The bitcoin drops by 12%, returns below $10,000

The sales of the world's financial markets have shifted to the bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies. The largest and most popular one lost 12% of its value to a level of $9,800 this morning. So the bitcoin went back below the $10,000 psychological limit for a bottom test at $9,300.
Increasingly, the skeptics and technical analysts are warning that the fallback of the bitcoin may continue to take full effect if its bottom at $9,300 is overcome.
Of course, there are also those who believe that the current levels of the bitcoin are suitable for the purchase of the cryptocurrency, with a potential rise for the test of the top at nearly $19,500.
Bitcoin sales were also transferred to other cryptocurrencies. Decline was also noted in ethereum, ripple, and lightcoin.
The ripple, once again returned to the $1 psychological limit, as early this morning was traded at $1.06.
Ethereum lost nearly 10% of its value to be exchanged at $1,055. However, it lost only about 20% of its top, against a loss of bitcoin of over 50%.
The most losing among the major currencies is the ripple, which has fallen by more than 70% from its record highs at the end of last year.

Dive for US indices

The record start of the year for the US indices could not last forever. And that was known by all market players. So, yesterday's stock sellouts should not be surprising to investors.
The Dow index lost 360 points, or 1.4% to 26 076.89 points, and the broad S&P 500 declined 1.1 percent to 2 822.43 points. This was the biggest drop for broad index since August last year.
Serious sales also has the technological Nasdaq, falling 0.9% to 7 402.48 points.
The big winner in this case was the volatility index, which is already over 40% above its lowest levels last month.
What were the reasons for yesterday's correction, in a state of good performance from US companies? Many and various. From the general belief that the growth since the beginning of the year has been excessive and too fast to the expectations of an aggressive policy by the Fed and the change of leadership of the reserve, which traditionally leads to shocks, at least historically.

Miscellaneous data from Europe

The eurozone economy grew 0.6% in the last quarter of last year, a slight slowdown compared with a 0.7% quarter-on-quarter growth, Eurostat estimates.
The GDP growth of countries using the euro on an annual basis was 2.7%, 2.8% quarter-on-quarter.
Over the past year, euro area GDP has risen by 2.5%. For the entire 2017, euro area GDP grew by 2.5%, representing the best economic expansion for over a decade.
On an annual basis, the economy of the old continent expanded in the fourth quarter of 2017 by 2.6%, after an expansion of 2.8% in the third quarter, Eurostat data show.
A separate report made it clear that the index measuring economic confidence in the euro area declined in the first month of the new year to 114.7 points, down from 115.3 in December. This is the highest level of the index since October 2000.
At the same time, however, there is a surprising deterioration in business confidence in services (down 16.7 from 18.0 points) and in retail trade (down 5.0 to 6.0 points).
The final consumer confidence index in the euro area rose by 0.8 points to 1.3 points in January, reaching the highest level since the beginning of 2001.

Gold with a second consecutive decline, after the appreciation of the dollar

Gold fell for a second consecutive session on Tuesday after the dollar gained, and interest rates on US bonds rose. Meanwhile, investor's attention is almost entirely focused on the Fed's forthcoming decision and Fed guidelines on interest rates at the end of the two-day meeting that begins today.
The spot price of gold fell 0.3 percent to 1 335.93 dollars per ounce after yesterday lost 0.7 percent of its value. Since the beginning of the month, gold has appreciated by 2.5%, mainly due to the weakness of the dollar.
It was the strengthening of the dollar, however, one of the main reasons for the rise in the price of gold and other precious metals.
Among market participants, there is an expectation that if the spot price of gold overcomes support at $1 335 per ounce, it may continue to fall to the next $1,316 key support.

