Opinions

The Macroeconomic Perspective Gold and Silver are assets which have been of great importance for thousands of years. Up until a few decades ago, gold was explicitly linked to currencies (such as the US$) and was broadly used as money. In the past few decades – particularly following Nixon’s decoupling of

Most investors wonder about the best investment decision amid the chaotic uncertain stance caused by the geopolitical circumstances which crystallized through the G20 summit. G20 summit or the G19+1 as the BBC preferred to describe it, held various topics on its agenda. Some of them were terrorism, Middle East tensions,

On Friday at 1500 GMT shortly after the release of the widely watched U.S. Non-Farm Payrolls report and at the end of a U.S. holiday-shortened week, the U.S. Federal Reserve released its semi-annual monetary report to Congress, which Chair Janet Yellen will deliver to Congress next week. I suspect that

The previous week was heavily filled by the appearance of high profile personalities. From one side we had the ECB forum, where we heard the developed central banks’ chairmen. But nothing was more ironical than the speech of Janet Yellen in the British academy, UK. Yellen sent a reassurance message

Comex gold futures closed lower last week but for the most part, it was rangebound while the rest of the investing community was busy adjusting their positions in currencies and interest-bearing instruments. Nonetheless, it was an interesting week, highlighted by a trading error, a plunging U.S. Dollar that garnered almost

In early February, President Donald Trump signed an executive order intended to repeal the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The Trump administration intends to replace the Dodd-Frank Act with the Financial Choice Act. This bill failed in 2016, but has been reintroduced by Republican Congressman Jeb

The phrase “fake news” has been making the rounds around Washington lately. Most of the time it has been used by politicians, but last week, I felt it may have been tossed around a few times at the Federal Open Market Committee’s monetary policy meeting. Last week’s Fed interest rate

Federal Reserve policymakers are widely expected to increase the target for the federal funds rate from 1% to 1.25% on Wednesday. Traders are pricing in close to a 100% chance of this happening so any surprises will be to the downside. Since last December, the Fed has been expected to

Mideast unstoppable tensions’ shadows had always direct influence on the financial markets since the 70s of the previous century. However, the surface aspects of every single dilemma are usually hiding a devil fact in the details. On June 4th a sudden rift between Arab countries took place amid major political

When the Fed raised its benchmark interest rate last December, it forecast three rates during 2017. At the time, it cited an improving economy and labor market as the reasons for its lofty projections. It also projected slightly faster increases the next few years amid the prospect of a massive

With the Federal Reserve’s May 3 policy minutes injecting an air of caution into the outlook for U.S. interest rates last week, investors are going to put increased weight on Friday’s U.S. Non-Farm Payrolls report. The Federal Open Market Committee minutes said that most officials judged “it would soon be

In my opinion, between now and when former FBI Director James Comey testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee sometime after Memorial Day, the U.S. stock market is likely to see the highest wave of volatility of the year. Besides the conventional measure of volatility, the CBOE’s VIX, volatility in this

There seems to be little else that the markets are talking about these days than Trump’s handling of former FBI Director Comey and the allegations that Trump had revealed classified information to Russian officials last week, the allegations becoming fact following Trump tweets affirming the rumours, the justification being that

Couple of years ago, when I first heard about Bitcoin, I rejected the idea entirely, believed that there is no way for that to survive. When you read about inventors through the history, they faced resistance. Same rejection faced the newcomer once it was declared in 2008 by the anonymous

Strategists at Bank of America Merrill Lynch said last week that they found something a little strange about the stock market. Their research showed that bank lenders are getting worried about the economy, but investors appear to have a “what, me worry” attitude towards current valuations. According to their research,

The jump in U.S. jobs creation in April by 211,000 was an important indication that perhaps the Fed was right when it implied in its latest monetary policy report that the weakness in the first quarter was only temporary. The drop in the unemployment rate to 4.4 percent was also

Gold is likely to be in focus this week after taking a backseat last week to the French elections, central bank meetings, and U.S. policy announcements. Pushing it back to the forefront will be the possibility of escalating military activity in North Korea based on events over the week-end. Demand

Historical Snapshot As we are heading towards the 9th year of economic crisis in Greece, someone has to wonder “what went so wrong that 9 different governments in collaboration with the tripartite committee (European commission, IMF and WB) were unable to reach a solution?”  and how come the Greek crises

The much anticipated French elections are finally around the corner and with all of the noise from earlier in the year, looking at the EUR, one would have thought that it was a 2 horse race between the more seasoned, but tainted Fillon and ex-banker Macron. As things stand, it’s

On April 3, the newly released minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee meeting on March 15 indicated that the central bank struggled with two major concerns:  whether it should let inflation run hot beyond its 2.0% mandate and how to prepare for President Trump’s economic stimulus plans. The minutes