Business

Despite the FTSE 100 soaring to new record highs, Britons are holding onto their cash in a sign that they may be hunkering down in the face of economic uncertainties, according to the British Bankers Association.

As Bloomberg reports, personal deposits grew an annual 4.8 percent in November, data compiled by the BBA show. They increased by 32.4 billion pounds ($39.7 billion) in the first 11 months of the year, outstripping the 19.8 billion-pound growth in the same period of 2015.

And while FTSE 100 breaks to new record highs today...

Markets are trading off a bit here, as Dow 20,000 proves to be wonderfully elusive. Since everyone expected we'd reach 20k by New Year's, we'll probably never reach it at all.

Heading into 2017, it's important to formulate a gameplan and prepare for any headwinds that might pose a problem for the stability of markets -- else you're just shooting in the dark -- like morons.

Here are some things to pay attention to in 2017.

As OPEC, which currently is pumping crude at a record rate yet has managed to fool algos and "experts" into bidding up crude to multi-month highs on "promises" it will cut a little over 1 million bpd in output starting in 2017, an "agreement" which Russia and other Non-OPEC nations may or may not join depending on whether OPEC states comply with the cuts (Russia has made it very clear it won't start cutting for a a while in the new year), a problem OPEC has long hoped to avoid mentioning, let alone addressing, has emerged.

A giant rooster statue resembling U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has been erected in China’s Shanxi Province. The sculpture was inspired by Trump’s iconic hairstyle and gestures. Described as the perfect blend of Chinese and Western cultures, it heralds the upcoming Year of the Rooster in China and the start of a new Trump presidency in US. The giant rooster figure appears outside a shopping mall in downtown Taiyuan, in north China’s Shanxi Province.