The theft of over $500 million in cryptocurrency from the Japanese stock exchange

One of the largest Japanese crypto stock exchanges, Coincheck said on Friday that about $535 million in NEM crypto coins were stolen from hackers. Exchange management said it had kept the coins in a virtual portfolio.
The stolen coins were worth about 58 billion yen.
Hackers have stolen less popular cryptocurrency from the main Japanese exchange, worth hundreds of millions of dollars on Friday.
Nearly 523 million NEM coins were transferred to another account at around 3 am local time, according to data from the Japanese stock exchange. Coincheck accounts for around 6% of the yen cryptocurrencies trade, ranking fourth.
The NEM is designed to help businesses process a database. It fell momentarily by over 20% on Friday before finishing the day with a fall of about 10% to 85 cents.
The Japanese stock exchange has announced it does not seem like hackers have stolen other key cryptocurrencies.
Just to recall that in December, South Korea's Youbit lost 17% of its digital assets, prompting the parent to declare bankruptcy.
In 2014, the Tokyo Exchange Mt. Gox also went bankrupt after announcing that they had lost 750,000 of the bitcoins of their clients, as well as 100,000 of their own.
In mid-December, the US investment bank Morgan Stanley predicted that $630 million worth of bitcoins will be stealed from hackers.

Dollar collapsed today

Today, the dollar index DXY (that is, the dollar's rate to the basket of six world reserve currencies) collapsed to the lows that were last seen at the end of December 2014. Since the beginning of this year, the index has dropped by 2.6%. The dollar also lost in value and in relation to each of the world reserve currencies separately, "losing weight" against the euro by 0.75%, to the British pound sterling by 1.4%, to the Japanese yen by 0.8%, to the Canadian dollar - by 0.5%.
The most obvious reason for the fall of the dollar was the statement by US Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin that a weak dollar is supporting the economy. In principle, he did not say anything new, just confirmed the economic pattern that a weak national currency supports production in exporting industries. American exchange speculators reacted "patriotically", because a weak dollar supports the US economy, and speculators from other countries helped the growth of their national currencies.

Why can oil go down to $50?

The fundamental oil situation has changed suddenly and quickly. Last year's history of oversupply suddenly changed to a shortage of oil. This raises the question of whether there is a surplus on raw materials and is not oil too expensive?
Instability in Nigeria, the 30-year minimum in Venezuela's production, and the agreement between OPEC and Russia, led oil near the psychological level of $70 a barrel.
By the end of last week, however, the big speculators hold just under 660,000 net long oil contracts, or the biggest bullish position in the history of oil futures. This should definitely be a serious "alarm signal" for investors.
Whom will these big investors sell their oil futures? And how this sale will affect the price of the raw material?
Unbinding this big position may be the main reason for the price depreciation of oil to $50 a barrel or about 20% of its current levels.
And while there are bullish traders who think we are at the beginning of a new epic billush oil cycle, the situation may be far different, and we will soon see oil falling to 50 dollars.

Yuan with strong growth

Over the past week, the Chinese currency has strengthened against the dollar.
The phase of the rapid growth of the renminbi against the US currency was continued despite the pronounced technical overheating and the apparent tightness of this trend.
A new round of strengthening of the renminbi boosted by, including, favorable macroeconomic data for China. The GDP of China increased by 6.8% y/y in the fourth quarter, and by 6.9% in the whole 2017, which significantly exceeded the targets of the government of the country, suggesting about 6.5%. The growth rate of the Chinese economy accelerated for the first time in seven years, which did not remain without the attention of the investment community.
At this stage, the depth of the dollar's sagging relative to the yuan should already keep the investment community on the alert, since the fundamental picture of the US economy is indicative of further monetary tightening this year, and in such conditions the dollar is supposed to win the advantage.

