Dow hits 26,000 for first time on earnings optimism

The Dow Jones Industrial Average raced past the 26,000 mark for the first time on Tuesday as fourth-quarter earnings season got off to a strong start following upbeat results from UnitedHealth and Citigroup.

The blue-chip index, however, eased from its peak as a pullback in oil prices weighed on energy stocks.

UnitedHealth rose 2.5 percent after the largest U.S. health insurer reported results that beat estimates and raised its 2018 earnings outlook.

Citigroup Inc rose 1.13 percent after the lender reported a profit that topped expectations as strength in consumer businesses made up for lower revenue from bond and currency trading.

Hopes of strong earnings, supported by a steep cut in corporate taxes, and solid global economic growth have bolstered Wall Street's optimism in the start to 2018.

"There is really nothing in (the market's) way at this point," said Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Asset Management in Chicago.

"Investors are liking the fact that companies are talking up earnings, more than they have done in the past. We're going to see better earnings over the next 12 months and you need to buy stocks now to take advantage of that."

More than three quarters of the 30 S&P 500 companies that have reported so far have topped profit estimates, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

At 12:31 p.m. ET (1731 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 152.72 points, or 0.59 percent, at 25,955.91. If the index closes above 26,000, it would be the fastest 1,000-point gain ever.

UnitedHealth, Merck and Goldman Sachs were the top boosts to the Dow.

The S&P 500 was up 6.52 points, or 0.23 percent, at 2,792.76 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 18.21 points, or 0.25 percent, at 7,279.27.

The CBOE Volatility index, a widely followed measure of market anxiety, rose to a more than 1 month high at 11.27.

Six of the 11 major S&P sectors were higher, led by a 1.31 percent rise in the real estate index and a 0.81 percent gain in the healthcare index.

Merck surged more than 7 percent after early results from a key study showed its blockbuster drug Keytruda and two chemotherapy medicines helped lung cancer patients live longer and stopped the disease from advancing.

The S&P energy index fell 0.65 percent as Brent crude oil shed some of its recent gains, falling nearly $1 per barrel.

General Motors rose 2 percent after the company said it expected earnings in 2018 to be largely flat, compared with 2017, but that profits should pick up pace in 2019.

General Electric fell about 4 percent after raising the prospect of breaking itself up and announced more than $11 billion in charges from its long-term care insurance portfolio and new U.S. tax laws.

Viacom fell 5.4 percent after sources told Reuters CBS Corp and the company were not in active merger discussions.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,555 to 1,350. On the Nasdaq, 1,488 issues rose and 1,448 fell.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Asia stocks fall in Wall Street's wake, dollar holds below 14-year peak

SINGAPORE - Asian stocks retreated in subdued trade on Friday after Wall Street took a breather from its surge since the U.S. election, while the dollar hovered below the 14-year high set earlier this week.

European markets look set to open flat to slightly lower, with financial spreadbetter IG Markets expecting Britain's FTSE 100 to open down 0.1 percent on a shortened trading day, and Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 to start the day little changed.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan, fell 0.4 percent to a five-month low. It was heading for a drop of 1.8 percent in its second consecutive week of declines.

China's CSI 300 index dropped 0.7 percent, dragged lower by brokerage and insurance shares, on expectations regulators will tighten supervision over online insurance products. The index was on track to lose 1.1 percent for the week.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng retreated 0.5 percent, and was poised for a similar weekly loss.

Japan's Nikkei, closed for a holiday on Friday, edged up 0.1 percent for the week. The index has posted seven straight weeks of gains, its longest winning streak since early 2013, boosted by the yen's weakness in the face of a surging dollar.

Overnight, U.S. equities posted their first back-to-back daily declines of the month in light trading ahead of the Christmas weekend. U.S. indices fell as much as 0.4 percent on Thursday.

"Santa has taken a leave of absence into the end of the week," Jingyi Pan, market strategist at IG in Singapore, wrote in a note. "Asian indices could remain depressed into the end of the year."

Wall Street stocks have been on a tear since the U.S. election on expectations that Donald Trump's promised fiscal stimulus will boost economic growth and company profits. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has surged 8.7 percent since before the election results were announced.

Markets globally appeared be on pause for the holidays, with the MSCI World index down 0.1 percent on Thursday, and little changed on Friday.

