Oil with third consecutive day drop

Oil prices dropped for a third consecutive day today as oil stock data showed higher than expected growth. In addition, sell-offs on commodities, stocks, and bonds further contributed negatively to oil trade.
The Brent lost $0.69 of its value, or 1 percent to $68.83 a barrel, dropping to its lowest level in a week.
US crude oil fell by 67 cents, or 1 percent to 63.83 dollars a barrel. On Tuesday, the raw material lost 1.6 percent, ending at $64.50 a barrel. Oil recorded almost two weeks minimum.
Despite the decline, however, US crude and Brent are still on track to register a fifth consecutive monthly growth.
The data showed a 3.2 million barrel in US oil stocks last week.
Previously, it became clear that energy companies have added 12 new field deposits over the past week or their biggest increase since March.

Inflation in the eurozone slows down

Inflation in the eurozone slowed down in the first month of the year, which reduced the expectations of a large part of the market for a more recent normalization of interest rate policy by the ECB.
The consumer price index rose 1.3% in the first month of the year, down from 1.4% a month earlier. This was the lowest level of inflation since July 2017, according to preliminary data from the euro area.
Inflation in the eurozone continues to be at levels below the target of the European Central Bank of 2%, which could be a serious challenge to Draghi's plans for normalizing interest rates and ending incentives soon.
Despite data, the euro continued to trade against the dollar at extremely high levels above 1.2450.
In fact, the euro is not strong, but the dollar is weak. Besides, shortly before the Fed's interest rate decision today. Analysts expect the reserve to keep interest rates unchanged, and their next increase to be left to the new Fed leader, Jerome Powell, who will replace Yellen next month.
A major role for low inflation in the eurozone for a month is energy prices. They rose in the first month of the year by 2.1%, following an increase of 2.9% in December.
A more robust rise of 1.9% was seen in food and tobacco products, which grew by more than 2% last month.

T. Lee: 2018 may be the year of the bitcoin rotation

If you have missed the rally in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, maybe this year is good to target smaller cryptocurrencies like stellar and neo, according to strategist Tom Lee.
Tom Lee, was one of the most bullish analysts in the past year, predicting a $22,000 rallying price when the bitcoin traded at just $4,000.
Now, however, Lee thinks the other cryptocurrencies will increase their value much faster than the bitcoin this year, at a time that Lee calls the "Great Crypto Rotation."
"The rotation we are talking about will be on the smaller altcoins and the tokens of the big platforms," ​​Lee said.
Lee, however, does not believe that the upside potential of the bitcoin is exhausted. According to him, the most popular cryptocurrency, still has the potential to rise to $25,000 by the end of the year.
"We think the year 2018 will be the year of rotation," explains the expert in front of the CNBC financial magazine.
Lee is the founder and head of Fundstrat Global Advisors, as well as one of the earliest Wall Street investors in cryptocurrencies.
As smaller cryptocurrencies, Lee targets those with a market capitalization of less than $3 billion.
The bitcoin, though the most popular among the cryptocurrencies, suffered a heavy drop in the last month and a half. After reaching a record high of $19,500 in December, the cryptocurrency lost nearly half of its value, dropping momentarily below $10,000. Currently, the bitcoin is traded at levels of about $11,000 per coin.

R. Schiller: The situation is very similar to that of 1928

US indices are historically the highest. The growth rate, however, exceeds the growth of companies' profits, sending leading financial ratios like SARP at alarmingly high levels. This alerts the creator of the ratio - Nobel laureate Robert Schiller, from Davos.
He shared his worries about the market before Yahoo! Finance in Davos.
"In a sense, the market is now very similar to the one in 1920 - I would say 1928," Schiller said.
Then, the US indexes were rising seriously until they failed remarkably in 1929.
Calvin Coolidge was the president. And pro-business oriented," Schiller noted. "Everything looked good. Anti-regulation. Same story. This is part of the story," added the Professor of Economics.
Today, the United States has again a pro-business president, in the face of Donald Trump, who has been pushing for deregulation, similar to what happened in 1928. And in the same year, there are a lot of people who warn about the overpriced market.
"Then there were a lot of people who warned that the market was overstated. And people were beginning to wonder when there would be a correction? And, ultimately, a correction happened," Schiller recalls.
Schiller, of course, did not suggest that the market would collapse next year. According to Schiller, however, part of the reasons people buy shares is that "it makes them feel better for one or another reason."
"Young people today have to plan the next 50, 70 years. So what would they do now? This gives emotional decoration to all their decisions. It seems more and more acceptable to invest in stocks, even if they look expensive. Especially technological ones," concluded Schiller.

What is the reason for the dollar's depreciation?

In the shadow of the meteoric growth of US indices this year, the dollar declines faster and more than many analysts have predicted.
The dollar lost nearly 10 percent in the past year, which was its worst performance compared to other major currencies since 2003. Instead of changing its trend, however, in a state of growth in the US economy and a rise in interest rates, the dollar continued to decline in the new year 2018.
The decline in the dollar happened not only at a time of new record growth in US indices, but also in an environment of rising interest rates on 10-year bonds to their highest level in three years.
At the same time, interest on short-term loans rose to its highest levels since 2008. All of this should support a strong dollar. Instead, however, we are witnessing a continuing decline for "green money".
According to some experts, the tax incentives are the reason for this. While they are extremely good for stock markets, the rise in the US deficit increases interest rates on government bonds, and leads to the sale of debt securities.
The repatriation of capital by US companies, back to the United States, has triggered a depreciation of the dollar.
The rise in the US deficit has led the country to finance it with loans from other nations. This reduces the value of the dollar.

GS: Stopping the US government will take 0.2% of the GDP growth

The US investment bank Goldman Sachs predicts that the US government's shutdown will reduce GDP growth by 0.2% in the first quarter, but will soon be lived thru.
The negative effect is expected to be offset in the second quarter of the year if it is assumed that the government's shutdown will be restored by then.
According to the bank, the impact of this event on the financial markets will be "minimal".
Such government stopovers will have a lesser impact on the US economy, GS predicted.
Now that the federal government has failed to negotiate a new increase in the debt ceiling, the GDP of the world's largest economy is expected to fall by 0.2 percentage points for each week in which this event is in place, GS said.
The bank, however, is clearly not worried that this will last too long, or that the damage to the economy will be excessive, predicting a minimal impact on growth for the whole year.

The Kuroda effect returned to the Japanese market

The Kuroda effect returned to the Japanese stock exchange. On Tuesday, Japanese stocks rose to levels unheard of for nearly 27 years, and the Japanese bank was to be thanked for this.
The bank has indicated a lack of change in monetary policy by saying that the level of inflation and expectations for growth in consumer prices remain unchanged.
Japanese central bank chief Haruhiko Kuroda also sent a message on speculation that the Japanese central bank may lose its desire for incentives: Not so fast. He said the Japanese central bank was not in a position to even consider the outcome of the stimulus.
The Central Bank believes that it is imperative to continue with its current powerful incentives for the benefit of the economy, according to Kuroda.
Japan's Nikkei 225 rose by more than 24,000 points for the first time since 1991, while the wide Thorix crossed the 1,900-point limit. Local indices recorded an euphoric start of the New Year, analysts welcoming the prospects for an accelerated growth in the Japanese economy and robust corporate profits.
Expectations for growth in the Japanese economy were revised upwards to an increase of between 1.3 and 1.5%, against previous expectations for growth of between 1.2 and 1.4% in October.
The increase is in line with the growth of US indices and the beginning of the economic forum in Davos.