The bitcoin may fall by 90%

Cryptocurrencies launched the first day of the week "on a lame leg," after regulatory concerns continued to harass investors. Over the weekend, some of the largest Indian banks, including the State Bank of India, have stopped serving accounts, connected with crypto-exchanges, according to the Economic Times of India.
This is coupled with concerns about serious regulation coming from South Korea, where the government may introduce a law banning the trading of virtual currencies on local exchanges.
After its decline on Monday, the bitcoin fell below $10,500, or a decline of 8.5%, and the price of the ethereum was back below $1,000. With its downgrade, the bitcoin returned below its 100-day moving average, at $10,990.
According to technical analysts, closing the bitcoin below the specified level may open the cryptocurrency path to a new drop and test the psychological limit of $10,000.
Closing below the 100-day moving average could open the bitcoin's way to support line at $9,000. After the break of this level last time, the bitcoin marked five consecutive weeks of rise, which led it to a record high of $19,670.
Serious decline was recorded by other key cryptocurrencies, as the ripple, which declined again to a level of 1.20 dollars per coin after the momentary increase of over 1.60 at the end of last week.

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Inflation in the UK with the first drop for six months

UK inflation slowed down for the first time in six months in December, mainly due to prices of airline tickets and toys.
The fall in inflation led to a 3% rise in the last month of last year, compared with 3.1% a month earlier. The last result was the fastest-growing inflation in the country for over five years.
The main consumer price index, which disregards volatile food and fuel prices, fell to a five-month minimum of 2.5%.
After the data, the pound has seen some decline over other major currencies, reflecting expectations that the ECB may not be as aggressive in the future as concerns interest rates. The British national currency fell 0.2 percent to 1.3772 against the dollar.
Britain is still negotiating conditions for leaving the EU, which may trigger some slowdown in the economy in the future and hence cooling of inflation.
A number of experts comment that we can be at a turning point for inflation, largely triggered by the depreciation of the pound. And the reason for this is again linked to the pound - and more precisely to its appreciation over the dollar in recent months.
The strong British currency is likely to put the pole on the wheel of economic growth as well as on the monetary policy of the central bank in the country.

The British pound is most expensive against the dollar after the referendum

The British pound has risen to its highest level against the dollar after the referendum on leaving the country from EU borders. This happened after signals from Spain and the Netherlands for more relaxed conditions for leaving the Union.
However, the pound's rally was relatively skeptically accepted, even by the most keen bullish traders for the British pound. Many have said that further evidences are needed for successfull ending of the negotiations.
There is a need for persistence of these news and positive figures for the UK to continue to appreciate the pound. The fact is that the pound has been releasing a key level of resistance, which can then take it to 1.40. On Friday, the pair closed at 1.38594, keeping its positive moods for all the week, despite the pessure because of the uncertainties surrounding the EU talks.

S&P 500 with a record period without a 5% loss

US indexes continue with their tireless record-breaking growth. This is largely unprecedented.
Indeed, the broad S&P 500, except for a new historical record as a value, is close to another record highlighting its strong upward trend.
The index already has 393 sessions without a 5% correction. This is the second longest similar period in the indicator's history, according to statistics by the US investment bank Goldman Sachs.
Until now, the record-long series, with no 5% correction, was 394 trading sessions, which happened between 1994 and 1996.
The S&P 500 index ended with higher levels in nine of the 11 trading sessions since the beginning of the new 2018 year. New record value was achieved on each of the trading sessions.
In fact, investors have witnessed the best start of a trading year since 2003.
The broad US index has already the longest in its history series without a 3% correction, which to a great extent points to the trend of the current growth. Without such a correction, the indicator is traded from November 7/2016.
The indicator rose by 19.4% in the past year, which was also the best performance since 2013. It has risen for 14 consecutive months.

Bitcoin balloon blowed?

The big topic of the last days is the incredible depreciation of the bitcion and the other crypto currencies. This has confirmed the question that many experts have asked over the past year - "is the bitcion a balloon?"
The bitcion fell about 50% after its historic peak at a level of over $19,000. Yesterday, the crypto currency dropped momentarily to nearly $9,000.
Will the bitcion ends up as one of the worst financial bubbles in history? This is yet to be seen ... Such a prediction has already been given by well-known experts such as Jamie Dimon and Warren Buffett. Will they be right?

