Month: November 2017

Google has a new site for tracking your investments

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Google Finance got a complete redesign on Tuesday.

The new version replaces an aging portal that looked outdated but still provided valuable information. The new Google Finance is smarter and takes advantage of your search history. For example, since Google knows what you’re looking up, it automatically pulls in ticker symbols for companies you’ve read about and can recommend others to follow.

It’s rolling out to users now, so some people will have to wait a day or two for the new version hits their browsers.

Here’s a look at the new Google Finance.

The new homepage

This is the new Google Finance homepage. It shows information on stocks or companies that you’ve recently searched. In this case, we looked up Nvidia and Netflix. At the bottom, Google recommends stocks. The right of the screen gives a snapshot of U.S. and global markets.

Your Stocks

This is your stocks page, where you can follow specific companies. Think of this as the portfolio section from the old Google Finance. You’ll get a snapshot of stocks you own or want to track. However, you can’t create different portfolios, which was a unique feature in the old version.

Local Markets

This is your stocks page, where you can follow specific companies. Think of this as the portfolio section from the old Google Finance. You’ll get a snapshot of stocks you own or want to track. However, you can’t create different portfolios, which was a unique feature in the old version.

Local Markets

This is the new local markets page. It shows the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 Index and the Nasdaq Composite in the U.S., with charts and performance for each market. The chart can be updated to reflect changes over the past month, three months, one year, five years or from the beginning of trading. The bottom of the page shows local market news.

World Markets

This is the world markets tab. It looks just like global markets. Here we see a snapshot of the Dow, the German DAX Performance Index and a look at the performance of the finance. There are also news feeds if you scroll down.

News

Here’s a look at the news feeds. The topics consist of information relevant to the tab you’ve selected. Here you will see the top stories on the homepage that are related to what you have searched. Also note that since the news is further down the page, there’s additional information on global exchanges and currency exchange rates.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Bitcoin surges to $11,000 before plunging 18%, recovers from day’s low

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Bitcoin saw a massive, sudden spike just after it broke through a closely watched milestone Tuesday night. The cryptocurrency traded at an all-time high of USD 11,377.33, according to industry site CoinDesk.

However, shortly after reaching the milestone, the cryptocurrency plunged 18 percent to USD 9,292 on Wednesday. Bitcoin then attempted recovery and in the late afternoon and was trading around USD 9,795.

Much of that incredible gain had come in just the 12 hours after the cryptocurrency smashed through the USD 10,000 mark that many analysts had been hyping for months.

All told, it’s been an exponential ascent from 6 cents seven years ago and less than USD 1,000 at the start of this year.

In pics – Bubble or not! Facts you might not know about bitcoin rally

Since bitcoin’s market capitalization is less than USD 200 billion, enthusiasts point out the digital currency could rise dramatically if it draws even a tiny fraction of the world’s USD 200 trillion in traditional financial market assets.

More than 120 “cryptofunds” have launched, including some run by Wall Street veterans, according to financial research firm Autonomous Next. In another move towards establishing bitcoin’s legitimacy as an asset class, the world’s largest futures exchange, CME, is planning to launch bitcoin futures in the second week of December.

Former Fortress hedge fund manager Michael Novogratz predicted on CNBC’s “Fast Money” in October that bitcoin would reach USD 10,000 in the next six to 10 months. As bitcoin rose above USD 9,700 Monday, Novogratz said in another “Fast Money” segment that bitcoin could “easily” be at USD 40,000 at the end of 2018.

Last Wednesday, Fundstrat’s Tom Lee raised his mid-2018 price target for bitcoin to USD 11,500 from USD 6,000. That followed a similar upgrade last Monday by Standpoint Research’s Ronnie Moas, who raised his 2018 price target for bitcoin to USD 14,000 from USD 11,000.

However, other market watchers remain highly critical of bitcoin. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has called the digital currency a “fraud” and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has said bitcoin is an “index of money laundering.” Aswath Damodaran, a professor of corporate finance and valuation at New York University’s Stern School of Business, has also noted that unless bitcoin can be used for ordinary transactions, “it could be just another fad.”

U.S. dollar-bitcoin trading volume only makes up about 20 percent of the total, according to CryptoCompare. Japanese yen trading in bitcoin dominates at about 61 percent, while trading in South Korean won accounts for about 11 percent, according to CryptoCompare.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Tesla-style electric passenger planes to be developed by Airbus, Rolls-Royce and Siemens

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Airbus, Rolls-Royce and Siemens have teamed up to develop a passenger plane powered by a hybrid-electric motor.

