OPEC
Something Happened
Sunday, April 2nd, OPEC+ surprised the world by announcing a cut in production of 1.1 million barrels a day which sent the price rising by a massive 5.5%. The latest reductions could lift oil prices by $10 per barrel.
According to Reuters, the total volume of cuts is now 3.66 million barrels a day which equates to 3.7% of global demand.
Founder and director of Energy Aspects, Amrita Sen, said that OPEC was taking these steps as a pre-emptive measure in case of any reduction in demand.
This Means
Heightened oil prices can filter their way into all areas of the global economy causing once again an increase in inflation. If this is the case we could see a hawkish FED come back in play in May with another rate hike.
And Therefore
Currently, investors are pricing in a 25 basis point hike in May, increasing 10% since the OPEC news. This could be great news for investors with long positions in oil companies. It could also be time to look at taking profits from oil investments.
Gucci Goes Crypto
Something Happened > A key piece of news that is relevant to our audience.
Luxury fashion house Gucci followed in the shoes of fellow fashionistas Tiffany’s by announcing it was partnering with metaverse giants Yuga Labs (the $4 billion brainchild behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club) to create 3,333 NFTs KodaPendants.
They are due for launch on April 6th and can only be bought with Apecoin, Yuga’s crypto coin at an estimated cost of 450 APE ($1,917).
This Means
Last year, Tiffany’s partnered with another Yuga Labs brand, CryptoPunks, to create a limited edition NFT-backed series of 250 exclusive necklaces made of gold, ruby, and diamonds. Each necklace is unique in that they feature the likeness of the individual owner’s one-of-a-kind CryptoPunk NFT avatar. Those necklaces sold out instantly at a price of $51,000 each. Cryptopunk’s trading volume was given a massive trading boost as a result.
And Therefore
Gucci going crypto is another sign of the growing power of NFTs as a potential investor asset and NFTs adoption in the wider mainstream of society that blends the real with the virtual seamlessly.
Matic Upgrade Boosts Ethereum!
Something Happened
Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin made the first transaction on Polygon’s new zkEVM network, which promises faster and cheaper transactions than Ethereum’s main net. Buterin included a hidden hex message in the transaction and set the gas limit to 69,042, earning praise from Polygon Labs for being a “man of culture.”
Buterin’s message translated as: “A few million constraints for man, unconstrained scalability for mankind.”
Vitalik Buterin’s involvement in the launch and the inclusion of a hidden message in his first transaction have generated significant interest in the crypto community.
This Means
The launch of Polygon’s zkEVM network is being hailed as a major step in scaling decentralized protocols, with zero-knowledge rollups offering a native complement to Ethereum’s main net.
And Therefore
For investors, this interaction between Polygon and Ethereum is only going to boost Polygon’s MATIC coin, while acting as a strong indicator for investors that the crypto space is still developing strongly, progressing, growing, and will continue to provide potentially great and profitable assets going forward.
