgage loan with a zero fixed rate. In accordance with the bank representatives, this is the first such phenomenon in the banking history of the country. Before this, in early August, Denmark's largest mortgage lender Realkredit Danmark announced that it would launch a mortgage for 30 years at a rate of 0.5% annually. Moreover, this week, Jyske Bank, the top three banks in Denmark, announced that it would soon begin issuing a 10-year mortgage with a negative rate of -0.5% per annum. That is, the borrower will receive money from the bank instead of paying interest on the taken mortgage loan. The lending rate of the Central Bank of Denmark is 0.

Currency pair euro/dollar continues a rebounding

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At the morning trading, On Wednesday, August 7, the European currency is being traded-in positive territory, trying to win back the losses of the previous day. On Tuesday, the EUR / USD currency pair formed a downward movement during the trading session. In the first half of the day, a local minimum was set at 1.1167, and then the "Eurobbulls" managed to win back most of the losses. In accordance with critical macroeconomic statistics in Germany, industrial orders were published, which rose by 2.5% in June, while analysts had expected an increasing by 0.5%. At the same time, the May value was revised upward from -2.2% to -2%. No essential macroeconomic statistics have been published in the United States. The representative of the Fed, James Bullard made a statement Yesterday that for now, he did not see the conditions in order to reduce the interest rate by 0.5% at a time. He believes inflationary pressures continue declining, while the labor market remains stable. A

Why is Switzerland's “small-state” economy stronger, than the economics of “big” countries?

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A highly efficient economy, aimed at continuous innovative renewal, is in particularly intensive contact with Switzerland's political field. So how do specialties of the Swiss political system, and in particular federalism, push the economic development of the Confederation? The economy of such a small state as Switzerland needs favorable conditions to work out. It includes liberal economic legislation, as much as possible a moderate degree of government intervention in business, low taxes and a flexible system for their collection, well-developed infrastructure, as well as social and political stability. The Swiss economy initially developed in the face of a lack of natural resources. However, it was this adverse circumstance that became the factor that very early turned Switzerland into one of the most industrialized countries in the world. The lack of natural and other resources, human and intellectual have an ambiguous effect on the logic of economic behavior of economic e

Next successfully moved to the digital age

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Next's indicators are often considered as the "barometer" of the fashion sector in the UK. A new quarterly report of this company showed an excellent situation in the industry. The company's marks exceeded its forecasts. For the second quarter, Next's total sales gained by 4%, which turned out to be much better than its slight decrease, which the company itself had predicted. It happened even though Next sales in traditional stores reduced by 4.2%. Selling increased due to online sales, which jumped 12%. By mid-morning, of August 5, trading on the London Stock Exchange, Next shares (LON: NXT) became the growth leader among the stocks of companies covered by the FTSE index. Next shares value ramped up by 7.8%, although the FTSE index lost 0.3%. In other European markets, there is no precise dynamics of upsurge or decline before the announcement of the Fed decision and the press conference of Jerome Powell. After a sharp downfall on Tuesday, the Stoxx 600 i

Iran denominates its currency

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The Iranian government approved a plan for the denomination and renaming the rial, confirmed the head of the country's Central Bank Abdolnaser Hemmati. He already in January, proposed to remove four zeros from the Iranian currency. A spokesman for the Iranian government, Ali Rabiyi, told reporters in Tehran: "Today, the cabinet decided to remove four zeros from our currency and rename it to fog." This initiative is caused by severe economic difficulties and the necessity to facilitate cash payments. The Iranian rial has dashingly lost its value, since last year. If three years ago, its rate was 37 thousand to 1-dollar, last year the Iranian currency was trading at the rate of 180 thousand rials to the dollar. It happened after President Donald Trump announced the unilateral withdrawal of the US from the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran and the resumption of tough sanctions against Tehran. At the Iranian currency exchange offices arose huge queues. After it th

Apple, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft Union

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In 2018, a data transfer project was launched to create an open-source inter-service data portability platform so that all users on the Internet could quickly transfer their data between online service providers at any time. The project was launched and introduced by Google on July 20, 2018, and partnered with Facebook, Microsoft, and Twitter. Almost a year after the official launch, the Data Transfer Project (DTP) announces new partners and functions. Today Apple has joined the project to develop a compatible iCloud data input and output system from the project. Also, several alternative social networks have joined the DTP, including Mastadon. The participants in the Data Transfer Project believe that mobility and interoperability are crucial for innovation. Simplifying individual choice of services facilitate competition, allows people to try new services, and allows them to choose the offer that suits best their needs. It mainly consisted of code to ensure compatibility of