#7 Trump’s button is bigger
Strictly speaking, this is not a financial Tweet, but the message of the #POTUS caused such a stir on Twitter that it deserves a place here anyway. Trump started the year off with a Tweet about ‘his’ nuclear button being bigger than the one on the desk of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.
Reactions varied from ridicule to outrage and everything in-between and the social medium was buzzing with ‘button-gate’ for quite some time.
KFC has trolled Trump’s nuclear button claims on Twitter https://t.co/11X7chljdr pic.twitter.com/7iMywPHarB
— Triple M Melbourne (@TripleMMelb) January 4, 2018
Go here to get an idea about the emotions this Tweet evoked.
#6 Spotify goes public, or does it?
Onto the financial Tweets now, beginning with Spotify. The popular, Stockholm-based music, podcast, and video streaming platform reportedly filed confidentially to go public.
The company plans to do things slightly different when it comes to going public. Rather than opting for an initial public offering (IPO), Spotify wants to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange via a direct listing.
Things may have become uncertain though since the company has also been sued for $1.6 billion of alleged copyright violations this week. Needless to say, the first few days of 2018 have truly been full of ups and downs for the Swedish music company.
Report: Spotify Has Confidentially Filed to Go Public https://t.co/hxgUXqJYzY pic.twitter.com/iAutEzMbMJ
— Gizmodo UK (@GizmodoUK) January 4, 2018
To see some of the many Tweets on this topic go here.
#5 The power of the sun
We all know that natural resources such as oil and gas are limited and that one day they’ll simply be gone. Developments within the renewables sector, however, are going quickly, making, for instance, solar power a lot cheaper.
As a result, solar power could kill coal a lot faster than we thought. This week, Bloomberg decided to share (once again?) its New Energy Finance outlook from June 2017 with us.
Not necessarily ‘new news’ thus, but good news nevertheless, which is why it got a place in this week’s top trending list.
Solar power will kill coal faster than you think https://t.co/Jap8QLk2dS pic.twitter.com/w6GXdoW9Ug
— Bloomberg (@business) January 1, 2018
You can find the Tweet here.
#4 Crypto, Crypto, Crypto
This week was once again all about cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin, the mother of all cryptocurrencies, reached a market cap of over $300 billion, a new all-time high.
But that’s not all.
The Ripple price kept hitting new highs this week and was at $3.24 when this article was written. This means that its market cap already is as much as 60% of bitcoin.
To finish off this week’s cryptocurrency success story, we’ve got the ethereum price which raised all the way up to a record high of more than $1000.
Let’s see what happens in this space next week, but everything seems set for the cryptocurrency market to break through its all-time high sooner rather than later.
Ethereum price tops $1000, market cap tops $100 billion | Forex Crunch https://t.co/RkxkMz6XPO
— Forex Crunch (@forexcrunch) January 5, 2018
Check out the Tweets here.
#3 AI
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is taking the world by a storm. Applications of AI can be found in many different industries: marketing, HR, e-commerce, you name it.
Retail AI startup Rubikloud – which builds SaaS products to help retailers modernize – had a good start of 2018: the company raised no less than $37 million in its Series B Funding round led by Intel Capital.
We're thrilled to announce our $37M in Series B funding led by @intelcapital with new investors @inovia and #OTEAF participating. Our existing investors @HorizonsHK and #AccessIndustries also participated in the round. https://t.co/7spXQQSodN #retail #data #ai #ml
— Rubikloud (@rubikloud) January 3, 2018
Find out what else has been tweeted about this topic here.
#2 MIFID II
Anticipated – and probably feared – for months by many finance professionals, Mifid II has finally arrived this week.
For those of you who need a quick reminder: after the big financial crisis of 2008 a lot of investors lost their trust in everything that sounded like ‘bank’ and ‘finance’.
In an attempt to restore this trust, Mifid II aims to make European markets safer, more transparent and more efficient. As a result, a considerable part of the over-the-counter trading has moved to regulated trading venues.
Mifid II, a major revamp of European Union finance rules was launched this week. Its goals: Greater transparency, competitiveness and efficiency in financial instruments, and less scope for fraud and malfeasance.https://t.co/U5xpeDgDdp pic.twitter.com/dDfV0XeXr3
— DW - Business (@dw_business) January 4, 2018
Get up to speed on Mifid II here.
#1 The Dow
On Thursday, the main US stock exchange, the Dow Jones crossed the 25 000 points.
No surprise for Greg McBride, chief financial analyst for bankrate.com:
"With the positive fundamentals - an expanding economy, continued job growth, still low interest rates and a tax reform that promises to boost corporate earnings - it's no surprise to see the market continuing to climb.”
However, with the official job figures yet to come out by the time this article gets published, the question is whether they’ll push the Dow up even further - or not.
BBC News - Dow Jones hits 25,000 for first time as bull run for global markets continues. #bbcgms 0620 https://t.co/oiVu7qRaxa
— Gary Robertson (@BBCGaryR) January 5, 2018
Go here for related Tweets.
There we have it: the first week of 2018 in 7 Tweets. We are very excited to keep tracking Twitter and will continue to bring you the top financial micro-messages from the web. See you here next week!