They’re investors. They’re
allowed to change their minds.
Just a few weeks ago, on
September 17, the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) decided to leave
the fed funds rate unchanged. In part, this was because, “Recent global
economic and financial developments may restrain economic activity somewhat and
are likely to put further downward pressure on inflation in the near term.”
The next day, September
18, stock markets tumbled. By the time September was over, many markets had closed
on their worst quarter in four years, according to the BBC. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by almost 8 percent,
Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 7 percent, Germany’s Dax was off by almost 12
percent, and the Shanghai Composite lost more than 24 percent.
Last week, on Thursday, the
minutes of the FOMC meeting were released. Investors’ response was quite
different. Barron’s reported many
believe a rate hike during 2015 is less likely than it once was, and that reinvigorated
investor optimism:
“Going into Friday’s
session, global equity markets’ valuations were enriched by some $2.5 trillion,
according to Bloomberg calculations. As for U.S. stocks, Wilshire Associates
reckons that they tacked on 3.44 percent, or approximately $800 billion, over
the full week, based on the gain in the Wilshire 5000 index, their biggest
weekly gain in nearly 12 months.”
Why does the same news
elicit two very different responses? There are many reasons. Foremost among
them is the fact a lot of elements influence markets – investor confidence,
company valuations, central bank actions, automated trading, and many others.
What does last week’s upward
push mean? One analyst cited by Barron’s
suggested we’re seeing a bear market rally, but only time will tell.
do you Hate
doing the laundry? Then, you May be in luck. The world’s most recent laundry bot was
introduced at Japan’s 2015 Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies
(CEATEC), a technology trade show. The
Telegraph reported the robot was developed to eliminate the tedium of
laundry, which (as moms and dads everywhere know) is one of the least popular
household chores. Not only does ‘Laundroid’ wash and dry clothes, it also can
sort them, fold them, and put them away in a cupboard.
If you’re thinking, it sounds to good to be true,
you’re right – for now. Digital Trends
pointed out Laundroid works quite slowly:
“The last laundry-folding robot we saw in
action took a long time to get a small towel neatly folded into a little
rectangle, and that was with the video sped up. Laundroid is no faster, based
on a demonstration at the CEATEC...It took several minutes for the robot – hidden
inside a futuristic-looking black cabinet – to fold up a freshly washed
T-shirt, according to Engadget. Although it did the task decently, if not in
Martha Stewart-approved style, it’s obviously not ready to take on a basket
full of jeans and sheets.”
The fly in the ointment is the bot must determine a
shirt is a shirt, and a pair of pants is a pair of pants, and so on, before it
can fold items. After all, each item is folded differently. Socks, it seems,
pose a particularly ticklish challenge. So, how long does it take? Laundroid
needs about seven hours to fold a basket of clothes.
If you have a lot of laundry, you may want to
check back in a few years.
“Human
subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple, or more
direct than does nature because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and
nothing is superfluous.”
--Leonardo da Vinci, Inventor
No comments:
Post a Comment