America

Venezuela is at risk of default: according to a recent report of the rating agency Moody’s, is "highly unlikely" that Venezuela has this year of foreign currency sufficient to meet its payments. The default would hit before the state oil company, PDVSA, followed by the Caracas government.

The situation in the country is very serious and in all respects. The International Monetary Fund now estimates that GDP will fall by 8% this year and that inflation will rise to 480%. Foreign exchange reserves have fallen to $ 12 billion, the lowest level since 2003, of which perhaps just 1.5 to 2.0 billion are readily liquid.

Microsoft has officially announced its partnership with Kind, a US start-up, to launch, on the market, software that keeps track of the marijuana plants from seed to sale within the legal market.

"We believe that in the area there will be significant growth. With industry regulations, there will be more transactions and we believe there will be more sophisticated requirements and tools ", to be respected and to develop, Kimberly Nelson says, responsible for solutions to the state governments and local Microsoft.

Marriage in the beauty products industry: Revlon buys Elizabeth Arden for 870 million dollars, in an all-cash transaction. Revlon will pay $ 14 for each share of Elizabeth Arden, offering a 50% premium over the closing price of $ 9.31 per share of Elizabeth Arden. A big company is born in the beauty industry, which has already obtained the approval of the boards of both companies.

Pair’s Outlook
The Cable managed to erase intraday losses and trade flat on Thursday, amid two main opposing referendum groups suspending their campaigns. The main support area, represented by the Bollinger band, the monthly S2 and the weekly S1 was confirmed once more, suggesting that a drop below the 1.41 level is doubtful, at least for now. However, technical indicators insist the GBP/USD pair is to continue weakening today. With no solid fundamental impetus present, the Sterling has the potential to erase this week’s losses completely, but only if the immediate resistance in face of the monthly S1 at 1.4288 gives in.

The Fed announced that US interest rates will remain unchanged in a "gap" between 0.25% and 0.50% and are being revised downward GDP estimates. At the conclusion of a meeting of the FOMC, the Fed said it would continue to closely monitor the international economy. "All meetings are open," Janet Yellen said to reporters demanding information on a timing of a rate increase. "The state of the economy only guarantees gradual increases in interest rates," said Yellen, noting that in the current situation is ‘appropriate’ to maintain an approach "cautious" in monetary policy.

Starbucks, the US chain of coffee shops, is actually a bank. Customers have indeed deposited $ 1.2 billion charged in prepaid cards of the company in the first quarter of 2016, much higher figure than kept in warehouses of many US banks.

According to data from S & P Global Market Intelligence, for several years Starbucks has its prepaid cards with which you can buy at discounted prices and acquiring vouchers, coffee, pastries and salads in the chain shops without using cash. It is an alternative payment system to the credit card that could replace by 2020 a third of the bank cards. It is also a very effective customer retention system considered by marketing experts. And the American giant can count on 12 million "faithful" which sells millions of gift cards on the eve of Christmas.

The latest Fed minutes had opened the door to a second rate hike in response to continued solid consumer spending figures, an acceleration in demand for credit, and a squeeze on wages, as the US is almost in full-employment. However, the latest job creation figures (38,000) dashed hopes of a rapid rate hike.

It seems to start the comeback the Empire State index of New York, which last month had fallen into negative territory, signaling a sharp deterioration of conditions in the manufacturing sector of the state.

The indicator, produced by the Federal Reserve of New York, came in May at +6.01 points resulting in a strong recovery compared to -9.02 in May. The figure today is even better than expected, which estimated a more limited recovery to -4 points.