How a single tweet blew 1.3 billion from Snap's market capitalization

How influential are some stars? The answer is: a lot ... And the social media should be very careful not to annoy them. Because otherwise their market capitalization could be reduced by 1 billion dollars!
A testimony to this was Kylie Jenner's tweet, which costs $1.3 billion of Snap's market capitalization.
Shares of Snapchat's parent company lost 7.2% of its value last Thursday after Kylie Jenner said she no longer opens the app.
Whether this is because of Jenner's recent motherhood or because of the new redesign of the application, is not very clear. It is a fact, however, that this statement, which has seriously reflected by nearly 24.5 million followers of the star, initiated massive sales of the company's shares.
Unfortunately, investors in the company and other Wall Street analysts are beginning to see a decline in social networking users' commitment after the recent redesign.
Citigroup's analyst Mark May downgraded the company's market rating to "sell," from a "neutral" last week as a result of the sharp rise in negative consumer reviews over redesign.
However, this does not prevent CEO Evan Spiegel from becoming one of the top executives of US companies. Spiegel received $636.6 million bonus in shares, payable in 2020.

Gold broke off its big weekly downturn

Gold rose on Monday due to the weakness of the dollar. The spot price of the precious metal added 0.4% to its value to a level of 1,333.74 dollars at which levels are traded earlier today.
Last week, gold fell 1.4%, which was the biggest price depreciation for two and a half months.
The dollar index fell 0.1% on the first day of the week, which helped raise the price of metals and, in particular, gold.
Gold futures with delivery in April rose by $4.9 to $1,335.20 per ounce.
Gold is very sensitive to rising interest rates in the United States. Investors' expectations are that the central banks of the UK and Europe will also resort to interest rates.
The price of gold was also supported by the lunar new year in China.

The bitcoin grew by nearly 1,000 dollars yesterday

The bitcoin grew seriously yesterday, adding nearly $1,000 to its value, or around 10%. Early this morning the cryptocurrency was traded at levels of about $10,250.
The greater interest of Japanese investors has to a large extent predetermined the appreciation of the cryptocurrency, according to market observers.
Technical analysts, however, say that the bitcoin should keep its price over $10,200 in order to talk about the potential for its further appreciation.
The other major cryptocurrency - ethereum, were traded at 873 dollars and the ripple - at nearly 93 US cents.
Near the moment of the rallying of the bitcoin, the Circle crypto exchange announced that it had lost another Poloniex stock exchange. The transaction price was not named.
Otherwise, Poloniex is the seventh largest by volume in US dollars cryptocurrency exchange, according to CryptoCompare.
Trading of bitcoin in yen was more active, accounting for about 51% of the total volume, according to CryptoCompare. Trading in dollars was 22% of the total volume.

Fed with more confidence in inflation

The stenogram of the previous Fed meeting indicates that the monetary policy committee is even more confident about rising inflation.
This more aggressive tone of the part of the Fed, led market participants to expect the reserve to be far more aggressive in terms of interest rates this year. Or, expectations for three interest rises rose.
This result, however, did not initiate a significant rise in the dollar initially, relative to other major currencies.
Inflation is likely to continue rising steadily this year.
The Fed's January meeting was the last, under the leadership of President Janet Yellen.
The issue of US inflation and its increase has gradually begun to dominate investor moods in the first month of Jerome Powell's reserve management.
This coincided with a record low unemployment rate and an acceleration in the growth of hourly pay, the latest sign of inflation in the world's largest economy.
The US economy is also expected to feel the positive effect of the Trump administration's tax reform, which is expected to be $1.5 trillion relief for companies and Americans.
But this may cause the Fed to be far more aggressive in its normalization efforts, commented market observers.

The bitcoin is yesterday's news?

