Hubdub Hot Predictions This Week
Hubdub’s Hot Predictions this week, as decided by Hubdub users and staff, are selected based on their newsworthiness for the week. These stories are bound to be big news this week - and we have forecasts on how they’re likely to turn out.
World
Roxana Saberi the Iranian-American journalist convicted in Iran of espionage has launched an appeal in a last ditch effort to get out of an 8 year sentence handed down last week. Although the trial and conviction are seen as a farce by many in the West, Hubdubbers doubt Saberi’s appeal will work, only giving it a 36% chance of success.
Politics
Cuba has been dominating the news these past few weeks, but how can we measure a softening in Cuban-American relations? One thing observers and the Obama administration are looking at is whether Cuba will release any political prisoners. Hubdub forecasts by July 1st there’s a 66% chance no political prisoners have yet been released.
Business
At the start of the auto bailout a merger between Italian Fiat and American Chrysler looked like a no-brainer. Recent problems with debt though have left the prospects of a merger in murky waters. Now there’s only a 50% chance the merger goes through before the start of June.
Sports
The NBA playoffs have arrived, and next week in the first round the Atlanta Hawks and Miami Heat face off. In the seven game series Miami currently has the highest chances of pulling off a win, but the margins are very, very close!
Entertainment
In May flurries of Blockbuster movies start hitting theaters. Unfortunately my hopes that the new Star Trek would crush any competition seem to have been dashed. Hubdub gives X-Men Origins: Wolverine a 68% chance of having the highest grossing open weekend. Honestly Spock is so much more of a money maker than Wolverine…
Trading percentages given are at time of posting and may not match up with markets after the fact due to Hubdub users forecasting on said markets.