Mining Stocks take a Toll Due To Plunge in Copper Prices

The concerns over the slowing global economy complimented with the excess supply saw a major slide in the prices of copper. The shares of coppers miners dipped low in the morning trade and future prices of the copper saw a major upheaval wherein tumbled down to a 5 year low. Wednesday drop is incidentally the sixth consecutive decline the copper prices and currently the copper are trading at $5,560 per ton. The sudden and steep decline in prices is causing a significant pain to major mining companies like FCX, Glencore and others whose stocks has taken a beat down by recording a massive low.

The Major Copper Producers Take A Hit

Freeport McMoRan Inc known as FCX which is the largest copper producer listed on stock exchange saw a massive decline of 9.5%. Freeport shares are now at trading at $19.05 which is its lowest registered price since April 2009. Even the other suppliers of the metals shared the same fate and fell considerably low. Glencore Plc (GLEN) which is the third largest producer saw a drop of 12% in London while the First Quantum Minerals fell by 27% in Toronto.

A Kazakhstan copper producer Kaz Minerals Plc (KAZ) also registered a fall by 23% in London while Vedanta Resources Plc (VED) which a giant producer of copper in Indian and Zambia fell by 20% followed by Antofagasta Plc (ANTO) registered a drop of 13%.

Drop In Copper Prices Raises Concern

Investors are keeping a keen interest in the fate of the copper prices which doesn’t seem to have any silver lining for the moment. This precious metal is characteristically referred as ‘Dr. Copper’ due to wide spread usage in various industries. Copper is the recent entrant in the club of commodities market which had registered a sharp plunge in its rates globally after the fall in the prices of the oil. Just like the oil, copper tend to have deep impact upon the world economy as it is key element for the phone lines, cables and other infrastructures. The world largest copper producers are in order of their production ability are Chile, Chiba, Peru, US and Australia.

The sudden and deliberate fall in copper price is a major concern and it is seen as a domino effect rising due to considerable rout in oil prices. It is now spreading to other commodities which include copper as well. This is also perplexing and points towards the imminent slowdown in global economy which is deeper than thought and certainly it wouldn’t be limited to energy market.

World Bank Shows A Slow Global Economic Forecast

Owing to the steep drop in prices of various commodities the World Bank has cut down its global economic growth forecast to just 3% from the 3.4%. The data of Wednesday even pointed out that the December retail sales had declined much more than expected earlier. The price fall in crude oil had made investors quite uneasy about holding on to the energy stocks and their shedding of those would inevitably lead to more losses in various commodities which includes coppers as well.

Google Declares ‘Inflation’ As the Least Searched Topic

The cost of living is increasing day by day due to the rise in the prices of essential commodities throughout the countries. As per the Google analysis of the search trends the term ‘inflation’ comes out a biggest buzzword from the Indian searches. The term inflation has seen a tremendous search interest in past few years but now this has completely died down with such a decline that it is now being declared as the least searched topic on the search engine this year.

This is credited to the rate cuts in the crude oil prices along with new productive reforms initiated by the government. However bad weather coupled with unexpected rain and dense fog and triggered a sudden rise in the wholesale prices of the vegetables.

Inflation Term Showed A Peak In Search in 2013

The searches for the world ‘inflation’ on the Google’s search engine peaked around mid-August to end-October in 2013. But this very trend shows a mightier dip in interest for the same time period in 2014. The successful general elections followed with a robust and stable government at the centre has ensured that the interest remains ignited around the market price war. The new government has effectively managed to address the issue of ‘inflation’ in a more dignified and forceful manner than earlier government. This is being reflected in the decline of the searches based on the inflation in the past few months.

Uttar Pradesh Generated Most Search Queries For Inflation

On national scale the term inflation was being searched from all the parts of countries alike but an in-depth analysis of the regional interest rate shows a much clearer picture. Uttar Pradesh generates the most number of search queries related to inflation followed by Maharashtra, Delhi, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh along with Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.

Year based analysis indicates that 2010 was the year which showed highest search interest in ‘inflation’, a slight dip was seen in 2011. People had taken the help of the search engine giant Google’s network to increase their understanding of the inflation and to keep tab on the various developments related to the grave issue of price rise and inflation.