The cryptocurrencies absolutely stole the show in the past year. From the beginning of last year to the end, market capitalization of digital currencies increased by more than 3,300% or nearly $600 billion. This may turn into the largest increase in the capitalization of an asset, within 12 months.
And while there were many factors that predetermined this increase in capitalization, the root of the rise of cryptocurrencies was largely the bitcoin.
The largest cryptocurrency then played a major role in the digital money world. Even today, the bitcoin has the largest market capitalization, but its dominance has fallen seriously.
Although the bitcoin is estimated at $190 billion, it occupies about 40% of the total market capitalization of virtual currencies.
For comparison a year ago, its dominance was serious with over 80% of the total market capitalization. How fast, though, things change!
For the period between 2013 and March 2017, the market share of the bitcoin from the total capitalization ranged between 74 and 96%. Over the last three months, however, BTC's market cap is less than 40% of the total.
Meanwhile, other cryptocurrencies, such as ethereum and ripple, have seriously increased their share of total market capitalization.
The problem is that new and better cryptocurrencies are created to perform the basic function that the bitcoin was conceived - faster and cheaper financial transactions without the need for third-party mediation.

Gold with a third consecutive drop

Gold prices dropped for a third consecutive trading session yesterday after the dollar pushed from its three-year minimum in the past week. Investors await the protocols of the Fed meeting later this week for more clarity about the future policy of the reserve.
The spot price of gold fell 0.6%, or its biggest daily decline in two weeks. The noble metal traded at levels of $1 339 per ounce.
Gold futures fell 1.2% to $ 1,340.40 an ounce, marking its biggest daily decline since November 2017.
The dollar index, following the US dollar's performance against a basket of six major currencies, rose 0.5 percent to 89.544 points. It dropped to 88,253 points last week, which was its lowest value since December 2014.
The US currency has shown signs of deprivation after some investors bought the dollar after its record sales last week.
Last week was the best gold for more than five months when the metal added 2.4% to its value as a result of rising US inflation and declining tensions.
The spot price of gold is expected to find strong support at a level of $1,326 per ounce.

US lawmakers think about regulating the market of cryptocurrencies (2)

American legislators are concerned about speculative trading and investments in cryptocurrencies. Some of them call for the regulation of digital assets as securities, as a result of which investors in cryptocurrencies will also be protected by the SEC.
Virtual currencies have existed for a long time, but recently the scale of speculation with cryptocurrencies sharply increased, as well as the number of fraudulent schemes that promise investors an income of more than 1,000 percent in a few weeks.
In the period of volatility in financial markets, hackers also intensified in this sphere. In January, they stole a digital currency worth $530 million from the Japanese crypto-exchange Coincheck.
Bitcoin, the most famous virtual currency, in early 2018 has fallen in price more than twice after takeoff by more than 1.300 percent.
Regulators around the world began to sound the alarm, saying that the cryptocurrencies simplify money laundering and the financing of terrorist organizations, harm consumers and undermine confidence in the global financial system.

Oil began the week with growth

Oil prices rose on Monday morning when recovering on Asian stock markets, as well as amid tensions in the Middle East.
Futures for the North Sea blend Brent climbed 0.79 percent to $65.35 a barrel.
Futures contracts for US light oil WTI by this time traded at $62.37 per barrel, which is 1.12 percent higher than the previous close.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel is ready to act not only against Iran's Middle Eastern allies, but also against Tehran, if it continues to actively intervene in the conflict in Syria.
Among the factors holding back the further rise of the market, analysts call the rapid growth of oil production in the US.
According to the calculations of the Energy Information Administration (EIA), weekly production of raw material in the US rose to a historic high of 10.27 million barrels per day for the week by February 9.
In addition, the number of installations for drilling oil wells in the US last week increased by 7 pieces to 798 - the highest value since April 2015, the data of the oil service company Baker Hughes showed on Friday.

US lawmakers think about regulating the market of cryptocurrencies (1)

The US authorities, alarmed by the global riot around bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, are preparing to consider new rules, the introduction of which will lead to tightening of federal control over this emerging class of assets, several lawmakers told Reuters.
Among members of both leading US parties in the Senate and the House of Representatives, there is an increasing desire to start fighting against the risks that cryptocurrencies represent for investors and the financial system, lawmakers said.
Even conservative Republicans advocating for a free market said that the need for regulation may arise if the cryptocurrencies begin to threaten the US economy.
There is no doubt that there is a need for a regulatory framework, according to Republican Senator Mike Rounds, a member of the Senate Banking Committee.
At the moment, digital assets are located in the so-called gray zone of the legal field, in various situations falling under the regulation of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the US Treasury, the Federal Reserve or the state authorities.

