Hello and welcome to this week's edition
of The Neopian News Brief, your one-stop summary of everything that's happening in Neopia.
Our lead story this week is the
sudden influx of artifacts that have popped up in the Hidden Tower. It all began last Friday, when the Carrotblade's
arrival was accompanied by the following announcement, “To all you domers, LOTS more artifacts are on the way!” Well, this
proclamation created quite a whirlwind of speculation. What items would Fyora stock next? How much would they cost? What
impact would these new arrivals have on the effectiveness (not to mention the value) of older Hidden Tower items?
During the past week, four additional Hidden Tower artifacts were released. First up was the Sword of the Air
Faerie, which made its debut on Monday. Legend has it that this mighty blade was wrought by none other than the first Air
Faerie ever. No wonder it carries a whopping price tag of eight million NPs!
Tuesday saw the release of Faerie Acorns, which despite their humble appearance are actually quite volatile. One
blast from these combustible kernels is sure to have your Battledome opponents quivering in their Sky Boots!
On Wednesday, in a rather unexpected turn of events, the Monoceraptor's Claw became the next item to hit Fyora's
shelves. Given this item's near-legendary status, its recent arrival on the open market has sparked rumours that the
Monoceraptor might not be far behind…- run for the hills!
Saving the best for last, Thursday marked the arrival of the dreaded Eraser of the Dark Faerie. Yes folks, the
rumours you've heard are true… if your opponent brandishes an Eraser of the Dark Faerie, you can kiss one of your weapons
goodbye. And not just for the duration of the match, either. The eraser will delete your item...… permanently!
 In
other, less harrowing news, this past week also saw the arrival of more items at the Garden Centre. Friday evening had the
debut of three new plants—the Pineapple Plant, Lightning Fern, and our personal favourite, the Negg Muncher…- eww, creepy!
 On
Monday, two more trees came to market, the Yellow Eesa Tree and the sweet-smelling Rose Tree, which is sure to be the
highlight of anyone's garden. As usual, the price of these new items is currently pretty steep. However, right now the best
bargains of the bunch would be the Pinapple Plants and Yellow Eesa Trees, which can generally be found for between fifteen
and twenty thousand NPs.
As if all these new Hidden Tower items didn’t give Battledomers enough to worry about, there's a new line of weapons from the
Highland Chia that also hit stores this week. Now, you too will be able to slap on some war paint and go upside your
opponent's head with the Highland Chia's mighty War Hammer. So heid tae the Battle Magic shop an'’git yersels some weapons,
nou!
And now, it's time to check out the day's financial news. Overall, the Neodaq climbed a modest six points, which
would indicate that the Neopian economy is in fairly good shape. However, a closer look at the numbers reveals that all is
not well on the floor of the exchange. You see, there is a huge gulf between the companies who are doing well, and those that
are struggling. Thanks to incredible gains by companies like The Presidential Palace and The Smuggler's Cove, whose shares
rose forty-three and twenty-eight points this week, respectively, the index has managed to remain stable.
 However,
further investigation would show that most of Neopia’s economy is in turmoil. As this story went to press, there were ten
companies whose shares, during the past week, had fallen below fifteen NPs. As any investor will tell you, once a company's
stock falls below 15, traders can no longer get rid of those shares. At this point, one of two things can happen; either a.)
the stock climbs back over 15, and traders can then dump their shares, or b.) the company goes broke, and the investor gets
nothing.
So then, when you add these ten companies to the fourteen companies who were already valued at less than
15 NPs a share, you have a troubling statistic. Of the forty-six companies that are traded on the Big Board, a whopping
twenty-four of them are currently in limbo, with share values below 15 NPs.
 With so
many companies on the verge of going bust, it’s no wonder that investors are more than a little nervous. After all, if you're
sitting on a thousand shares of Lupe Consolidated, which was trading at twenty-six NPs a share less than a week ago, then
there's a distinct possibility that you'll be left with nothing when they go under. And so, will these companies be able to
get their act together and get back over 15 NPs, or will there be another round of bankruptcies? Only time will tell.
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