1. Dollar Softens Following Powell’s Speech
The dollar edged lower againsts its peers on Monday after risk sentiment in the broader markets improved following a well-received speech from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. At a closely watched symposium at Jackson Hole on Friday, the Fed chairman emphasised the central bank’s intent to raise interest rates despite President Donald Trump’s recent criticism of higher borrowing costs. Powell made the case that gradual rate hikes are the best way to protect the U.S. economic recovery and keep job growth as strong as possible.*
2. IOTA Skyrockets 17% on Support from Japanese Tech Giant
IOTA’s price rose sharply in early Monday trading after a prominent Japanese tech giant came out in full support of the IOT-focused blockchain. Fujitsu, a Japanese multinational IT company, has announced plans to implement IOTA as the “new protocol standard” for Industry 4.0, a term that describes the paradigm of automation and data exchange in manufacturing. MIOTA, the native cryptocurrency of the IOTA platform, rose 17.5% to last trade at $0.62230, reaching its highest price in over two weeks. The cryptocurrency spent the better part of last week fluctuating around the $0.500 mark.**
3. Netflix Closes 5.8% Higher On Analyst Upgrade
Shares of Netflix (NFLX) surged over 6% Friday to close 5.8% higher on the back of an analyst upgrade. NFLX has managed to cap off a strong week amid a weak post-earnings bearish performance. SunTrust analysts raised their rating for Netflix stock from “hold” to “buy,” citing the potential for impressive subscriber growth in the third quarter. Specifically, the SunTrust analysts said that their firm’s analysis of web search trends pointed to the possibility that Netflix can add 5 million international subscribers during Q3, which comes in well above Netflix’s projection of 4.35 million.***
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*Source: Reuters Aug 27, 2018 / 4:47 AM
**Source: Reuters Aug 27, 2018 / 2:35 AM
***Source: Zacks.com Aug 24, 2018 15:48 ET