The aim of the project — dubbed the E-Fan X — is to replace one of four gas turbine engines on a short-haul airliner with the motor for a test flight by 2020. If successful, a second gas turbine motor would then be swapped out.

“We see hybrid-electric propulsion as a compelling technology for the future of aviation,” said Paul Eremenko, Airbus’ chief technology officer, in a press release Tuesday.

The next big step is for German manufacturer Siemens to develop a two-megawatt motor to take power from a new Rolls-Royce generator. The wattage is comparable to about seven times the peak output from a Tesla Model S.

Airbus has previously estimated that a regional short-haul plane able to carry around 100 people would need a combined power output of about 20 megawatts.

The European aircraft manufacturer said it is building on its small two-seater hybrid-electric plane, the E-Fan Plus, which debuted in summer 2016 at the EAA AirVenture Oshkosh air show in Wisconsin.

Plans to develop that jet for commercial use have been shelved as the ambition for electric flight has now been upped to include short-haul passenger aircraft.

The E-Fan X program will see Rolls-Royce develop the gas turbine engine and two-megawatt generator; Siemens will develop the two-megawatt electric motor under the wing; and Airbus will take responsibility for integration of the system, including how it works with flight controls.

The European Commission’s environmental goals for the air transport industry by 2050 include a 75 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, a 90 percent reduction in nitrogen oxides and a 65 percent fall in noise pollution.

The three companies said in a joint press release that these ambitions cannot be met by current technologies and that hybrid-electric propulsion is the most promising solution.

Zunum Aero, a start-up based in suburban Seattle, believes millions of people will be comfortable flying on the hybrid electric planes it plans to deliver starting in 2022.

The hybrid electric jet will seat up to 12 people, fly up to 700 miles and have operating costs of 8 cents per seat mile, according to the firm behind it.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Bitcoin could ‘easily’ reach $40,000 by the end of 2018, hedge fund legend Novogratz says

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

‘Buy bitcoin with credit card’ is on the rise on Google and sparking bubble fears

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The quest to find whether cryptocurrency bitcoin is in a bubble could be found on search engines, where one bubbly sounding term is on the rise.

Google Trends says the search term “buy bitcoin with credit card” is around its historic peak, notes Nick Colas, co-founder of Data Trek Research and the first Wall Street analyst to take the digital currency seriously.

While the phrase is only about 3 percent of all bitcoin searches, it is on the rise.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

The Fed launched QE nine years ago – these four charts show its impact

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Nine years ago, the United States was deep into a financial crisis.

GDP (gross domestic product) growth was contracting at the fastest rate in 50 years, and the economy was losing hundreds of thousands of jobs each month.

The Fed funds target rate — the interest rate charged by commercial banks to other banks who are borrowing money — was already close to zero. But the U.S. central bank took unprecedented steps to lower interest rates even further. The Fed launched quantitative easing (QE), ultimately buying trillions of dollars of government bonds and mortgage-backed securities.

Between 2008 and 2015, the Fed’s balance sheet, its total assets, ballooned from $900 billion to $4.5 trillion.

Fed officials contend their unconventional policy actions saved the U.S. from a crisis worse than the Great Depression.

Joseph Gagnon, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, who worked at the Fed and helped launch QE in 2008, said research shows quantitative easing succeeded in lowering long-term interest rates.

“It’s rare in economics that you get such an overwhelming answer that we can all agree on,” Gagnon said.

But Gagnon said there is more disagreement when it comes to the effects of QE and lower interest rates on growth and inflation.

GDP growth has bounced back since 2008 and has held steady near 2 percent.

Many investors feared QE would cause runaway prices, but inflation has remained stubbornly low.

The Fed’s low-interest rate policy made it inexpensive for the government to continue to borrow and spend. U.S. public debt is near $20 trillion and some fear that bubble could burst as the Fed steps out of the government market.

Nine years after the Fed launched QE, the central bank is once again entering new territory as it begins to wind down its trillion-dollar balance sheet.

As of October, the Fed will let billions of dollars of securities mature each month without reinvesting them. It will gradually increase the amount of maturing bonds each quarter over the next year. HSBC Chief Economist Kevin Logan said this process is new territory for the Fed.

“This is a big experiment,” Logan said. “It’s something that’s never been done before.”

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Asia markets edge down as Korean market falls 1.3% on declines in tech

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Asian indexes edged down on Monday despite the firmer lead from Wall Street last week. Chinese markets traded lower as investors kept an eye on developments in the bond market while South Korea’s Kospi slid on weakness in tech names.

