Through the first eight months of 2010, a number of unexpected disasters–both natural and man-made–have taken their toll on equity markets around the world. Chile was battered by a devastating earthquake. The airline industry took a hit from a volcanic eruption in Iceland. And the oil industry has been slammed by the Deepwater Horizon fiasco in the Gulf of Mexico. Now another unexpected natural disaster is wrecking havoc across large parts of the world’s largest country, Russia. In addition to a record heat wave in the country’s capital and most populous city, much of the country has been experiencing a drought that has ravaged crop yields and forced the nation to cut off wheat exports. Moreover, massive wildfires stretching across much of the western portions of the country are threatening to choke off Moscow from the rest of the world [see Three Unlucky ETFs]. [click to continue…]
When the global economy transitioned into “recovery mode” following the latest recession, the emerging markets of the world jumped into the lead and quickly left their developed counterparts in the dust. Although advanced economies have resumed expansion, growth rates in the U.S. and Western Europe lag far behind the impressive figures being put up by [...]
In recent weeks markets have encountered turmoil with prospects for growth around the world being slashed as debt issues in Europe weigh on investors. As investors continue to flee the euro, many are flocking towards the relative safety of the U.S. dollar, further driving up the greenback and dragging down commodity prices. In addition to [...]
After struggling for much of 2009, the U.S. dollar is back on the upswing thanks not to overwhelming strength in the domestic economy, but sovereign debt issues in Europe and a subsequent “flight to quality” from international investors. Although the mounting debt of the U.S. government presents potential debt problems down the road, the dollar [...]
The week between Christmas and the new year is traditionally a quiet one on Wall Street, with volumes plummeting as traders enjoy a long vacation and many large firms shut down altogether. Indeed, the post-Christmas week of 2009 has seen little action, with most major benchmarks lacking direction in light trading. Russia, on the other [...]
The Cold War may have ended decades ago, but relations between the U.S. and Russia have never fully recovered. In recent years, tensions between these world powers have been particularly strained, as the countries clashed on issues including democracy, missile defense, NATO expansion, and independence for Kosovo. Concerns of armed conflict and nuclear war are [...]
Although Dmitry Medvedev was elected as Russia’s president nearly a year and a half ago, many Russians remain convinced that prime minister Vladimir Putin continues to call the shots. The skepticism over the president’s independence runs so deep that Medvedev joked this week that he would undergo blood tests to prove the two men aren’t [...]
China’s central bank once again stated the need for reform of the international currency system to reduce over-dependence on current reserve currencies (read: the U.S. dollar). While the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) didn’t specifically mention the dollar in its statement, the desire to replace the greenback as a central component of many countries’ foreign [...]
