Week of Aug 24 2018 Weekly Recap & The Week Ahead
“Amateurs think about how much money they can make. Professionals think about how much money they could lose.” – Jack Schwager
1. U.S. Proposed Sale from Strategic Oil Reserve to Reduce Global Oil Supplies — the U.S. Department of Energy is offering 11M barrels of crude for sale from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve ahead of sanctions on Iran that are expected to reduce global oil supplies and increase prices. The SPR was established in the 1970s after the U.S. economy was paralyzed by an oil embargo. As recently as 2011 it contained 727M barrels in caverns along the Texas and Louisiana coasts.
2. JPMorgan to Unveil New Investing App — JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) is rolling out a digital investing service next week that comes bundled with free or discounted trades, a sophisticated portfolio-building tool and no-fee access to the bank’s stock research. “You Invest,” more than two years in the making, has a distinct advantage over many competitors: JPMorgan already has financial ties with half of American households.
3. Hospitals Shut At a Rate of 30 Annually — U.S. hospitals have been closing at a rate of about 30 a year, according to the American Hospital Association, and patients living far from major cities may be left with even fewer hospital choices as insurers push them toward online providers like Teladoc (NYSE:TDOC) and clinics such as CVS’s MinuteClinic (NYSE:CVS). The next year to 18 months could see a further increase in shutdowns, with the risks coming following years of mergers and acquisitions.
4. China Retaliates Against New U.S. Tariffs — a fresh round of U.S. tariffs on $16B worth of Chinese imports kicked in at last week, prompting Beijing to retaliate with its own levies on American goods worth the same amount. The world’s two largest economies, which are in the midst of trade talks, have now slapped tit-for-tat duties on a combined $100B of products since early July, with more in the pipeline. Economists reckon that every $100B of imports hit by tariffs would reduce global trade by around 0.5%.
5. SEC Dismisses More Bitcoin ETFs — the SEC has once again thwarted an attempt to build a bitcoin ETF, rejecting applications for nine separate bitcoin-based exchange-traded funds. Cboe Global Markets (NASDAQ:CBOE) and NYSE Arca (NYSE:ICE) would have listed the products. The commission leaned on the same reasoning as for the earlier rejections, mainly that there aren’t enough protections against fraud and market manipulations.
6. U.S.-China Trade Talks End with No Major Progress — Mid-level trade talks between the U.S. and China ended without any formal signs of progress, although Chinese officials said they plan to keep the lines of communication open. Sources indicated the two sides mainly swapped talking points without getting any detailed negotiations. Representatives from the U.S., European Union, and Japan plan to meet in Washington to extend talks on how to leverage the World Trade Organization and other ways pressure can be exerted on China.
The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com:
Tags: Bitcoin, US/China Trade Talk