Markets on the move

Japan’s Nikkei 225 erased early gains to slip 0.33 percent. Trading houses and manufacturing names made losses, but some notable names continued to cling to gains. Toyota was up 0.23 percent as other major automakers traded lower, SoftBank Group gained 0.12 percent and Nintendo rose 1.74 percent.

Across the Korean Strait, the Kospi fell 1.25 percent, with tech stocks dragging on the broader index. Market movers included blue-chip heavyweight Samsung Electronics, which saw its stock tumble 4.4 percent. SK Hynix, meanwhile, fell 3.53 percent and Naver lost 2.35 percent.

The Korean won was in focus ahead of the Bank of Korea’s Thursday interest rates decision, with a majority of economists polled by Reuters last month indicating that a 25 basis point rate hike was expected. The currency traded at 1,087.21 won to the dollar, near its strongest levels in around two and a half years.

Down Under, the S&P/ASX 200 was slightly lower, trading 0.07 percent below the flat line. Resource plays Rio Tinto and BHP gave up early gains to slip 0.43 percent and 0.29 percent respectively. Energy-related stocks were also downbeat, with Santos falling 1.78 percent.

Greater China equities edged down in early trade as markets continued to focus on climbing bond yields. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was down 0.68 percent. On the mainland, the Shanghai Composite lost 0.67 percent and the Shenzhen Composite shed 0.77 percent.

Stateside, US stocks closed higher on Friday, with retail stocks notching gains as investors tooks bets on a strong holiday shopping season.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.14 percent, or 31.81 points, to close at 23,557.99 and the S&P 500 edged up 0.21 percent to close at 2,602.42 — its first time finishing above the 2,600 mark.

The lead up

Chinese industrial companies saw their profits grow 25.1 percent in October compared to the year before, according to Reuters. That was a touch below the 27.7 percent rise seen in September.

Germany was in the spotlight over the weekend, with the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) reversing course over coalition talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union. A member of the SPD on Saturday indicated that party members were likely to approve entering a coalition with the CDU if SPD leaders made a “convincing proposal.”

On the data front, business confidence data in Germany hit a record level in November, according to data released Friday. The Ifo survey rose to 117.5 compared to the 116.6 projected in a Reuters poll.

The euro traded higher on Friday following those developments, touching as high as USD 1.1944 during the session compared to Thursday’s close of USD 1.1848. The common currency traded at USD 1.1921 at 10:09 a.m. HK/SIN.

Elsewhere, China announced Friday it would be reducing tariffs on 187 consumer goods. The tariff cuts, which will affect everything from special infant milk formula to clothing, are set to take effect from December 1, 2017.

Meanwhile, bitcoin hit yet another record high as investor interest picked up during the holiday season. The cryptocurrency cracked the $9,600 mark on Monday, according to industry site CoinDesk.

Watching the dollar

The dollar was steady against a basket of major currencies. The dollar index stood at 92.816 at 10:03 a.m. HK/SIN, near its lowest in around eight weeks. The greenback lost steam after initially firming against the yen, with the US currency slipping to 111.41 after rising as high as 111.68 during the session.
The commodities trade

Oil markets were in focus ahead of a Nov. 30 meeting among major oil producers. Ahead of that meeting, Russia indicated that it was prepared to support a deal that extended an ongoing OPEC-led output cut.

Brent crude futures were 0.14 percent lower at USD 63.77. US crude futures were off 0.42 percent at USD 58.71 per barrel after settling at a two-year high of USD 58.95 last week.

What’s on tap

Here’s the economic calendar for Monday (all times in HK/SIN):

12:00 p.m.: Thailand new car sales
4:30 p.m.: Hong Kong balance of trade

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Bitcoin cracks $9,600 just hours after breaking $9,000 level

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Bitcoin surged to yet another new record high on Monday, breaking a record set during the Thanksgiving weekend stateside.

The cryptocurrency jumped to an all-time high of $9,671.84 hours after cracking the $9,400 level on Sunday, according to industry site CoinDesk. It later pared some gains to trade at $9,631.21 at 10:00 a.m. HK/SIN, rising some 3.27 percent on the day.

“The move appears to be retail driven,” said Brian Kelly, a CNBC contributor and CEO of BKCM, which runs a digital assets strategy.

The largest bitcoin exchange in the U.S., Coinbase, added about 100,000 accounts between Wednesday and Friday — just around Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday — to a total of 13.1 million. That’s according to public data available on Coinbase’s website and historical records compiled by Alistair Milne, co-founder and chief investment officer of Altana Digital Currency Fund. Coinbase had about 4.9 million users last November, Milne’s data showed.

