History What made gold a unique asset is its shininess, its malleability and the property of endurable integrity over time. Thanks to these characteristics, it has been widely used in the history of mankind for two core aims: To celebrate the human power and wealth thanks to its magnificence, To Read more…
On March 8, 2017 crude oil plummeted more than 5%, with WTI price falling through $50 a barrel for the first time since December. The sudden move was triggered by EIA reporting a massive build-up in American crude oil inventories, hitting record levels according to data going back to 1982. Read more…
In 1993 in the New York stock exchange the first Exchange Traded Fund was established. Since then, the number of ETFs has exponentially increased, and now accounts for about 4000 funds. This instrument tries to replicate an already existing benchmark with a typically small tracking error and lower cost than Read more…
Oil has long been one of the main drivers of the worldwide economy and for this reason it is closely watched by all investors and traders. The central role of what, back in the days, was called the “Black gold” is given by its high cross asset correlation. It has Read more…
[edmc id= 3846]Download here the Weekly Market Brief[/edmc] United States Microsoft and Alphabet weighed heavily on the major US stock indices Friday when the two stocks fell 7.3% and 5.1% respectively following disappointing earnings reports published late Thursday. On Tuesday, the S&P 500 broke 2,100 for the first time since December, Read more…
[edmc id= 3486]Download here the Weekly Market Brief[/edmc] United States S&P 500 started the week off strong and closed 2.8% higher, at 1,917, on the back of an oil price rally. The rally was due to an agreement between major oil producers, including Russia and Saudi Arabia, to set crude output Read more…
2016 is highly likely to be the year when a generation of traders and analysts will play in an environment characterised by rising interest rates (especially, in the US) for the first time in their career. On the other side, however, expansive monetary policies will still be present in most Read more…
Commodities rout is one of the key themes that have characterised 2015. Further to oil and gold (which we covered last week https://bsic.it/future-gold-full-hedge-role-risk/), several basic resources, like industrial metals, have been suffering for months, but they may be affected by slightly different factors than the former. Through this article, we Read more…
[edmc id= 3290]Download here the Weekly Market Brief[/edmc] United States A flurry of US data came out this week. Consumer sentiment came in at 91.3 in November, below an initial reading of 93.1. New home sales rose to 10.7%, taken as positive despite coming in below consensus. Consumer spending increased 0.1% Read more…
[edmc id= 3279]Download here the Weekly Market Brief[/edmc] United States Once again, the discussion around the expected Fed policy decisions in December has dominated the week in the US markets. The minutes of the Fed October meeting, released on Wednesday, hardened expectations of an interest rate hike. They also hinted at Read more…
[edmc id= 3197]Download here the Weekly Market Brief[/edmc] United States The one just ended has been a pretty volatile week for the US market, with investors continuing to show some concern about the possibility of a rate hike in December in an environment of still uneven economic growth. Deteriorating growth outlooks Read more…
[edmc id= 3174]Download here the Weekly Market Brief[/edmc] United States US economy has seen many macroeconomic data being released this week, in particular regarding the labour market, while the FED governor had a speech that has strongly affected the markets on Wednesday. The labour market has been the main actor of Read more…
[edmc id= 3109]Download here the Weekly Market Brief[/edmc] United States This week has been very intensive due to the large amount of macroeconomic data that have stricken the US economy. On the labour market side, the situation continues to improve. In fact, the initial jobless claim beat expectations, 260K requests against Read more…
Empirical evidence suggests that correlation between asset classes tends to spike during a period of market crisis, because investors panic and sell indiscriminately. This phenomenon is usually short-lived and correlation returns to a normal level as the market stabilizes. During the 2008 financial crisis, this effect was amplified by a Read more…
When someone thinks about the mining industry, there is one name that comes to mind: Glencore (GLEN.L). The Anglo-Swiss company was founded in 1974 as Marc Rich + Co AG, before being renamed Glencore International in a management buyout. The company is specialised in producing, refinement and trading of a Read more…