Not sure how many of you guys are on top of financial news but something pretty significant happened: after 7 years of rates basically at zero as a response to the 2007-2008 Global Financial Crisis, the Federal Reserve (the central bank of the United States) increased rates by 0.25%.

Now, sure, we’re only talking about 25 basis points… not exactly impressive.

But markets are anticipative in nature and for the markets, this is a signal that the Federal Reserve has started a tightening trend.

In theory, investors should be happy/relieved because a rate hike is a sign that perhaps the economy is now strong enough to no longer need the central bank to hold its hand.

So far, people are still on the fence.

Markets haven’t really moved that much and in my opinion, investors are a bit confused.

Understandable, as I’m sure you’ll agree.

The Fed is starting to tighten, the European Central Bank is doing the exact opposite by becoming more aggressive in its easing efforts… no wonder people are confused.

Will domains be affected?

Well, our industry is definitely not isolated and therefore, things that happen in the non-domain world can and do affect domaining.

Sometimes in a positive manner, sometimes not.

Therefore, domainers should pay attention to more than just the world of ICANN, new gTLDs, registrars and so on.

Wish I had a conclusion for you guys today but I don’t.

All I can say is that we have an interesting few months ahead of us, I’d strongly recommend catching up on financial news every now and then and following the worldwide central banking developments. As boring as it may sound, these are things that can and do affect you as a a domain investor.