Repo Rate Was Also Searched Frequently

The subsequent rise and fall in the rate inflation in last few years had also affected the bank interest rates to a great extent. Search queries were also generated around the ‘Repo Rate’ which is set by the Reserve Bank Of India in order to counter the inflation. This also shows that how much impact or concern people felt during that particular time interval with the frequent price rises and inflation.

The inflation was at its peak in 2013 and ‘Repo Rate’ related queries showed a peak in the Google search results in month of September.

The drop in the price of crude oil in international market has resulted in the recent roll-backs on the fuel prices. The searches are being continuously made on the repo rate as people are expecting a cut in it before February 2015.

Mobile Payments Spurts Up, Apple Seems to Lost the Plot

People are taking up the mobile payment platforms whole heartedly rather than being extremely concerned in the recent times. An Accenture survey brought out some interesting facts which show that 40 percent of the North American consumers are actively using the Smartphones to make a payment at merchant location. Furthermore the 60 percent consumers who had kept themselves aloof from the mobile payment cited mainly security worries and privacy concerns. But still they show a tendency towards using it once these issues are sorted out.

Payment Technologies Improvement Is Demanded By Consumers

This survey also pointed out that the consumers are embracing the alternative forms of payments as they are quicker and much swifter than the traditional banking methods. Banks are quite sceptic about it and they are paying their keen interest on further developments. The payment technologies are expected to continue to evolve in coming times and the financial intuitions would be required to upgrade their middle and back-office systems in order to supports the customer demands for faster and more real time digital payments. It is the consumers who are driving the changes in the payments and the institutions have to adapt o fulfil their needs.

Apple Pay Promises To Provide Better Services

The Apple made biggest shake up in mobile based payment platform when it announced its feature rich payments system, tentatively titled Apple Pay. This NFC compatible system would allow the users with iPhone 6 and 6 Plus to make payments over 200,000 retail locations in the United States. Apple boasts a number of features which is expected to eliminate the consumers top mobile payments concerns.

Apple Gets a Jolt from MCX

MCX is a consortium of over 70 of the largest retailers in the United States which had came up with their own version of mobile wallet called ‘Current C’. These merchants have a huge clout and they are control in one in five retail dollars spent in the US stores. Furthermore they had also announced that they would be accepting the Apple Pay in their stores.

Consumers Sticks With Major Card Providers

This survey has also pointed out toward the trend of sticking up with the established and trusted credit card companies such as Visa, MasterCard and Amex which stands at 72 percent. Another 70 percent has said that they use PayPal as an alternative. 79 percent mobile users who find discounts and coupons based on their past purchases find it attractive. 29 percent had affirmed that they are willing to be tracked but only by trusted merchants.

Millennials are driving the changes in the mobile payments systems. They come from the age group of 18-34 and they are actively using mobile wallets. Report suggests that 30 percent of them are eager to try out wearables as a payment device, 29 percent of them uses PayPal at least weekly and 13 percent use digital currencies today. Apple Pay has a unique ability to change the consumer behaviour on a larger scale but their efforts would be based on satisfying the millennial first, if they wish to win over other competitors.

How to Find the Best Prepaid Debit Cards

Prepaid debit cards were introduced to provide a medium of quick and handy payment transaction to the consumers. They were relatively fast than the traditional cheques in the business operations. Prepaid debit cards very soon made their in the modern banking solutions mainstream than expected.

Statics projects that almost more than $200 billion dollars are loaded on it in each fiscal year. These cards also give additional advantages to the consumers like mobile check deposits, direct deposit and check writing. Most of these prepaid cards costs very little in using and adds no more than few dollars a month.

Ranking of Different Prepaid Debit Cards

Ranking the prepaid cards is a challenging work. The fees attracted by the bank on the prepaid card essentially depend upon its usage. Same kind of card could a particular almost nothing while another person who suffers from frequent cash loads and out-of-network ATM withdrawals would end paying much more amount. Consumers taking advantage of the direct deposit or those who loads certain amount of their card each month as well as who utilizes for limited number of transaction would end up in attracting significantly lower fees.