The surge in interest also comes on the back of CME’s announcement that it will list bitcoin futures in the second week of December. The launch of a derivatives product for the digital currency will mark another step in establishing bitcoin as a legitimate asset class.

Still, with the digital currency having risen by some 869 percent year-to-date, plenty have taken to pointing out the potential pitfalls of what they see as a price bubble.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon in October warned that those “stupid” enough to buy bitcoin will ultimately “pay the price for it.” He added that he did not comprehend the value of currencies that were not backed by a government and that “[t]he only value of bitcoin is what the other guy’ll pay for it.”

Still, many others have offered a more moderate assessment for bitcoin and its ascent. Khaldoon Al Mubarak, the head of Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company, said people ought to be open-minded when looking at the digital currency.

More recently, a poll among chief financial officers on CNBC’s Global CFO Council showed 27.9 percent of 43 respondents thought bitcoin was “real but in a bubble” while 27.9 percent thought the cryptocurrency was a “fraud.” Just 14 percent of the executives said bitcoin was “real and going higher.”

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Asian indexes trade mixed as China markets look to bounce back

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Asian markets were mixed, following a relatively quiet overnight trading session as US markets had been closed for the Thanksgiving holiday. Investors also kept an eye on Chinese markets, which bounced back after taking a tumble in the last session.

Markets on the move

Japan’s Nikkei 225 was lower by 0.47 percent as markets reopened for trade after a day off. Losses were seen in trading houses, banks, manufacturing and retail names. Technology stocks were a mixed picture: Nintendo rose 1.98 percent, SoftBank Group edged up 0.46 percent and Sharp was down 0.98 percent.

Across the Korean Strait, the Kospi tacked on 0.03 percent, with tech heavyweight Samsung Electronics off by 0.07 percent. Brokerages and financials were slightly lower.

Down Under, the S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.24 percent. Most sub-indexes hovered around the flat line. The industrials and information technology sub-indexes, however, fell 0.62 percent and 0.82 percent respectively.

Chinese equities were in focus after greater China markets recorded sharp declines in the last session. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index clawed back gains to climb 0.69 percent after closing 1 percent lower on Thursday. Still, the index remained below the 30,000 mark it topped for the first time in a decade earlier this week.

On the mainland, the Shanghai Composite edged up 0.08 percent and the Shenzhen Composite was higher by 0.23 percent. The blue-chip CSI 300 index, which had suffered its largest one-day fall since June 2016 in the last session, gained 0.19 percent.

A mix of tighter lending rules and firmer bond prices were seen as reasons for declines in the last session. Market watchers said shares that were sold off on Thursday had in fact risen in the past weeks and continued to possess relatively good fundamentals despite falling on Thursday.

European equities closed little changed on Thursday, with trade volumes weaker than usual. The pan-European STOXX 600 finished the session up 0.02 percent. In individual markets, France’s CAC 40 rose 0.5 percent and Britain’s FTSE 100 edged down 0.02 percent by the end of the day.

US markets have a shortened trading day on Friday.

The lead up

On the data front, the European composite Purchasing Managers’ Index released overnight rose to 57.5 in November. A Reuters poll had projected the figure to remain unchanged from October’s reading of 56. That showing suggested broad-based recovery in the euro zone.

The euro held onto most overnight gains after strengthening for a third consecutive session on Thursday on the back of the upbeat economic indicators. The common currency traded at USD 1.1847 at 9:51 a.m. HK/SIN after climbing as high as USD 1.1855 overnight.

More generally, the dollar remained on the back foot against a basket of six major currencies as cautious minutes from the Federal Reserve released Wednesday continued to weigh on the currency. The dollar index stood at 93.186 at 9:31 a.m. HK/SIN, compared to Thursday’s close of 93.118. Against the yen, the greenback was a touch firmer at 111.32.
Corporate news

Australian department store chain Myer’s annual general meeting is set to take place on Friday as its board faces off against Solomon Lew, a dissident shareholder unhappy with the company’s strategy. Lew’s Premier Investments group has a 10.77 percent stake in Myer, according to local media. Shares of Myer were flat.

Also in retail news, e-commerce giant Amazon launched trial operations in Australia on Thursday, Reuters reported. An Amazon employee declined comment on the matter, the wire service said.

Meanwhile, shares of Mitsubishi Materials tumbled 9.05 percent after the company acknowledged that some of its units falsified product data to meet requirements. That news came on the back of a data falsification scandal at Kobe Steel.

