BlackRock warns investors to 'build resilience' against recession
December 2, 2018--BlackRock has warned clients to "build resilience" into investment portfolios with the help of new asset-class performance forecasts that it will release this week.
The detailed guides from the world's biggest fund manager look ahead for between five and 20 years.
Source: FT.com
Fidelity Looking to Expand Digital Asset Trading Beyond Bitcoin and Ether
November 29, 2018--Fidelity Investments is looking to expand its institutional crypto asset platform to include trading services for the top five to seven cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.
Revealed today at the Block FS conference in New York, the news came in response to a question from CoinDesk posed to Tom Jessop, head of Fidelity Digital Assets, on what other cryptocurrencies may be added to the platform, to be launched next year.
Source: coindesk.com
Independent broker-dealers fastest-growing brokerage group
November 28, 2018--Independent broker-dealers saw the greatest asset growth over the past five years compared with other types of broker-dealers, according to new research from industry consultant Cerulli.
IBDs registered a five-year compound annual growth rate in assets of 11%, almost double that of wirehouses, Cerulli reports.
Source: investmentnews.com
OECD International trade statistics: trends in third quarter 2018
November 28, 2018--Weak growth of G20 international merchandise trade in third quarter of 2018
G20 international merchandise trade, seasonally adjusted and expressed in current US dollars, grew marginally in the third quarter of 2018, on the back of rising oil prices, with G20 exports rising by 0.3% and imports by 0.7%, following the minor contractions in the second quarter of 2018.
Excluding large oil exporters, such as Russia and Saudi Arabia, G20 trade was flat suggesting that the steady expansion seen over the last two years may have stalled as recent protectionist measures begin to bite.
In the United States, exports contracted by 1.7%. Although exports grew in China (by 2.4%)-partly reflecting the exceptional sale of an oil platform to Brazil, which helped push up Brazilian imports by 18.0%-this only partially offset the significant contraction of Chinese exports (down 4.9%) in the previous quarter.
Source: OECD
Galaxy Digital, Cumberland and More Plan New Crypto Code of Conduct
November 27, 2018--A group of 10 companies focused on cryptocurrencies and financial services have formed a new group aimed at standardizing a code of conduct for the still-nascent digital asset space.
Announced Tuesday, the Association for Digital Market Assets, or ADAM, is backed by founding members Galaxy Digital, Genesis Global Trading, GSR, Hudson River Trading, Paxos, Symbiont, BitOoda Technologies, BTIG, Cumberland and XBTO.
Source: coindesk.com
OECD-New report says better metrics could have prompted stronger response to the crisis
November 27, 2018--Better measurement of the economy and of people's well-being could have led governments to respond more strongly to mitigate the damage caused by the 2008 financial crisis and reduce people's continuing loss of trust in public institutions, according to a new report.
Beyond GDP: Measuring What Counts for Economic and Social Performance says that different metrics, including of people's economic insecurity, would have revealed that the consequences of the recession were deeper than GDP statistics suggested. As a result, the importance of bolstering safety nets and social protection was not sufficiently taken into account.
Source: OECD
Traders Put $1.3 Billion Into Emerging ETFs
November 26, 2018--The move back to emerging markets gained momentum last week as traders shrugged off equity declines amid bullish calls from some of the world’s largest investment firms.
Inflows to U.S.-listed exchange-traded funds that invest across developing nations as well as those that target specific countries hit $1.28 billion in the week ended Nov. 23, bringing this year's total to $20.5 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That is the sixth consecutive week of inflows.
Source: bloombergquint.com
ETF rise helps damp down market distortions, research finds
November 24, 2018--Study shows reduction of 'index effect'. where prices rise before shares are included.
Large swings in the share prices of companies that are expected to be dropped or added to indices have become less common with the rise of passive investment, research has found.
Source: FT.com
Why the 2018 bitcoin price crash is just a 'blip not a bubble bursting'
November 23, 2018--The price of bitcoin has often been compared to history's biggest bubbles-Dutch Tulip mania in the 17th century, the Mississippi Bubble in the 18th century and the UK Canal and Railway mania in the 19th century-but perhaps the most popular comparison is the dot-com bubble of 2000.
In the space of five years, it seemed any company with a '.com' after its name provoked a feeding frenzy from investors, which led to an artificial inflation in their value.
Source: independent.co.uk
Global growth is slowing amid rising trade and financial risks
November 21, 2018--Global economic growth remains strong but has passed its recent peak and faces escalating risks including rising trade tensions and tightening financial conditions, according to the OECD's latest Economic Outlook.
Growth forecasts for next year have been revised down for most of the world's major economies. Global GDP is now expected to expand by 3.5% in 2019, compared with the 3.7% forecast in last May's Outlook, and by 3.5% in 2020.
Source: OECD