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Losses on world exchanges bigger than the GDP of Canada and the UK cumulatively (2)

Recently the Bank of England's head Mark Carney said that the British Central Bank may need to raise interest rates earlier than expected.
There are still a number of market observers who believe that the observed correction is a consequence of rebalancing market portfolios and may not last much longer.
There is a change in the environment. People were positioned for low volatility, low interest rates, and low inflation. Now investors are changing their portfolios. And one or two days of sales will not be enough. It will take some time in ajusting of markets.
Still, despite recent sell-offs, investors who staked on stock markets in 2017 are still in positive territory. For the past three months, global financial markets have added $9.5 trillion, while the broad S&P 500 has added $3.6 trillion.

Losses on world exchanges bigger than the GDP of Canada and the UK cumulatively (1)

World stock indexes may have recovered some of their losses on the last day of last week, but the correction still raises serious problems for investors.
From the record high on January 26 for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 indices, the global market capitalization fell by as much as $5.2 trillion, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.
This amount exceeds the GDP of the UK and Canada combined. In 2016, Canada's GDP amounted to $1.5 trillion, and the UK's $2.7 trillion.
In the same period, only the S&P 500 companies have erased about 2.5 trillion of market capitalization.
This happened after the fall in indexes brought the global exchanges into a correction phase or a moment when there was a fall of more than 10% on the indices.
With the recovery of the global economy, investors became more and more worried about central bank policies around the world, and rather its normalization and interest rate hikes.

US indices continue upward

US indices continued with recovery after last week's record sales. The Dow blue chip index rose above 25,000 points for the first time in two weeks.
The index added more than 300 points yesterday, in its fifth consecutive increase. This was his longest winning series of about 9 weeks, and at the same time the highest value for the benchmark of at least 2 weeks.
The S&P 500 index also rose 1.2% to 2,731 points, while the Nasdaq rose also above 1%, driven by the appreciation of Apple shares. The latter added nearly 3.4% to their value after the news that Warren Buffett had raised its holdings in the company.

Gold demand in India will remain weak

Gold demand in India is expected to remain below its 10-year average value for the third consecutive year in 2018. Higher taxes and new transparency rules for metal purchases are among the main reasons for these forecasts, according to a World Gold Council (WGC) analysis.
India is the second largest consumer of gold and weaker metal demand there may trigger downward pressure on gold, some experts predict.
Gold rose 8% since mid-December, despite the fall in metal imports to India, which, incidentally, helped reduce the country's trade deficit.
Consumption of gold this year in India is expected to be between 700 and 880 tonnes, compared with 727 tonnes in the past year. Over the past 10 years, the consumption of gold in India amounted to 840 tonnes on average.
Demand for the yellow metal is likely to be low as a result of the additional metal tax in 2017 and additional measures to track gold purchases.
In July of last year, the gold tax was raised from 1.2 to 3%, with gold buyers already having to disclose their tax code when buying gold at high value.
The government's actions have seriously affected small jewelery stores, which account for nearly two-thirds of total gold sales in India.
According to well-known sources, there are still some changes that could further affect the consumption of gold in India.
Gold has an extremely important place in Indian culture, and it is a major way of saving hundreds of millions of people in the third largest Asian economy.
Gold demand rose 9 percent in 2017 to 726.9 tonnes after demand for jewelery business rose 12 percent on an annual basis.
A serious problem for the business is the illegal import of gold. According to country statistics, illegal gold of 120 tonnes was imported in the past year. The same amount is expected to enter smuggling this year.

Oil is still rising, backed by the weak dollar

The price of oil continued its growth yesterday, continuing its growth from the previous day, backed by the weakness of the US dollar and the comments from Saudi Arabia that we will soon see a market with a lower supply than the end of the agreement between OPEC and Russia.
Oil prices have been under severe pressure in recent weeks as a result of speculation that the agreement between OPEC and Russia will be phased out before the end of 2018.
US crude oil rose 42 cents, or 0.7 per cent, adding 2.4 per cent to its previous session.
Brent rose 28 cents, or 0.4 percent, continuing its 2.6 percent growth on Wednesday.
Aid to the rise in the price of oil was also the weak US dollar against other leading raw materials.
Traditionally, the weakness of green money supports the consumption of dollar-denominated commodities, making them relatively less expensive in other currencies.

