Venezuela: A Latin American Crisis Venezuela’s economy has been in turmoil in recent times with its inflation skyrocketing and with no signs of slowing down, the situation may worsen. The political tensions have also been rising in one of the OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) member country whose economy has been slowly declining since the crash of oil prices in 2014. We have seen large protests against the highly unpopular president Nicolas Maduro, who won the most recent in May this year.

However, most people called it a "show election" as it had the lowest voter turnout in Venezuela’s democratic history at 46%. The Economy With the economic and social crisis rising in Venezuela, we have seen the countries inflation rise to new record highs. From reaching 4068% in January, we have seen the inflation reach 46305% last month.

Experts are predicting the number could reach 1,000,000% by the end of 2018, according to the IMF (International Monetary Fund) economist Alejandro Werner and has compared it to Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation in late 2000’s. It is worth pointing out that the second highest inflation in the world is in Sudan at 122%. Shortages in electricity, water, and public transport affect millions of people of Venezuela.

President Maduro blames countries poor economy on an economic war that he says is being led by the United States and Europe. IMF’s Alejandro Werner says that if the country’s economic and social crisis deepens, Venezuela’s economy could decrease by around 50% over the next 5 years which be one of the worst economic falls in over 60 years. "The collapse in economic activity, hyperinflation, and increasing deterioration... will lead to intensifying spillover effects on neighbouring countries," Werner wrote in a blog post. IMF is estimating an 18% decrease in Venezuela’s economy in 2018, up from 15% drop it predicted back in April.

That would be the third double-digit annual decline in a row. Werner said the projections are based on calculations prepared by IMF staff, but he warned that they have a degree of uncertainty greater than in other countries. "An economy throwing you these numbers is very difficult to project," Werner said at a news conference. "Any changes between now and December may include significant changes." The Venezuelan Currency Countries official currency - Bolivar Fuerte (VEF) has weakened dramatically in recent times. 1 US Dollar is currently worth around 206841 bolivars. The Venezuelan government has recently announced it will slash five zeros from its currency.

The announcement was made on 25th July by President Maduro and it is part of a currency reform that was already scheduled for June and was a postponed on two occasions before. The existing Bolivar Fuerte banknotes, which range from 1,000 to 100,000 will stop circulating and will be replaced by the new "bolivar Soberano", which will range from 2 to 500. The new currency is set to start circulating this month.

By Klāvs Valters Sources: Yahoo Finance, Google Maps, Banco Central De Venezuela

Nifty 50 Go Markets are proud to introduce Nifty 50 (India 50 on GO MT4). The Nifty index is listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in India and acts as a benchmark for the Indian equity markets. It is a capitalization weighted index which covers 13 sectors of the Indian economy in one portfolio.

India is the fastest growing economy of the G20 since 2014. The first quarter of 2017 saw an increase of 6.10%. This is double and even triple compared to Australia or United States.

India contains a mind whopping 1.311 billion people. They’re on track to surpass China in the next 5 years to become the most populous country in the world. Unlike China, India’s population will experience growth for decades.

The UN projects 1.5 billion in 2030 and 1.7 billion by 2050. An overlooked aspect of increasing population is what this means in terms of work force. An average Indian is 29 years old, prime working age.

Compare this to an average American or Chinese aged 37, or European at 42 and you can start to understand the long-term prospects that India offers. India in the recent past was a place with unimaginable poverty. In 1994 almost half of the population lived below the international poverty line, which is having an income less than $1.25.

Today that number has been reduced to 23%. With more people lifted out of poverty, consumer spending has skyrocketed from 549 billion in 2006 to 1.06 trillion in 2011. Already by 2025, India is predicted to be one of the largest consumer markets.

As you can see in the graph below the middle class will keep rising. With the Nifty 50, you will be investing in a diverse swatch of the Indian market with the push of a button. The index has been performing relatively well for the last couple of years with a few falls during the Brexit referendum, US election and the demonetization move by the government.

Source: Investing.com Technical analysts have forecasted a bullish trend for the Nifty 50 in 2017. With the spot rate crossing over the moving average indicated by the red line, the Nifty is trending upwards indicating a buying opportunity. More than 70 % of the stocks in the Index has a bullish trend making it worth to have the Nifty on your watch list. ( https://www.moneyworks4me.com/comp-peer/index/index/order/netsales/sort/desc/fid//type//seid//indexid/123/marketcapid//industryid//pagelimit/51 ) Source: GO Markets MT4 A few months ago, the market participants were taken by surprise with a rising Rupee.

It has rocketed against the Dollar with more that 6 % increase. Foreign investors are seizing the opportunity as they are gaining a capital appreciation and an INR appreciation at the same time. With a stronger Rupee, the market is a bull phase. “Growth is high, inflation is under control...by and large it is a positive indicator for the rest of the world.

