D.C. pension board ignites debate after pulling ‘direct’ investments from fossil fuels
How about a great, random article to get the mood started before jumping into the topic at hand. Another interesting development is that for the most part of 2019, bullish sentiment in relationship towards the stock market has traded well below the historical average of 39. Now let this sink in, we are in one of the longest bull markets in history, and instead of soaring to the moon, bullish sentiment is trading well below its historical average. Contrast this to the sentiment in bitcoin; currently, the sentiment is close to the euphoric stage; take a look at the anxiety gauge readings for the Bitcoin market. Hence, traders should wait for the market to let out some steam before jumping in. There is a decent chance that Bitcoin could test its lows; a weekly close below 6000, could result in a test of the lows. Once the lows are tested the odds are very high that BTC could test the 8000 ranges. We would wait for our indicators to move back to the oversold ranges before getting into Bitcoin or GBTC. For now, tech stocks like GOOGL, FB, INTC, etc make for a better play. Bitcoin ETF Update: Will Bitcoin Continue Trending Higher
The D.C. Council approved Tuesday a resolution in favor of divesting the city’s $6.4 billion pension fund from direct investments in 200 fossil fuel companies, a move that drew kudos from climate groups and shrugs from critics who dismissed the action as purely symbolic.
The council’s unanimous vote follows a three-year campaign by DC Divest, which cheered the D.C. Retirement Board at a press conference Monday featuring Council member Charles Allen.
“I applaud the D.C. Retirement Board for doing right by all Washingtonians,” said Mr. Allen, Ward 6 Democrat. “In the past, divestment has proven to be an incredibly powerful tool for effecting positive change. By divesting from fossil fuels D.C. has helped pave the way for a brighter, better future.”
Matt Grason, spokesman for DC Divest, said the “nation’s capital has taken a critical step in creating the political will for climate action.”
But critics of divestment argued that the decision means little because the pension board, like most institutional investors, has only a small portion of its portfolio in direct investments. Most of the portfolio is invested in mutual funds, co-mingled funds and private equity, which invest in fossil fuels.“Divesting from only direct holdings has been an increasingly popular way to satisfy divestment activists’ demands without incurring the costs associated with actually dropping all fossil fuel investments,” said DivestmentFacts.com in a Monday post.
The approach has been dubbed the “Syracuse model” after Syracuse University’s decision in April 2015 to remove its direct investments in fossil fuel companies. Full Story
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