2017 was the year of hope, the year of compassion. We as a world experienced natural disaster from hurricanes in Florida to fires in California. We reached out to help one another in times of crisis, to come together as one and choose not to be separated. We lost legends like Tom Petty, Roger Moore, and Chris Cornell. The entertainment world was filled with shockers like Taylor Swift dropping her new album and resurgence of reggaeton with Despacito blaring from every radio. We had Entertainment scandals and the world learned to stand up and give women a voice with #metoo.
This was also a big year for Orca, we were featured in Forbes, as well as multiple podcasts, and on Business Rockstars, where not only were we featured on their website but nationally as well! We cannot wait to see what 2018 brings for us but first let's review the year in finance for 2017.
2017 in Finance was the year of the Bull, everything from the Dow Jones to interest rates and Bitcoin shot up, there were some big merges and new political tax reforms that are shifting the financial world. We took some time and reflected on the year on some of the big 2017 financial events for you.
• DOW Jones Shattered Records: The Dow Jones, started off the year with a bullish bang topping $20,000 and has kept the growth up for the whole year, now just shy of $25,000 this is the highest it has ever been and it continues to break records. This is due to a strong economic growth and bullish investors. Don’t know what the Dow Jones is click here
• Warren Buffet Making Moves: Our Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffet usually stays pretty quiet but in 2017 he decided to make some major moves shaking up the market. Warren broke up with IBM, and Wall-Mart and invested heavily in the airline industry.
• Snapchat IPO: The little yellow ghost finally went public with a massive IPO in February, but due to rival Facebook creating a similar application and declining engagement and growth, Snapchat felt the force of wall-street and plummeted after their IPO.
• Whole Foods and Amazon: Amazon shocked the world by acquiring Whole Foods for $14 Billion and officially jumped into the supermarket industry. Scaring companies like Target and Wall-mart who are rushing to get into the online based supermarkets.
• New Federal Reserve Chairman: Janet Yellen, who has been our chairman since 2014 will leave her office in February 2018 and Trumps pick of Jerome Powell will take office. What will this do to the Fed rate hikes?
• Federal Rates Raises: The Feds continued to raise rates in 2017 with three rate hikes it is currently at 1.5% and expected to climb to 2%. Click here to learn more what Fed Rates are
• Disney Buys Fox: Disney continued their buying spree and bought FOX for $52 Billion, as they get ready to take on Netflix with their own streaming service.
• CVS Buys Aetna: CVS bought one of the largest HealthCare insurers for $69 Billion which could change the way America does healthcare.
• Obamacare: The republican succeeded and repelled parts of the plan that requires Health care providers to insure everyone in America, changing the way Americans get health care.
• Net Neutrality: The government votes to end Net Neutrality allowing internet providers to slow down your internet, see your data and direct you to certain pages.
• Tax Reform: The Republicans, finally passed their Tax reform bill, adding $1.3 Trillion to the National Debt and bringing on one of the largest tax reform bills since the 80s. Are your taxes going up or down?
• AT&T and Time Warner: AT&T and Time Warner came to an $84 Billion dollar agreement for a buyout, but the government has stepped in and put the deal on hold to make sure this will not break the monopoly rule.
• Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin soared from $900 to as high as $19,000 this year, currently standing around $15,000 sending everyone into a frenzy about what is Bitcoin. Wall Street started trading Futures of Bitcoin and some of the first Bitcoin billionaires were created.
As well as other Cryptocurrencies soared like Ethereum and Ripple, as more trading platforms were made to allow investment into cryptos. This new way of trading money and using Blockchain has taken the world by storm and easily is the most talked about financial story of 2017. Learn more about how a coin is made here and what Bitcoin is here.
As you can see there is always growth in the marketplace and 2017 prove to be a year for the bulls, the key is to always be tactical, understand what you are comfortable and never take more risk than you want to. We are excited to see what the New Year brings from cryptos to interest rate changes and all the fun new tax rules.
We here at Orca understand this and we thank you for being part of our 2017; we look forward to swimming by your side in 2018. Empowering the new generation, spreading financial literacy and financial freedom.
Here’s to 2018, may it be an Orca of a year! and don't forget to SUBSCRIBE below to get updated in 2018 and kick off your new year right with financial sucesss
