The cost of gold on the world market on February 18 updated the ten-month high, reaching $ 1,327 per troy ounce. This was facilitated by plans of the US Federal Reserve System (FRS) to stop growth of the base interest rate, as well as high geopolitical risks associated with both US domestic and foreign policy. In such a situation, investors prefer to increase investments in defensive assets....

Genetic testing is becoming more common in the mass consumer market. The largest players are already creating a kind of social networks in which you can connect with detected distant relatives. However, critics say that there is a question about keeping the data confidential, the possibility of leaks, and, in the case of analysis of risk diseases, how accurate such an analysis is. People are...

At the beginning of the year, international investors have significantly reduced their investments in the American and European stock markets. Apparently, they see no adequate returns amid growing expectations of a slowdown in the economies of these regions. As an alternative, investors choose companies from developing countries, which fell in price last year and now look undervalued. The Bank of...

Exports from China in January in annual terms increased by 9.1% (after the December decline by 4.4%), despite the effect of US duties, according to statistics from the PRC. At the same time, imports to China also increased, but only by 1.5% (it fell by 7.6% in December). In general, China's exports grew by 9.9% in 2018, imports - by 15.8%, the trade surplus amounted to $ 351.8 billion, which is...

Growth rates of the global trade are not only decreasing, but structural changes are taking place. Increasingly fewer products are sent abroad, share of services is consistently growing and, perhaps, already exceeds the volume of goods turnover, according to the McKinsey Global Institute report. In the future, separation between goods and services will increasingly erode, and consumption will...

The total net outflow of investments from emerging markets in 2018 amounted to $ 23 billion, the Washington Institute of International Finance calculated. In 2017, on the contrary, there was an inflow of $ 63 billion. Only in December last year, $ 26 billion leaked from emerging markets. This outflow was mainly formed by China ($ 37 billion), while the other markets of this group, on the...

The protective duties on steel and aluminum, introduced by the USA in March 2018, resulted in a significant reduction in imports into the country and redistribution of metals to other markets, in particular, to the European Union. Thus, the European Commission justified introduction of tariff quotas for main suppliers of metal. The quota allows importing goods in volumes of 2016, but if they are...

Volume of net purchases of gold from the central banks of various countries of the world, according to the World Gold Council, in 2018 amounted to 651.5 tons, which was the maximum value since 1967. This is stated in a report for the IV quarter and 2018 as a whole, published on Thursday, January 31, on the website of the World Gold Council. According to the WGC (industry organization created by...

According to results of the latest January meeting, the US Fed expectedly kept the key rate at the level of 2.25–2.5% per annum. Once again, the regulator is optimistic about state of the American economy, noting that members of the open market committee consider business expansion as the main scenario. At the same time, the Fed pointed out the need to "show patience" in further tightening...