Here’s a Summary of the Past Two Months
Fed raises rates under Powell
New Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell made his first major announcement, as the Federal Open Market Committee decided to raise interest rates. Following the announcement markets started climbing, however, they later reversed their trend, since Powell’s tone was less hawkish than expected.
Dropbox IPO soars higher than expected
Dropbox has been a global leader in file storage and sharing for over a decade, and its IPO has been one of the tech industry’s most anticipated among investors. With strong sales growth in recent years, plus expected integrations with other cloud heavyweights such as Google and Salesforce, it’s easy to understand the very warm reception Dropbox (DBX) received at its market debut on Friday. Shares soared nearly 40% shortly after trading on the NASDAQ began, pushing the company’s market valuation well beyond the targeted $7 billion to around $12 billion.
Facebook and Google Ban Crypto Ads
The crypto markets took a hit lately, after Facebook and Google, both prominent players in the online advertising space, decided to ban ads promoting cryptocurrency exchanges and ICOs. While both companies acknowledged that the cryptocurrency industry is not fraudulent as a whole, they said that the reason for the ban was too many malicious entities using the crypto craze to promote scams.
Upcoming Events in April
April 3rd, 2018
The Swedish tech giant, developer of one of the most popular music streaming services in the world, is going public. However, as opposed to other tech companies, Spotify decided to forego the IPO process, in which it could have raised funds from early investors, and opted for a direct listing. This process will make existing shares available for trading, and no new shares will be issued. It will be interesting to see how this process affects the company’s market cap, valuated at more than $20 billion.
April 11th, 2018
While always garnering attention, this month’s release of the recent Federal Open Market Committee meeting minutes carries even greater significance. In this release, the global economy could get a more through concept of new Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s economic outlook and planned monetary policy.
This Month’s Featured CopyFund
RISK
This long-term, managed investment portfolio has performed well over its first year, producing a return of just over 15%. Using machine learning, this CopyFund locates the 30 eToro traders and investors most likely to generate positive returns over the next quarter, and bundles them into a single investment instrument.
Popular Investors to follow in April
Daniel from Poland had an impressive start in 2018, with returns of more than 17%. This Popular Investor focuses mainly on currency pairs and managed to generate positive momentum for himself. Will he continue to be successful?
You should keep your eye on this Polish Popular Investor. Patrycja is a currencies and commodities trader, who has shown great performance and steady gain momentum in the eToro ecosystem. She finished 2017 at a profit of 63% – can she keep going?