The Best Prepaid Debit Cards For The Consumers

After carefully analysing the fees charged by the different banks on their specific kinds of pre paid debit cards, this list has been compiled which gives the best options available for the consumers.

American Express

American Express leads the chart with its two cost effective prepaid cards which are tentatively named as the Bluebird and Serve. In reality the Bluebirds could be better described as a checking account rather than a genuine prepaid card. Both of these pre-paid comes with additional features which are appreciated by it consumers. These additional features are checking writing, money management tools and online bill pay. Both of these cards attract extremely low fees than other cards available in the market.

Kaiku

Kaiku is prepaid Visa card which offers low and quite simplified fees which costs just $3 per month covering all the services. The services provided by this are mobile check deposits, direct deposit, a intuitive & secure mobile application as well as a ‘Funds-Ometer’ which tracks how the money is being spent by the cards in an efficient manner.

Walmart MoneyCard

Walmart offer its prepaid debit card with both Visa and Mastercard. Like other it also comes with low fees, a dedicated mobile app as well as free cash reloads at the Walmart stores with the preferred version of the card.

Mango Money

This is a prepaid MasterCard which attracts low fees which is just $3 per month. It also gives a saving account option to its consumers and pays 6.00% APY in return which is beneficial in its own unique way.


Prepaid debit cards acts as an alternative for the consumers who have trouble in establishing or improving their credit record. However it would wise for the customers to become aware of the various additional benefits and different kind of fees charged by the banks before opting for a specific debit card.

Stock Market Rebound Lowers Gold Prices

Gold Prices Lower

The bounce in the stock markets all over the world at the starting of the trading week has pressurized the U.S trading early on Monday, as reflected in the moderately lower gold prices. A bearish outside market phenomenon, which is working against these precious metals, is also the reason for the higher index of the U.S dollar on this day. At $1,210.00 an ounce, February Comet Gold was last down $12.50. At $1,210.25 an ounce, Spot Gold was last down $12.20. At $16.84 an ounce, March Comet Silver was last down $0.227.

Crude Oil’s Status

Due to last week’s selling pressure, the World Stock market prices were comparatively higher on Monday for corrective bounces. The past few weeks have seen plunging price of crude oil. This has frightened the stock markets, while the consumer at gasoline pumps have benefited.

The January Nymex crude posted a corrective bounce after falling to a five-year low of $56.25 overnight. Libya, a major oil-exporter, is limiting selling interest in oil, due to some fresh violence within the country, at the starting of the trading week.

Incidents over the World Affecting the Market

Not hovering much below its recent four-year high, The U.S dollar index was firmer on Monday. For the past few months, the bearish underlying factor for the sector of raw commodity has been the stronger greenback.

The Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, after his much expected and anticipated election victory on Sunday commented that he will continue in his endeavor to boost the Japanese economy, which is presently moribund.The terrorist situation in Sydney, Australia where a gunman is retaining hostages at a café is also being kept watched by the markets, in suspicion of terrorist links.

The FOMC Meeting

A meeting of Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) that is to be held this week for discussing the monetary policy of the U.S is being anticipated by the traders and investors. Many believe that the monetary policy hawks will be favored as the Fed meeting is expected to change the statement wording slightly.

A timeline to raise interest rates might also be further elaborated by the FOMCin the meeting, as the interest rates hasn’t been increased by the Fed in six years. U.S. economic data that is to be released on Monday includes the Empire State manufacturing survey, NAHB housing market index, industrial production and capacity utilization and Treasury international capital data.

In the Near Future 

Technically, in order to lower chart consolidation after recent gains, the gold futures of February have seen sideways. The overall near-term technical advantage is still in possession of the bears. A closing above solid technical resistance during the December high of $1,239.00 is the next year-term upside price breakout objective of the gold bulls.

A closing of prices below solid technical support of $1,184.80 is the next downside near-term price breakout objective for the Bears. The first resistance is observed at $1,221.00 and then again at the overnight high of $1,225.00, while the first support is generally observed at the overnight low of $1,207.00 and then finally at $1,200.00.