Inflows from foreign investors have accelerated and Indian stock market is doing very well. This shows confidence in India's economy,” Jalan told BloombergQuint over the phone (Source: Bloomberg). Market participants and analysts are having mixed feelings about the strength of the Rupee.

Whilst it is good for the stock market, an appreciation of the Rupee can hurt exporters and the IT sector mainly. Most of the biggest IT companies in India receive revenue in foreign currencies and with the American clampdown on visas, it is another concern to be dealt with. As a result, the RBI unusual reluctance to intervene is deemed to be good for the stock market.

Would the rise of the Rupee in 2006-2008 whereby stock growth was substantial repeats itself? It will certainly be worth keeping an eye on the Nifty 50 over the next couple of weeks. *The interest rates and dividend adjustments on the Nifty 50 will be similar to GO Markets’ other indices. Overnight interest rates for the NIFTY50 are charged based on 1 month Mumbai Inter-Bank Offer Rate (MIBOR) plus a GO Markets fee of 2.5% per annum.

Dividend adjustments will be made from time to time when constituent stocks go ex-dividend and will result into a cash debit/credit. News about dividend adjustments will be published on GO Markets website under GO Market Daily News. By: Deepta Bolaky & Sam Hertz GO Markets

Most political scientists believe that all problems in the world are related to politics, and most economists believe that all problems are rooted in economics. However, what’s happening in Turkey now seems to be a combination of both as I'll explain. Firstly, investors have always regarded Turkey as one of the Emerging Markets with good economic growth.

We can see from the statistics that the GDP has remained an average 7% to 8% growth in the past ten years, and it even exceeded 10% in 2015. It looks pretty, right? But this is just nominal GDP.

From Economics 101 we know that we should divide nominal GDP by inflation rate to get a real GDP figure. Here is the inflation rate of Turkey: It looks bad. In July 2018 this number soared to 15.8%, which begs the question: what caused such high inflation?

Let me give you the overall picture, and then we can discuss the detail. Firstly, the high inflation is boosted by food prices and household goods such as furniture. Secondly, Turkey relies heavily on importing foods and merchandises from foreign countries, which has created a consistently negative trade balance since the 1990's.

A constant trade deficit means you have to borrow debt to satisfy the consumption of that imported good. See how Turkey’s Government debt accumulated in the past decade: Today only one country, the US, appears to escape from this natural law, by borrowing infinite new debts to cover its old debts and prolong repaying these obligations until...well... the end of the world. On the surface, it would seem all other countries need to obey this rule and repay their debts, unlike the US.

Thus, when a country’s debt is accumulating to a relatively high number (we often use Debt to GDP ratios to monitor), this country’s economy become vulnerable and potentially easier to be attacked by other financial powers. You could argue that this is an unlevel playing field in some respects and the US could well be using its ability to take advantage of this situations as they arise. A perfect example of this was George Soros who famously attacked the currency of southeast Asia Countries in 1997.

Note the foreign debt-to-GDP ratios rose from 100% to 167% in the four economies within the Southeast Asia region during 1993–96. If Turkey can somehow avoid getting involved in any significant conflicts of the world and focus on developing its economy, this whole debt issue might sort itself out over time. But unfortunately, given Turkey’s geographic location, it appears destined to be pulled into most conflicts simply by proximity.

We all know how vital areas such as Istanbul and the Turkish Straits are throughout history. Internally, Turkey has a Kurdish ethnic issue and a high household debt issue; externally it has the downing of a warplane issue with Russia, and also an Armenian genocide conflict with Germany. The list goes on.

In short, this patch of land is no stranger to dealing with massive problems. Ultimately this latest crisis comes down to one thing. Does Turkey compromise with America’s arrogant request, or make a stand against Washington's tactics and attempt to go their own way?

That is the dilemma that President Erdogan is currently facing. Lanson Chen GO Markets Analyst This article is written by a GO Markets Analyst and is based on their independent analysis. They remain fully responsible for the views expressed as well as any remaining error or omissions.

Trading Forex and Derivatives carries a high level of risk. Sources: TradeEconomics.com

On GFC’s 10-year anniversary, one cannot help but wonder about the current dispersion in the financial markets. Developed Markets (DM) equities are now divided between US and non-US, with the US outperforming every other major market. S&P is hovering around its all-time highs whereas DM are still well below their 2018 highs.

S&P 500 (White Line) Vs DM (Orange Line) In the Emerging Markets (EM) space, a problem that began with a select few countries managed to end the golden performance of 2016-17, creating an emerging market rout. Based on MSCI EM index, emerging markets were down by almost 21.5% from February highs to the mid-lows in September. MSCI EM Index In line with EM equities, the EM currencies have seen some significant moves.

Argentine Peso, Turkish Lira and Brazilian Real are all down by 49.97%, 39.62% and 18.29% respectively against the greenback (year-to-date) at the time this report was prepared. EM Worst Performers Commodities have been interesting too. Whilst a higher USD pushed commodities down in general, oil has remained relatively strong and is now trading close to a 3-year high.

Thompson Reutters Core Commodity Index (White line) Vs WTI Oil (Orange Line) Given the above mix, in this article we take a look at the levels and catalysts traders need to watch. US Equities: In the past few weeks, prominent market timing indicators called for a correction in the US markets. The first was issued in late August by Tom Demark, whose indicators and analysis are closely watched by the institutional traders, and the second, which was released a couple of weeks ago by Jason Goepfert from Sentiment Trader, in which he drew attention to the emergence of the so-called Hinderberg Omen pattern.

This pattern gauges indecision in the markets and is designed to predict a market correction within 40 days. The yellow dots in the chart below represents the occasions when this indicator has issued warnings. Hinderberg Omen on NY Composite Index For S&P to decline, there needs to be a catalyst.

In our view, this catalyst will likely have something to do with Trump and his trade tariff war. JP Morgan has recently undertaken an interesting exercise - they used the latest text mining algorithm to scan through 7000 earning transcripts and conference calls. The exercise concluded that companies are now more worried about the trade war and its impact on their bottom-line rather than that the usual suspects: tax cuts, macro headwinds., etc.

Therefore, we would be closely following the US-China trade war developments now that China has announced an additional set of tariffs on $60b worth of US imports. For the time being, the trade war doesn’t seem to have had much impact on S&P 500. However, since there is a confluence of technical warnings (both fundamental and technical), we would be looking at the 2860 area in the S&P daily chart (below).

Should this level be broken in the next 2-4 weeks, prospects for a correction can increase significantly. S&P 500 An interesting point in the chart above is the abnormally high volume on last Friday’s close, which happened to be a down day. Volume spikes at the peak of a trend are traditionally signs of inflection points.

Emerging Markets: Still a Concern Given that EM economies are often interdependent and share the same attributes, analysts did not see the EM developments in isolation and were quick to talk about a contagion risk when Turkey followed Argentina only three months later. Today, a problem that began with a select few countries has turned into an overall EM issue. The combination of a higher USD (driven by higher rates in the US) and issues such as the trade war, sanctions and domestic matters in EMs have created a vicious cycle.

On one hand, risk-averse investors are selling their emerging market assets due to economic downgrades, slower growth and trade war risks. On the other hand, by repatriating their investments back to the funding currencies (mainly USD), they force emerging market currencies to go lower, which in turn would intrigue more EM assets sales as investors fear their EM asset returns to be diminished by currency depreciation. Emerging Market Index (Orange Line) Vs US dollar index White Line) EM Short Term Rebound: Emerging markets, along with most risk assets, have recovered somewhat over the past couple of weeks.

However, we believe this recovery is mainly due to profit taking as opposed to a change of fundamentals. For the trend to reverse, we want to see the EM index to stabilise above 1100. MSCI EM Emerging Markets and Risk currencies The reason FX traders need to be aware of the EM developments is that the EM rout has a direct negative impact on high beta DM currencies such AUD and NZD.

This is shown in the chart below, where the orange line is the EM index, the blue line is AUDUSD and the red line is NZDUSD. Emerging Market index (Orange and AUDUSD (Yellow) and NZDUSD (Blue) Therefore, as long as the EM rout exists, one should expect further depreciation in the price of AUD and NZD against the USD, and other safe-haven currencies such as JPY and CHF. NZDCHF in particular looks very interesting, with a clear medium-term downward trend.

NZDCHF Commodities: While commodities in general will be heavily affected by USD, oil may remain the exception. Many analysts previously believed that cutting Iran out of the production line (as Trump’s deadline is approaching) would only have a minimal impact on the markets – this is because Iran’s relative oil production was deemed to be “just a drop in the ocean”, with Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich countries promising to pick up the shortfall immediately. However, we’ve now seen that these analyst estimations were only good on paper, where what actually is happening is far from theory.

The story went like this: Saudi Arabia announced to the world back in April that they could increase their output to 12.5 million barrels a day to fill in Iran’s gap. The reality is different: Saudi Arabia is presently only producing 10 million barrels a day. To get to the 12.5 million barrels mark, they’ll need to do a lot more drilling, and sooner rather than later.

Elsewhere in Russia, production has gone up by 250,000 barrels a day, but this won’t be enough to fill in the 2 million barrels a day gap which would be created when Trump’s sanctions on Iran becomes fully functional. Production in other OPEC countries hasn’t yet increased much either. Therefore, purely from a basic supply-demand point of view, risks seem to be on the upside rather than the downside.

From the technical point of view, oil is now in a strong and healthy bullish channel, which if it remains intact (a likely scenario), an $80 WTI won't be out of sight. WTI Crude