BlackRock's Terry Simpson on 2018 Economic Outlook
BlackRock Investment Institute released its 2018 Global Investment Outlook on Monday. Terry Simpson, Multi-Asset Investment Strategist at the Institute, explains his outlook for the economy heading into the new year.
The top themes in 2018 include: room to run in economy growth, inflation making a comeback in select regions, and lower reward for risk. This year, the global stage saw big surprises in economic growth from Europe, Japan, and China. Simpson expects the economic recovery to continue, but adds that there won't be as many surprises in 2018.
On Sunday, CBOE launched futures contracts for cryptocurrency. During this first day on futures, Bitcoin surged 26 percent. Simpson says he sees tremendous opportunity for blockchain technology. But, Simpson says, now is not an opportune time to recommend that its institutional clients invest in crypto assets, because of lack of regulation and volatility.
An independent watchdog within the IRS reports that while taxpayer services have vastly improved, the agency is still too slow to resolve identity theft cases. And National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins says those delays are “unconscionable.” Erin M. Collins said in the report released Wednesday that overall the 2024 filing season went smoothly, though IRS delays in resolving identity theft victim assistance cases are worsening. It took nearly 19 months to resolve self-reported identity theft cases as of January, and Wednesday's report states that now it takes 22 months to resolve these cases.
Amazon.com Inc. surpassed $2 trillion in market value for the first time in afternoon trading on Wednesday. The push higher for Amazon’s stock market valuation comes a little more than a week after Nvidia hit $3 trillion and briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street. Nvidia’s chips are used to power many AI application and its valuation has soared as a result. Amazon has also been making big investments in AI as global interest has grown in the technology. Most of the company’s focus has been on business-focused products.
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