Bloomberg
“Equity Euphoria Grips the Entire World.”
The most hated rally this is not.
Equity euphoria has gripped most of the world to kick off 2018, with the 14-day relative strength index for major stock markets surging to overbought levels.
The S&P 500 Index, MSCI Asia Pacific Index, MSCI World Index, Nikkei 225 Index, and MSCI Emerging Markets Index are all in overbought territory, while the Euro Stoxx 600 Index lingers just shy of such a level.
The average reading for this collection of gauges soared to a weekly record as of Jan. 5, according to data compiled by Bloomberg going back to 1988.
The relative strength index is a technical indicator that tracks the magnitude and speed of price fluctuations. Typically, a security with an RSI above 70 is considered to be overbought, while those below 30 are viewed as oversold.
Reuters
“Trump to call on Pentagon, diplomats to play bigger role on arms sales.”
Trump to The Trump administration is nearing completion of a new “Buy American” plan that calls for U.S. military attaches and diplomats to help drum up billions of dollars more in business overseas for the American weapons industry, going beyond the assistance they currently provide, U.S. officials said.
Trump is seeking to fulfill a 2016 election campaign promise to create jobs in the United States by selling more goods and services abroad to bring down the U.S. trade deficit from a six-year high of $50 billion.
The administration is also under pressure from U.S. defense contractors facing growing competition from foreign rivals such as China and Russia. But any loosening of the restrictions on weapons sales would be in defiance of human rights and arms control advocates who said there was too great a risk of fueling violence in regions such as the Middle East and South Asia or arms being diverted to be used in terrorist attacks.
Besides greater use of a network of military and commercial attaches already stationed at U.S. embassies in foreign capitals, senior officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said another thrust of the plan will be to set in motion a realignment of the International Trafficking in Arms Regulations (ITAR). It is a central policy governing arms exports since 1976 and has not been fully revamped in more than three decades.
This expanded government effort on behalf of American arms makers, together with looser restrictions on weapons exports and more favorable treatment of sales to non-NATO allies and partners, could bring additional billions of dollars in deals and more jobs, a senior U.S. official said, without providing specifics.
The strategy of having the Pentagon and the U.S. State Department take a more active role in securing foreign arms deals could especially benefit major defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin and Boeing Co. “We want to see those guys, the commercial and military attaches, unfettered to be salesmen for this stuff, to be promoters,” said the senior administration official, who is close to the internal deliberations and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Trump administration has already moved forward on several controversial sales. Those include a push for $7 billion in precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia despite concerns they have contributed to civilian deaths in the Saudi campaign in Yemen’s civil war and the unblocking of $3 billion in arms to Bahrain, which was also held up by human rights concerns under Obama. Similar concerns have been raised over the administration’s preparations to make it easier for American gun makers to sell small arms, including assault rifles and ammunition, to foreign buyers.
BBC News
“Forget Bitcoin – now Dogecoin goes wild.”
You know an investment is somewhat unconventional when the Know Your Meme website is the main source of background information. But even in the turbulent world of cryptocurrencies, Dogecoin is seen as a pretty wild creature.
It was launched in 2013, inspired by a short-lived online craze for pictures of a particular Japanese dog breed. Last weekend, however, it nearly doubled in value and is now worth more than $2bn (£1.5bn).
Dogecoin had been gaining steadily all through December, but the latest spike has prompted howls of «crypto-hype» from sceptics. Granted, it’s still well behind the biggest beast in the digital currency pack, Bitcoin, which has a total value of more than $270bn.
But given that Dogecoin was initially intended as a parody of the Bitcoin boom, its founder, Jackson Palmer, is none too happy now that it has slipped its leash. «The fact that most conversations happening in the media and between peers focus on the investment potential is worrying,» he said earlier this month. Until its recent rise in value, Dogecoin was little known beyond a small coterie of geeks. But in sporting circles, the cryptocurrency’s backers have gained a reputation for some unorthodox sponsorship choices.
Well, one thing to bear in mind is that dogecoins are far more numerous than bitcoins. The rules underpinning Bitcoin say that only 21 million bitcoins can be created – and that figure is getting ever nearer. It is unclear what will happen to the value of bitcoins when that limit is reached. Dogecoins are «mined» in the same way as bitcoins – that is, they are created using computer processing power.
However, unlike Bitcoin, there is no upper limit on the number of dogecoins that can be produced, with a staggering 100 billion already in existence. That helps to explain why each dogecoin is currently worth less than two US cents, while Bitcoin’s peak value to date was nearly $20,000.
Bloomberg
“GoPro to Slash 20% of Jobs; Revenue Misses Estimates.”
GoPro Inc. gave a forecast for fourth-quarter revenue that missed analysts estimates and said it was cutting hundreds of jobs and is putting an end to its drone business. The company expects fourth quarter revenue of about $340 million, it said in a statement Monday. That compares with the average analyst estimate of $472 million.
GoPro is cutting more than 200 jobs, reducing its workforce to fewer than 1,000 people and said it will exit the drone market after selling its remaining inventory.