Week of Nov 24 2017 Weekly Recap & The Week Ahead
“Throughout my financial career, I have continually witnessed examples of other people that I have known being ruined by a failure to respect risk. If you don’t take a hard look at risk, it will take you.” – Larry Hite
1. Governing Crisis in Germany — Germany’s Angela Merkel said she would prefer fresh elections to ruling with a minority government after talks on forming a three-way coalition collapsed. Subsequently, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier stated Germany is facing its worst governing crisis in the history of its post-WWII democracy and pressed all parties in parliament “to serve our country” and form a government.
2. Europe’s First Bitcoin Mutual Fund — a Paris-based asset manager has launched Europe’s first bitcoin mutual fund. Tobam is classifying it as an alternative investment fund since it’s not traded on an exchange, but it does have daily liquidity based on market closing prices. JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) is also reportedly getting into bitcoin futures trading even though CEO Jamie Dimon believes it’s a fraud.
3. Russia-OPEC Agree on Framework to Extend Oil Cuts — OPEC and Russia have crafted the outline of a deal to extend their oil production cuts to the end of next year, although both sides are still hammering out crucial details. Moscow and Riyadh now agree they should announce an additional period of cuts at the Nov. 30 meeting. West Texas Intermediate crude extended gains to the highest level since July 2015. Futures for January delivery rose as much as 1.6 percent to $58.92.
The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com:
