There may already be problems coming up with the Fed’s new strategy to manage the policy rate. By raising the IOER rate, the interest paid on excess reserves, by 20 basis points last week, the Fed assumed that it could put some downward pressure on the effective funds rate pushing toward the middle of the policy target range. This idea worked for a few days, but recently started showing trends of a rising effective funds rate. Analysts say, “Well it was nice while it lasted. For exactly three days the Fed’s strategy worked as intended, with the effective Fed funds rate trading at 1.90%, which is 20 basis points above the level prevailing before last week’s policy announcement. This week, how
Saudi Arabia urged OPEC to help consumers by boosting oil supply as opposition from arch-rival Iran showed signs of wavering. The oil markets have been on spotlight due to the intensive negotiations between ministers in Vienna. Iran and Venezuela as they have shown disapproval towards Arabia and Russia’s desire to roll back production cuts. On the other hand, United States President, Donald Trump has lobbed the occasional rhetorical bomb at the cartel on behalf of consumers. Furthermore, the odds of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries reaching a deal on Friday drastically increased. Iran has edged away from a threat to veto any agreement that would raise output levels, while Sa
Recent Studies on leaders who demonstrated success and showed intelligence, initiative, and results in their previous roles reveals that within two years of executive transitions, between one-in-four to one-half of them are classified as failures. Cited as the main challenges are organizational politics. Many transitioning executives lament having not changed the culture at a quicker pace to combat these effects, and internal vs external transitions have little effect on any listed sentiments. Yet, other surveys suggest even with a deliberate goal, these matters are difficult to handle. 79 percent of external and 69 percent of internal hires report that attempts to change the company culture
Investors should keep an eye on Energy-storage companies. Despite declines in storage-system costs, the future could look different than previously expected by analysts. Yet, it is not all negative and some might view the outlook as encouraging. Currently there are some commercial uses for energy storage with economic benefits. In the future utilities, industrial customers, and households might benefit from energy storage. This is due to lower system costs, and also the decreasing incentives of government on solar power. These factors can lead to increasing financial sensibility to store power over exporting it to the grid. The economics aren’t new to investors savvy with renewable energy; a
The markets and economies have been expecting a significant impact from the highly anticipated meeting of the President of the United States, Donald Trump and the leader of North Korea Kim Jong-un . These are potential results in the global economy and markets from the summit: North Korea: If both countries continue to successfully take steps towards denuclearization, North Korea could open up for new business ideas and investment opportunities. Currencies: The currencies pegged by the U.S. dollar could be impacted. For example, the UAE Dirham, Saudi and Qatari Riyal are just a few currencies pegged that would benefit from a strengthening U.S. dollar. High yielding currencies such as the So
The markets have proven to be quite resilient despite long-running international concerns about China’s property bubble. The Chinese government has instituted various austerity measures to cool down the market, but buoyant demand for property has helped avoid any serious downturn. Various factors continue to support the Chinese property sector. Some of the factors include the increasing urbanization rate, abundant liquidity and the lack of investment alternatives. Although we project the market to slow gradually in 2018, investors see an attractive opportunity for bond investments in the larger real estate development sector. The percentage of China’s population living in urban areas has bee
Higher oil prices are hurting companies that frack for natural gas while American shale drillers benefit at the same time. As companies unearth gas as a byproduct, they respond to rising oil prices by drilling more of it. This has weighted on already low gas prices thus adding more pressure to shale frackers in regions that primarily product gas. The average share price for the five top companies focused on the oil-rich Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico are up more than 16% over the past year. Share prices for the top five producers focused on the Marcellus Shale in Appalachia, the country’s largest deposit of natural gas, are down more than 9%. Similar to shale drillers, those focused o
The effect of smart-city applications could affect various dimensions of life and thereby attract investors from various industries. While research suggests a wide range of outcomes, this is due to mostly varying application performance from city to city. Factors such as existing infrastructure systems might limit the potential impact of a technology. One of the expected uses focuses on crime, where agencies, for example, could use advanced data to deploy city resources and personnel in a more efficient manner. An early version of this idea, Real-time crime mapping, uses statistical analysis to highlight criminal patterns. In such applications, predictive policing is the goal. In instances w
Future changes in the Volcker Rule restrictions on big banks’ trading have been backed by the Fed. These changes will loosen compliance requirements for all banks and provide a sense of relief for firms with small trading desks. The Fed will be easing the rule designed to curb risky trading in the wake of the financial crisis. The new plan will place fewer audits of individual securities and derivatives transactions for bulge bracket banks like J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs. This means banks will spend less time providing compliance and traders would be given more freedom to buy and sell securities. However, critics claim that this proposal will be risky since banks could create loopholes th
