Looking to the financial markets it is always a human game. Fear and greed are always present. In these last periods we can note two human sentiments facing each other: on the one hand, increasing optimism, which is an anticipation of future greed: stock markets continue to rise steadily with such low volatility that the market’s fractality has been temporarily replaced by an incredible linearity.
The European equity indexes are delivering bullish signals in these early sessions of 2018, even if some weakness at the end of last year gave room to concerns regarding the persistence of the trend.
The European markets, which performances have been generally positive but much less euphoric than those of Wall Street, have been laggards in 2017. Rather than a linear uptrend, like that of the U.S. benchmarks, the main equity indexes in Europe were roller coasters along the year. A corrective wave during the summer corresponded to the sharp rally of the Euro against the U.S. Dollar and this is not a coincidence: a stronger currency, as everyone knows, does not help the stock market.
I am closing this year with a piece dedicated to a promiseful but sneaky Supersector about which I have already discussed in two previous articles (see note 1).
Let’s start with the promiseful side: in mid May, I wrote about the STOXX Supersector Europe 600 Basic Resources Index, and the possibility for this Index to continue an intermediate uptrend after the end of a retracement period that started in late February (1).
China has dominated global issuance of "green" bonds for two straight years – a trend that will likely continue as the world’s top carbon-emitter tries to play a larger role to contain climate change.
The Asian economic giant burst onto the scene in 2016 to take the crown as the world’s largest issuer of green bonds – a debt instrument with proceeds that are used to finance activities that benefit the environment. China is set to retain its top spot in 2017.
Cryptocurrency bitcoin tumbled below $14,000 briefly on the Bitstamp exchange on Friday, down roughly 30 per cent from its record top near $20,000 set at the start of the week.
The cryptocurrency which became sensational all over media reached as high as $19,666 on Sunday but dropped after the launch of giant CME Group’s bitcoin futures. The cryptocurrency was about $1,000 in the year’s beginning.
The Long Island Ice Tea Corporation is exactly what it sounds like: a company that sells people bottled iced tea and lemonade. But today the company announced a significant change of strategy that would start with changing its name to "Long Blockchain Corporation."
Virtual currency investment firm Crypto Finance has closed a €13 million capital raise to fund an application for the license with Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), but did not specify a timeline. Established in June this year, the company provides asset management, brokerage and storage facilities to the crypto-investing community.
It is one of a wave of startups looking to create an alternative financial system in Switzerland as the country’s traditional banks continue to shy away from the booming cryptocurrency market.
The chairman of Swiss banking giant UBS said in an interview published Sunday that he does not consider the soaring cryptocurrency bitcoin as money and called for regulators to intervene.
"In my opinion, bitcoins are not money," Axel Weber, chairman of Swiss financial giant UBS, said in an interview to Swiss news agency NZZ am Sonntag on Sunday.
