Stocks roared, while India’s well-meaning currency revamp hit numerous stumbles. While you work off the turkey and shake off the family squabbles, here’s this week’s Sizzles and Fizzles.
Headed into a short week, the news was anything but sleepy. So grab the antacids, put down the remote, shove aside your cousin who hasn’t stopped playing video games on your laptop since she arrived and peruse this week’s Sizzles and Fizzles.
SIZZLE
US Stocks
What could be more sizzling than all main indices hitting new highs? The Dow especially hit an important milestone, crossing and closing above the important 19,000-point threshold, once a psychological barrier for investors and now possibly viewed as … a level of support? Valuations be darned, stocks are sizzling.
Digital Payments
Mastercard has issued what can be seen as a clarion call to action within the digital payments space. Transparency, privacy, security and accessibility all deserve industry-wide consideration and a proactive mindset. After all, you can’t get to where you’re going without a compass (OK, digitally speaking, a GPS).
Big Banks
The post-financial crisis legislative landscape created a position powerful but left unfilled: a vice chairman at the Fed. The incoming Trump administration may fill that role, and the seat holder would hold some sway over how big banks are regulated. The conventional wisdom holds that many regulations tied to capital and risk may be eased once the vice chairperson comes on board.
FIZZLE
India demonetization
The road to monetary Hades may be paved with 500-rupee and 1,000-rupee bills. As of this writing, 86 percent of India’s currency was banned in one fell swoop, setting the stage for (as yet fairly unabated) queues at ATMs and a return to bartering in rural areas. Not exactly the smoothest of transitions.
NYC Hacks
This is not the Big Apple you want to remember. It was disclosed this week that hackers pulled off data breaches at some of the biggest marquee locations in New York City, including Radio City Music Hall and Madison Square Garden, lifting credit card data, codes and names — over the course of nearly a year. Fizzle for the City That Never Sleeps, except when it comes to data security.
Consumers (?)
This one remains to be seen, as we have yet to find out the impact of Thanksgiving weekend on retailers and the people who love them enough to shop, even stuffed with stuffing, turkey and who knows what else. But one thing is for certain: Fraud attempts will be on the rise. Could be a fizzle for consumers caught off guard in an age when hundreds of millions of accounts have been breached.
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