Hi Everybody,
Today mother nature will shed a tear for the country of Brazil who has decided to tear down a massive rain forest.
President Michel Temer, who has recently been accused of massive accounts of corruption, has given the order to clear the Renca reserve. A lush stretch of vegetation and wildlife ranging 43,000 square kilometers will be cleared in order to access the precious metals and minerals that lie underneath.
The government insists that no native tribes will be displaced. However, when clearing a section of forest roughly the size of Denmark there are bound to be ecological and environmental consequences.
We can’t really blame Brazil for making this choice. A lot of the money raised will no doubt go towards improving the sub par standard of living in the most populated country on the continent. However, the cost not only to the country but to the entire world will be extremely heavy, perhaps even one of the worst of its kind and at a very inconvenient time.
@MatiGreenspan
eToro, Senior Market Analyst
Today’s Highlights
- China Stocks Are Flying
- Wallmart + Google ≥ Amazon ?
- Segwit Now on Bitcoin
Please note: All data, figures & graphs are valid as of August 25th. All trading carries risk. Only risk capital you can afford to lose.
Market Overview
While Wall Street continues the process of determining how much they like Donald Trump and how much that opinion should affect market prices, the Asian markets have decided they don’t care.
The China50 index is flying at the moment with gains of more than 2% reaching it’s highest level in over 2 years!
Stocks in the country are responding to new policies from the Chinese government that are designed to bring in more foreign investment.
“While the initial movement in the markets speaks for itself it’s still not clear how it will affect the economy in the long term. Going forward, we will need more money to invest in different areas so the effect will really depend on how the new policies are implemented.”
Macy Ma
@Macygogogo
eToro, China Analyst
Growth in many stocks has been stellar so far this year and this recent move in the China50 makes it one of the most profitable indexes in the world with about 22% growth since January 1st.
Wallmart <3’s Google
Just when it started to look like Wallmart’s may be going the way of the dinosaur, a new but well known friend has swooped in to save the gargantuan retailer.
On Wednesday the two companies announced that they will be joining forces in order to take on the likes on Amazon. Though they’ll likely never be able to compete with the convenience of shopping on Amazon Prime the two unlikely partners are planning for a future where voice command and prompts to repeat your purchase will dominate routine shopping habits.
They better move fast though. Amazon is just crossing the Ts and dotting the Is on their purchase of Wholefoods and fully intend to slash prices in the food and drink industry.
This partnership may be more about the battle between Amazon Vs Google more than anything else. They are also reportedly competing heavily to buy Nordstrom at the moment.
Here’s a chart of the three companies’ shares over the past year. Quite plainly the correlation between Google and Amazon may be a bit overdone. Don’t you think?
Crypto-part
Cryptocurrencies are having a grand old time and trading very near to their all time highest levels.
Bitcoin is back up to $4375 a coin as of this writing and the entire market cap of all cryptos is at $155 Billion. A very strong position for blockchain technology.
A former head of Barclays bank was recently quoted as saying that blockchain may just put banks out of business. Check out the video here: https://www.cnbc.com/video/2017/08/24/blockchain-will-transform-banking-says-ex-barclays-ceo.html
Anotony Jenkens was quick to point out that blockchain is still in its early stages and it’s really only the early adopters who are involved so far.
Confidence is also high in bitcoin at the moment due to the activation yesterday of the segwit protocol on the bitcoin network. An upgrade that has been in the works and heavily debated for several years and is now finally up and running.
What else?
Make sure to keep an eye out for speeches today from Janet Yellen and Mario Draghi who will be speaking respectively at 10:00 AM and 1:00 PM Wyoming time.
Have a great day and an amazing weekend ahead!