Europe's STOXX 600 index closed down 0.2 percent on Thursday, with the broader downtrend offsetting expectations of a government bailout for troubled Italian lender Monte dei Paschi di Siena, which closed at a record low on Thursday.

Early on Friday, the Italian government approved a rescue of the world's oldest bank, after it failed to raise enough money from private investors to stay afloat.

Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni told reporters his cabinet had authorised creation of a 20-billion-euro ($21 billion) fund to prop up Italy's embattled banking sector, with Monte dei Paschi expected to be first in line for help.

Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse said separately on Friday they had agreed to deals of $7.2 billion and $5.3 billion respectively with the U.S. over their sales of mortgage securities in the run up to the 2008 financial crisis.

In the foreign exchange markets, the dollar was subdued, having scaled its highest point since December 2002 on Tuesday. It has since hovered below that level, with traders unwilling to make any big moves ahead of the holiday weekend.

The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six global peers, slipped 0.1 percent to 102.98, down from Tuesday's 103.65 peak. It is poised to end the week flat.

The dollar inched down 0.2 percent against the yen to 117.355, and was on track for a 0.55 percent loss for the week.

Still, most traders retain positive bets on the U.S. currency, particularly after upbeat economic data including business spending, and an upward revision to third-quarter economic growth on Thursday.

"The trend is definitely for a stronger dollar," Stephen Casey, senior currency trader at Cambridge Global Payments in New York. "Any dip in the dollar will a buying opportunity."

The euro edged up 0.2 percent to $1.0453 on Friday, on track for a flat end to the week.

Sterling was little changed at $1.229, on track for a weekly slide of 1.6 percent.

The muted investor sentiment weighed on the Australian dollar AUD=, which dropped 0.1 percent to $0.7207, fractionally above a seven-month low touched Thursday and repeated Friday.

Oil prices slipped as investors took profits after Thursday's gains driven by strong U.S. economic data and optimism that crude producers would keep to their pledge to limit output.

U.S. crude pulled back 0.5 percent to $52.69 a barrel on Friday, but remains on track for a 1.5 percent gain for the week.

Global benchmark Brent crude fell 0.4 percent to $54.85, set to close the week 0.7 percent lower.

As risk appetite ebbed on Friday, the decline in gold prices, which have languished in the wake of the dollar's rally, reversed. Spot gold climbed 0.3 percent to $1,131.79 an ounce, shrinking its weekly loss to 0.2 percent.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Modern Advancements in Forex Trading

The world of forex is ever-changing. The markets move at lightning speed, and trends emerge in an instant. Fast-paced, volatile, and tempestuous, trading is a game that will always keep you on your toes.

 Like the markets it represents, forex-based technology also continually evolves. The past decades have seen the rapid emergence of wave after wave of new developments, each of them improving the way that we trade, and making everything better, faster, and more competitive.

Here, we look at just three of the ways that technology has transformed the markets….

#1: Speed

In times gone by, currency trading was a different game entirely. Without the computers and smartphones that so easily enable us to trade, every move had to be made in person through a broker, and it was a laborious process. Today, this has changed completely. Where once information was outmoded, the data on display a snapshot into a past that had already altered, trades can now be conducted in the blink of an eye, and the figures that we see are entirely contemporaneous. Take a glance at your screen and you’ll have a perfect picture of the markets. Press a button and your dreams will be made material. Everything happens in an instant.

#2: Software

Even in the last couple of years, technology has progressed at a remarkable speed. In the days of old, trading was limited to sitting in front of a specially set-up computer, and when you weren’t beside it, you couldn’t make a move. Luckily, this is no longer the case. Now, you can trade from almost any device that you desire, whether it’s your MacBook or your smartphone. Brokers like OANDA make sure that every software option you could dream of is available to you, so that you can trade whenever and wherever you wish to.

#3: Flexibility

As we briefly touched on above, this ever increasing array of software trading options has made one very dramatic difference to a lot of people: it has improved the flexibility of investing. Where once this would have been almost impossible for those who had to leave their house to work each day, now, people can fit it in whenever they have a spare moment, whether this is on the train during their morning commute, or in their office during their lunch hour. Trading can be worked around your timetable, because when you can trade anywhere and at any time, it’s entirely up to you.