SenseTime Group, a Chinese artificial intelligence company, intends to launch an initial public offering, Reuters reported on Thursday. SenseTime is also attempting to expand in the US, with plans to begin a research and development unit in the country as early as 2018 in the works.

The commodities trade

US West Texas Intermediate tacked on 0.6 percent to trade at USD 58.37 per barrel, near the two-year high of USD 58.58 touched in the previous session. While Thursday trade had been lighter than usual, prices had been supported by the closure of the Keystone pipeline, as well as the drawdown in US inventories.

Brent crude futures edged down 0.16 percent to trade at USD 63.45.

What’s on tap

Here’s the economic calendar for Friday (all times in HK/SIN):

12:00 p.m.: Malaysia October inflation rate
1:00 p.m.: Singapore October industrial production
4:30 p.m.: Taiwan third-quarter GDP growth
7:30 p.m.: India foreign exchange reserves

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Fed officials fear financial market ‘imbalances’ and possibility of ‘sharp reversal’ in prices

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Federal Reserve officials expressed largely optimistic views of economic growth at their most recent meeting but also started to worry that financial market prices are getting out of hand and posing a danger to the economy.

Minutes from the Oct. 31-Nov. 1 Federal Open Market Committee meeting indicate members with almost universally positive views on growth — the labor market, consumer spending and manufacturing all were showing solid gains.

While there were disagreements on the pace of inflation, and even a discussion about changing the Fed’s approach to price stability, the sentiment otherwise was largely positive.

Moreover, they said the picture could get even better if Congress lowers corporate taxes as part of the reform plan making its way through the Senate.

“In their discussion of the economic situation and the outlook, meeting participants agreed that information received since the FOMC met in September indicated that the labor market had continued to strengthen and that economic activity had been rising at a solid rate despite hurricane-related disruptions,” the minutes stated.

However, when it came to evaluating market conditions, the talk took a more cautious tone.

Stocks have been on a tear throughout 2017, setting a series of record highs and adding trillions in value. That’s come both on the heels of stronger corporate earnings and hopes that the tax reform plan, which would take the corporate rate from 35 percent to 20 percent, becomes a reality.

Some members feared what would happen if the market suddenly took a hit.

“In light of elevated asset valuations and low financial market volatility, several participants expressed concerns about a potential buildup of financial imbalances,” the minutes said. “They worried that a sharp reversal in asset prices could have damaging effects on the economy.”

Concerns about the surge in stocks are not new at the Fed, but most officials have downplayed the idea that the market is in a bubble. Wall Street also has been at odds about the market, with Bank of America Merrill Lynch warning of a market top coming in 2018 though Goldman Sachs has predicted another big year.

Some members said the bull market was justified by a continued low “neutral” rate of interest that is neither overly restrictive nor accommodative to growth.

And there also was mention of “regulatory changes” that had helped “an appreciable strengthening of capital and liquidity positions in the financial sector over recent years,” which made the system less prone to shocks or sudden market drops.

President Donald Trump has taken a three-pronged approach to economic growth and frequently boasts of the stock market gains. In addition to tax reform, he has cut business regulations and is expected in the coming months to unveil a plan to boost infrastructure spending.

During the year, economic growth has increased, with GDP gaining 3.1 percent and 3 percent the past two quarters and on track to be around the same level in the fourth quarter.

FOMC members noted multiple areas of positive developments. The labor market is “operating at or above full employment,” GDP is likely to “grow at a pace exceeding that of potential output,” and even inflation has been slowed only by “temporary or idiosyncratic factors.”

But on inflation, the consensus was weaker, with some members disagreeing with the notion that all the softness was due to issues that would fade.

Other members, though, thought the Fed could be in danger of waiting too long for inflation to rise and could risk further instability in the financial markets. Several members said the upcoming data would be critical in determining whether they felt the Fed was close to meeting its 2 percent inflation goal.

A “couple” members even suggested the Fed tweak its approach to inflation, moving away from the 2 percent goal and toward a more nebulous “gradually rising path” in prices instead.

As a matter of policy, the committee chose not to hike rates at the meeting, as expected, but members indicated that gradual rate hikes are likely in the future. Markets are assigning a nearly 100 percent probability to a December rate hike, though only factoring in one or two so far for 2018.

Also at the meeting, members discussed the well-publicized reduction of the Fed’s $4.5 trillion balance sheet. Under the plan, the central bank is letting a capped level of proceeds from the bonds it owns run off each month. Fed officials agreed the program thus far has run smoothly.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow