World leaders will gather once again this year in Davos, for the World Economic Forum. Even Donald Trump, president of the United States will join other leaders to discuss future economic growth. Five other leaders of the G7 will be in Davos as well. Macron and Merkel will join as well, and also several CEO's of banks will give 'acte de presence', like Jamie Dimon from JP Morgan. Hot topics on the agenda will be: 'fake news', the climate (US leaving Paris convention) and sustainability of the economic growth. One of the main beneficiaries of OPEC-led production cuts is the producers' major competitor, U.S. shale oil. U.S. oil producers are staging a dramatic comeback amid a recovering oil price that has allowed many of them to restart operations. The latest monthly report from the IEA comes at a time when crude futures have climbed to highs not seen since the early days of a slump in December 2014. Brent crude futures hit a peak of $70.37 a barrel on Monday, with the global benchmark since paring some of its recent gains to trade at $68.69 on Friday morning. Apple has pledged to invest more than $30bn to expand its American operations in the wake of last month’s US tax cut, even as it makes an estimated $38bn one-off tax payment on the repatriation of its overseas profits. Breaking up is hard to do -- and so is talking about it. General Electric shares dipped below the $17 mark for the first time since 2011 a day after the industrial conglomerate revealed it was looking at shedding more parts of its sprawling corporate empire. Talks on a bipartisan US immigration deal have been thrown into turmoil after reports that Donald Trump asked why people from “shithole countries” were being allowed to enter America. In comments cited by US media, Mr Trump was also said to have told lawmakers that America should instead be welcoming more immigrants from countries such as Norway. Worldwide interest rates are rising, but in the UK the Gilts remain on the current low yields. Uncertainty about the Brexit makes investors anxious about what the British economy can do in the near future. The economy isn't showing signs of retracement, and also the BOE is planning to increase rates, but the markets doesn't buy it at this moment. In the currency markets as well, it seems silent with the EUR-GBP trading just shy of 0.90 for several months now. Analists still believe the BOE will raise rates more than once in 2018, which might bring the yield of Gilts in the same direction as bunds and treasuries. Shares in Kodak, the photography company that has struggled to keep pace with changing technology, more than doubled on Tuesday after the 129-year-old group announced it was launching a blockchain business. The New York state-based company announced it was partnering with WENN Digital, part of the London-headquartered WENN media group, to create an encrypted digital ledger of ownership rights for photographers, using blockchain, the technology that underpins cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. Japan’s Topix index on Friday closed at its highest level since late-1991, continuing a powerful global equities rally in the first trading week of 2018, prompting a renowned critic of market bubbles to warn that investors should prepare for a “melt-up”. The FTSE All World index has added 2 per cent since traders and investors returned from the new year holiday, extending 2017’s rise of 22 per cent — the fourth-best year since the benchmark started in 1993. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose above the 25,000 level as Wall Street opened on Thursday and the S&P 500 pushed further into record territory with a gain of 0.4 per cent. Surging technology share prices on Tuesday propelled the Nasdaq Composite past the 7,000 level for the first time. Buoyed by the passage of tax reform late last month, Wall Street analysts have upgraded earnings estimates for S&P 500 companies, while oil’s rally to its highest level since May 2015 has been a boon for energy shares — which have led the US benchmark over the past month. The economy is growing worldwide, and it's visible as well in the global debt levels. Last year it hit a record high of $233 trillion. It must be noted that due to strong economic growth the debt / GDP levels have fallen the last few quarters. China is still leading the way with growing debt levels, with debt / GDP of almost 300%! However the strongest growth in debts seems in the past. The biggest risks are seen, by the IMF, in the maturing $-debt in Brazil, China and Russia in 2018, which might not be reinvested. The price of oil has a great beginning of 2018. Prices went above $60 a barrel, which was partly due to the unrest in Iran. Also the production cuts of OPEC gave the price of oil, and also the share prices of oil producers, a headstart in 2018. Several investment banks raised their oil price targets already. We're still far away from the prices of over $100 a barrel, last recorded in 2014. |
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March 2021
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