India has, in the past, been called the “next China” for possessing some of the same growth potential and investment opportunities. The truthfulness of this claim was supported recently when Chinese authorities began cracking down on its tech sector giants, prompting investors to look elsewhere for a more reliable home for their money. Coincidently, Indian tech...
The price of oil dropped 13% on Friday (26/11/21), marking the commodities worst single day in 2021.
A drop in oil prices this large was last seen in January/February 2020, when WTI was making its way down to unprecedented negative per barrel territory. No one expects oil to veer this low again, but the comparison to 2020 is apt, with Coronavirus responsible for...
Two recent stock events have called into question how markets are pricing stocks. The first event is the OG meme stock, Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), hitting a one trillion-dollar market cap. And the second event is EV newcomer Rivian Automotive (NASDAQ: RIVN), surpassing the valuation of Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) after listing on the NASDAQ.
One way to gauge how...
Some interesting factors are currently affecting commodity prices. Supply chain bottlenecks, unpredictable demand from economies reopening, geo-political tensions, climate change policies are just a few examples.
I find it helpful to review the state of the commodities market periodically. In this article, we will examine Lumber, Cash Crops, and Iron Ore.
...
From mid-September until the end of October, Iron Ore appeared to have found a safe space above US $100. Now, after a steep decline beginning October 27, 2021, Iron Ore has started to test May 2020 lows, close to US $90 per metric tonne. The commodity is grating against predictions by ANZ Bank (ASX: ANZ) for it to “find a floor around current levels”.
Demand (or...
Since we last checked in on the South African Rand (ZAR) in June 2021, the currency was appreciating toward multi-year highs of 13.37 ZAR per US dollar, previously not seen since January 2019. In the proceeding five months, leading up to the present, the USD has staged a comeback against the South African currency and is now level with the average exchange value...
With its back up against a wall, the US Federal Reserve has pledged to begin tapering its asset purchase program. Beginning later this month, the Federal Reserve will reduce the number of US Treasury Securities it purchases each month by US $10 billion and the number of Mortgage-Backed Securities by US $5 billion.
How did the USD react to the Federal Reserve...
What do we know about the Metaverse?
The Metaverse is a concept (for now). A concept that has motivated Facebook to change its branding to Meta and begin developing the infrastructure of a meta-universe. The drastic pivot that Facebook is attempting to pull off, the Company hopes, will put it at the forefront of the internet’s “next frontier”, just as it was a...
As of writing, the DXY is trading at 93.355, down by 0.50% on Thursday trading.
GDP growth in the US may be contributing to this 4-week low in the dollar index. GDP growth missed expectations for Q3 2021, reporting in at 2.0% rather than the expected 2.7%. Q3’s GDP growth represents the lowest value reported for this data point since the US began to recover from...
Last Wednesday, Former US President Donald Trump announced the creation of his Media Company, Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) as well as its planned merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ: DWAC).
Within four days, the NASDAQ-listed DWAC stock had grown by 740%. At the close of the Monday trading day (25/10/21), DWAC was trading at US $83.86....
Q3 earning season is currently underway, and most high-profile companies are delivering revenue beats. Yet, Q3 revenue is not the only thing investors are watching. Investors are interested in revenue growth, customer acquisition, and pace of growth alongside the balance sheet. Inflationary and supply chain pressures that may affect the outlook of reporting...
Inflation data from outside the US should pique traders interest this week. Several major economies will be reporting on actual inflation figures experienced during September 2021.
Will they match their forecasted values, or will the data follow US inflation and surprisingly creep upward?
Who should be watching the inflation data?
Traders of the Great...
As a trader, it’s a general rule of thumb that we should always be looking to maximise potential returns (per unit of risk) with each transaction. We should always be looking to squeeze as much out of the market as we can.
There are times when this can occur by simply letting the trade run its course. However, sometimes market conditions align perfectly for savvy...
The Nonfarm Payroll (aka, NFP report) is making a habit of missing its forecast by wide margins. September’s NFP rolled on Friday, revealing that a meagre 194K jobs had been added to the US economy last month. Perhaps the NFP report wouldn’t have been as disappointing had forecasts not predicted September added 500K jobs for the month.
Job growth held to...
It is hard to find a positive word about Facebook (NASDAQ FB), possibly for a good reason.
As the dominant social media platform, it has experienced its fair share of controversy and accusations of impropriety since its inception in 2004. Controversies that readily come to mind include misusing user data and helping bad-faith actors interfere with US elections....
Traders that have taken a long position on Natural Gas will have been feeling lighter than air for the better part of 2021. Remarkably, the trading price of Natural Gas has rocketed up 115% since the beginning of the year, outperforming price increases in other commodities currently sitting close to record highs, Oats (up by 63.83% YTD), Copper (up by 19.65% YTD),...
The Tadawul All Share Index (TASI), which tracks the performance of all stock listed on The Tadawul, has recorded a 30.34% increase since the beginning of 2021.
However, the TASI is sitting at a peak level, which appears to be a repetition of the previous boom and bust cycle. The TASI was in a comparable position in late 2014 and late 2007, before wiping out more...
The New Zealand dollar against the U.S. dollar is facing a critical fundamental event tomorrow: RBNZ's Interest Rate decision. New Zealand has been fortunate that the government's decision to go "hard and fast" has meant citizens have had relative freedom through Christmas and New Years'.
The NZD/USD is currently sitting at around 0.732, up around 1.37% over the...
