With the financially crippling impact of student debt long been known of, and measures routinely suggested from governments and universities to lessen the load, it seems hard in some respects to believe that the amount of debt people are graduating with is actually on the sharp incline, but there are several reasons that could explain why this well documented problem has been allowed to worsen over the years. Rising interest rates and inflation From September 2017, interest on student loans taken out in England was raised to 6.1%. This equates to an additional cost of £5,800 for the average undergraduate. Student loans were once famed...
China banned the popular practice of raising funds by launching token-based digital currencies, a move which directly targeted initial coin offerings (ICOs), which have become increasingly popular in the past year. According to reports, this ban was the first of what is expected to be a series of regulatory controls implemented on cryptocurrencies. To date, $2.32 billion has been raised through ICOs worldwide, with $2.216 percent of that being raised in 2017 alone. Ethereum, the cryptocurrency of choice for token-issuers, plummeted on the news, down nearly 20 percent on Tuesday to $283, after starting the decline on Monday afternoon. Bitcoin ...
XAU/USD swung between gains and losses after opening with a gap up and ended the day with minor losses. Gold has been supported by tensions on the Korean Peninsula and the recent volatility in world stock markets. Asian equities and the U.S. dollar index are slightly lower on Tuesday. The U.S. economic calendar is relatively light this week but it is full of Fed speakers. From a chart perspective, the medium-term trend continues to favor the upside. The market is above the weekly and the daily Ichimoku clouds and the Tenkan-sen (nine-period moving average, red line) and the Kijun-sen (twenty six-period moving average, green line) are positive...
GBP/USD 4 hour The GBP/USD is building a corrective bullish channel (red/blue lines). The bullish price action is probably part of a wave 2 pattern (red). A break above the resistance (orange) could see price start an impulsive wave C (purple), which challenges the top of the channel as it expands the ABC correction (purple). 1 hour The GBP/USD is building a bearish correction within the bullish channel which could find support at the Fibonacci levels of wave B vs A. The wave B (purple) is most likely seeing an extension after a clear 5 wave up as wave A (purple). Once wave B is completed, a 5 wave pattern for a wave C is expected. EUR/USD 4 ...
Recently, Walmart has been delving into the world of aspirational retail, having had discussions with the cosmetics subscription, Birchbox, about a potential buyout. Whether they knew it or now, it says a lot about the American economy, according to a recent piece by Business Insider. Over the past few months, Walmart has made investments in several trendy online retailers…why? They are hoping to attract a whole new market: rich people. Well, perhaps not “rich,” but more upper-middle-class individuals who shop from trendy places like Birchbox but wouldn’t consider shopping at Walmart. This is a pretty tall order thoug...
The biggest news story in Week 5 of August 2017 was the ongoing aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in Houston, Texas, which in addition to being almost at the center of damage produced by the natural disaster, is the fourth largest city in the United States and also the defacto capital of the nation’s energy industry. Surprisingly, the S&P 500 performed slightly better than our dividend futures-based forecasting model anticipated during the week, assuming that investors remain largely focused on the distant future quarter of 2018-Q2 in setting today’s stock prices. In response to the Hurricane Harvey, the CME Group’s Fe...
In this article, we take another look at a somewhat obscure indicator “implied correlations”. The Implied Correlation Index comes from the CBOE and is a sister index to the much more popular VIX or implied volatility index (with cousins, VVIX – implied volatility of the VIX, and SKEW – tail risk indicator). Each of these indicators have their own particular merits for use by market analysts looking at timing and tactical decision making, and I’ll talk about how to use the implied correlation index here. The chart appeared in the latest edition of the Weekly Macro Themes. And here’s the chart: implied corre...
The opioid epidemic isn’t the only public-health crisis costing the economy hundreds of billions of dollars. According to the Trust for America’s Health’s annual “State of Obesity” report, nearly 40% of American adults are obese or overweight. And collectively, they will add some $150 billion to the cost of health care, and billions more in lost productivity. Obesity rates have finally stabilized after having nearly tripled since the CDC first began tracking them in 1960. They’ve doubled since the 1980s. Particularly problematic is childhood obesity, which is correlated with poor performance and school and other factors that c...
Stock markets in India are presently trading near the dotted line with positive bias. Sectoral indices are trading on a mixed note with stocks in the consumer durables sector and realty sector witnessing maximum buying interest. Telecom stocks are trading in the red. The BSE Sensex is trading up 59 points (up 0.2%) and the NSE Nifty is trading up 21 points (up 0.2%). The BSE Mid Cap index is trading up by 0.5%, while the BSE Small Cap index is trading up by 0.9%. The rupee is trading at 64.12 to the US$. In the news from IPO sector, two IPOs viz. Dixon Technologies and Bharat Road Network are headed to the market with their ini...
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics released the monthly payrolls report for August. Coming off the recent private sector hiring published by the ADP, the markets were slightly disappointing. According to official data, nonfarm payrolls rose 156,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis. This was below consensus estimates of 180,000. Past revisions for June and July saw the payroll numbers being revised down by a net 41,000. The unemployment rate which was projected to remain steady at 4.4% also ticked higher to 4.4%. The average hourly earnings also came out soft, rising just 0.2% on the month and putting the year over year wage growth at a steady 2....