Business

Silver's Positive Fundamentals Due To Strong Demand In Key Growth Industries

Turkey’s currency is being battered from all sides at the moment. In October 2017, the Lira fell sharply after both countries suspended bilateral visa processing in the latest US/Turkey diplomatic spat (although this was reversed in early November). Two weeks ago, it fell to a record low of 3.97 to the dollar, prompting the central bank to step in and cut borrowing limits for the banks. Last week we reported how the TRY was selling off on news flow from a trial in which a Turkish banker is accused by the US government of helping Iran to evade US sanctions via oil-for-gold deals.

The dollar jumped the most in two weeks, pushing Treasury yields as much as 6bps higher (before easing back) with US equity indexes primed for a another record-setting day after Senate Republicans approved a reduction in the corporate tax rate as part of a sweeping overhaul, giving a boost to President Donald Trump’s stimulus plans. The key market catalyst was the US Senate passing the tax reform bill through a vote of 51 vs 49 just before 2am on Saturday morning.

Valuations in asset markets are “frothy” and investors are basking in the “light and warmth” of the “Goldilocks economy”, believing that nothing can upset a future of “sustained growth and low interest rates”. We observe a heavy dose sarcasm from the media briefing coinciding with the Bank for International Settlements’ (BIS) latest quarterly review. Specifically, we wonder why is it always the BIS which warns its central bank members and investors about the risk of an approaching financial crisis…and why do most of them never listen.

The last few months have seen increasing notice being paid to Bitcoin (and the broader cryptocurrency space) by those that control the status quo.

At first it was simple 'negative'-speak - "you'd be a fool to buy Bitcoin"-esque comments spewed forth from the truly ignorant or intentionally-ignorant (this group included bank CEOs, asset managers, payments systems, and remittance services) but to no avail, those fools saw the value of their bitcoins surge... Like the Winklevoss twins...