Gold with a third consecutive drop

The price of gold fell yesterday, which was its third consecutive session of loss. In spite of the fall in stocks and indices.
Gold with delivery in April fell by 7 dollars, or 0.5% to 1 329.50 dollars per ounce, after a decline on Monday. Earlier in the day, the price of gold rose to $1 349.30 per ounce.
There is no guarantee of rising gold when asset prices fall. In fact, the metal may decline as a result of sales by portfolio managers who close positions to cover losses from other positions. But this is part of the role of gold as insurance because it offers deep and unique liquidity.
US stocks rose somewhat on Tuesday, after exclusive Friday and Monday auctions, when the biggest daily drop of Dow index was recorded in its history. The index lost more than 1,100 points on the first day of the new week.
Despite the depreciation of assets, gold does not play a rescue asset because there is no real panic on the market, according to Naemie Ashlam, chief market strategist at ThinkMarkets.
According to the expert, if the panic of the market was a factor, we had to see a very strong growth in the price of gold and other precious metals.
In addition, the dollar's strength also hurt the performance of gold and other assets.

The bitcoin lost $72 billion in 2018

The bitcoin continues to be the largest crypto currency by market-capitalization, but its domination is seriously threatened after the recent price collapse. Only last week the bitcoin lost more than $1,000 of its value, dropping at levels of less than $9,000 per coin.
In fact, the bitcoin breached the key support level of $9,150, which may trigger further downsizing of the currency.
The next key level of support is $7,600, where there is the 61.8 percent fibonacci correction of the March increase last year to over $19,500.
If the last level drops, then we can see a further decline in the currency to the 50-day moving average, which is at $5,300.
The market capitalization of the bitcoin is at a level of $ 150 billion, which is 33.6% of the total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies. The latter is at a level of $456 billion, or about half of its peak, at over $850 billion.
Not only does the bitcoin record serious losses. The ripple returned to trading levels below $1.
However, the ethereum remains the least affected by the sale. The cryptocurrency continues to trade over $1,000 per coin, or just 20% below its historically highest value. By comparison, the ripple lost over 70% of its top, and the bitcoin over 50%.

Something unseen happened on US markets yesterday: S&P 500 lost 4%

The collapse in stocks in the US markets yesterday reached unprecedented levels. The S&P 500 index lost 4.1% of its value, ending at 2 648.94 points.
Losses in the other indices were no less, with the Dow Jones Index dropping by more than 1,175 points, or 4.6%. With a bit lower losses was the Nasdaq technology index, which lost 3.8% of its value.
From now on, the good news for investors is that the long-awaited correction is a fact, and even painful, may not be particularly long. The bad thing is that it is still unclear whether this is the beginning of something more serious as a trend in financial markets.
The broad index S&P 500 has already lost nearly 10% of its peak. So, the statistics for long periods without a 3% correction, or 5% correction, is already in the history. The record session was interrupted, so counting could start again.

Swan dive for stock markets

Yesterday's session can be described as crazy. With the markets rising by the opening, they quickly dropped seriously. However, there was a real fall in the indices once the S&P 500 overcame its 50-day moving average, at a level of 2,730 points, and the Dow index fell below 25,000 points.
How and when the correction is going to be done, hardly many experts would be willing to say. But one thing is certain - the end of the world has not come, and investors can start looking for positions that did not react seriously to the index decline.
Last week, it was the worst for markets since 2016, with both Dow and S&P 500 recording more than 2% loss on Friday.
Decline on Monday was driven by energy companies such as Exxon Mobil, whose shares declined by more than 4%, while companies like Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer lost more than 2% of their value.
Only four of Dow's blue chips traded in positive territory yesterday.
The decline in the indexes came to the attention of the Trump administration, from where they said they were always worried when value was lost on the market.

Interest on 10-year US government bonds continues to raise concerns among investors. They are at levels of 2.84% after last week reached their highest level of four years at 2.85%.

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