With so many exciting developments already revolutionising the world of the foreign exchange, just imagine what tomorrow might bring.

source: 20smoney.com

How Bitcoin revolutionised our lives

Life goes really fast. Sometimes it passes by so quickly that we cannot actually even feel how fast we are progressing. Take a moment and think how the world has changed within just the last decade. We are 3D printing replacements for vital human organs, sending rockets to space that come back in one piece and progressing in generally every possible direction.

FInancial services are not an exception too. Even though this industry has always been known as one of the most conservative, bitcoin and other factors are making the shift happen. Let’s take a look at how BTC has impacted the whole development of the financial systems and why these influence is truly a revolutionary one.

New money can exist

It has been a while since a new currency has appeared on the market. Usually new currencies were issued by recently developed countries. In other cases, a newer currency was just substituting a previous one. Yet it was nearly impossible to see new money appearing without a backup of any government. The bitcoin proved an idea that the world can accommodate a few more currencies.

Blockchain technologies

In IT and financial sectors the bitcoin as a currency wasn’t crucial. However, the technology of bitcoin, currently known as blockchain, is something that has completely changed the attitudes. Currently leading banks and other financial institutions are integrating blockchain technology to their core systems. Even if bitcoin depreciates and becomes nearly worthless, it will still represent a magnificent driver of the technological progress.

Enhanced anonymity

In times of NSA, it is often possible for people to pay more and more attention to their privacy, especially online. This is where bitcoin comes very handy. You can generally use bitcoin to pay for nearly anything you can imagine. Fast food, web-design or even bitcoin gambling, its usage does not know any limits. However it does keep your identity private. For example, if you top up your online casino account using your credit card, be sure that your bank knows about your gambling interests and will, most probably, make lending conditions not so favorable for you.

Conversely, when you are engaging in bitcoin gambling, you can be sure that it is impossible to connect your wallet with your identity, unless you have chosen to do so.

Summary

There are many aspects which bitcoin has revolutionized in our lives. It became a trading asset with billions of transactional volume daily, a typical currency that was used to settle online and then, offline, transactions. The usage of BTC ranges from paying for donuts at a local bakery to buying chips to experience a secure bitcoin gambling. Whether you own some bitcoin or not, rest assured that this currency is here to stay.

source: 20smoney.com

2016: Make This Your Year To Become A Forex Pro

With increased globalisation, economies and currencies are more interdependent on each other than ever –– presenting an opportunity for investors to become savvy forex professionals. Becoming a pro forex trader will probably take some time and needs a great deal of effort, but you should not be discouraged because ups and downs are normal. The best part is that you can sit in the comfort of your home with your laptop to trade in forex and still make a ton of money. Once you get the basics right, you’ll soon realise that forex can make you a lot of money, so give it a shot in 2016 and become a forex pro with these simple steps:

Learn The Basics

If you’re new at forex trading, then learn the market before undertaking any trading. Understand the concepts of currency trading and how existing traders sell and buy currencies. You need to learn about currency trading and the currency market. Watch online videos, read articles, talk to existing forex traders to dig deeper into the forex trading industry.

Understand Trading Systems And Platforms

You must understand trading systems and platforms used to analyse currency markets for locating trade setups. As a beginner, you’ll ideally want platforms with user-friendly information and depths of information for analyzing price charts and trade setups, backed by strong support and competitive pricing. Learning and understanding these trading systems and platforms will help tune your mind to your goal of ultimately becoming a forex pro.

Start Demo Trading

You will need to practice trading with a demo account. Demo trade for at least a few months before you are ready to undertake live trading. You must build your forex confidence with demo trading before opening a live trading account with your broker or trading platform.

Begin Live Trading

If you’re confident with your demo trading, then it’s time for you to enter the real world and start live trading. It’s important to choose a good platform and broker because you’ll want access to large numbers of currency pairs and emerging market currencies. Keep in mind that you should trade with your live account in the same way as you would trade with your demo account. If you start making real money, stick to what you’ve been doing and don’t deviate because you could end up losing money eventually.

Enjoy What You Do

While the thought of handling money can be stressful to some people, it’s important that you enjoy what you do. Remember to keep your calm and treat this as impartially as you can, so that you end up making sound decisions based on facts and not emotions.

If you’re looking for a reliable online trading platform to begin your forex trading career, then check out CMC Markets to meet your every forex need. They have over 330 currency pairs that are also available for trading as CFDs.

source: 20smoney.com