US indexes with new records after the growth of energy companies

The US indexes continued their record-breaking series last week. This time, energy companies were at the center of the growth. They were backed by the Brent price rise to more than $70 a barrel.
US crude oil also saw significant growth, adding 1.6% to its value, to $64.58 a barrel or its highest level since December 2014.
A surprise drop in US oil production and a reduction in raw material stocks in the world's largest economy have helped to raise the price of "black gold."
Shares of leading US energy companies have seen significant growth, contributing to the rise in indices. Chevron shares added 3.2% to its value, and Exxon - 1.5%.
S&P energy index rose 2.2%, which was the biggest increase for more than seven months.
Otherwise, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index added 119.54 points to its value, or near 0.5% to a new record value of 25,488.67, while the broad S&P 500 rose 15 points to 2,763.29 points.
Technological Nasdaq Composite index also rose to a new record, adding more than 30 points to its value, or 0.4% to 7 182.20 points.
The US indices broke off on Wednesday a winning series of six consecutive sessions as a result of rumors that China will delay buying US government bonds.
Investors, however, have turned their attention again to the expected good results of US companies, which will come into full force very soon.

The crash of the ripple continues, the crypto currency is already at 1.60 (2)

Among the biggest advantages and disadvantages of the crypto currencies is the fact that they are not dependent on governments, on the one hand, but on the other hand, they can be affected by their regulation.
Crypto currencies are believed to be widely used by criminals for money laundering. Prevention of this activity is one of the main reasons for attempts to regulate the market.
Last month, the South Korean government said it would increase the control and monitoring of crypto currencies, and even stopping stock exchanges if necessary.
On Monday, South Korean officials inspected six leading banks, reviewing their money laundering measures. This largely frightened the crypto currencies markets and investors.
The bitcoin can also be blamed for the fall of the crypto currencies. It has a market capitalization of 35% of the total, and in this respect its losses are negatively affecting the whole market.
Investors still see the bitcoin as an investment rather than as a current currency these days.

The crash of the ripple continues, the crypto currency is already at 1.60 (1)

The collapse of the ripple - the most dinamically rising crypto currency in the past year, which added more than 200 times to its value - continues with full force.
The digital currency lost more than 15% of its value and is already traded at 1.55 dollars. For comparison, just a week ago, the ripple was traded at levels of more than 3 dollars per coin.
Serious correction is also observed for other crypto currencies, with the exception of this trend being ethereum and bitcoin cash.
The cost of the bitcoin lost 14% of its value on Monday, with more than 10% losing today.
A drop in the last day marked all 16 crypto currencies. Ethereum recorded a 12% drop before recovering some of its losses.
One of the reasons for the massive sales of crypto currencies is the planned regulation of digital currencies in South Korea.

2017th sent the financial crisis in history? (2)

We can not help but note the long-awaited tax reform by the Trump administration. It is expected to further stimulate the growth of the profits of US companies and the US economy as a whole.
The US and the world's leading stock indices are close to their historically highest values, which is another sign of calm among investors.
To sum up, it could be said that the year 2017 was the last in which the shadow of the past financial crisis had its impact on the markets. The fears of the fatalists related to the years ending at 7 when some of the biggest crises in history did not materialize.
Of course, investors should not become too self-confident and it is good to keep track of the development of US and the world economy so there will be no unpleasant surprises from any of the main directions.

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2017th sent the financial crisis in history? (1)

The past year 2017 finally sent the shadow of the financial crisis, towering over the markets for nearly a decade. Investors finally stopped worrying that we could see a secondary crisis and started to invest boldly.
The Fed raised the interest rate three times, which is undoubtedly one of the clearest evidence that there are no signs of a storm on the horizon. At the same time, Fed is expected to do so three more times this year.
At this stage, however, fears of normalizing interest rates are still in the background. Investors would rather be worried that the reserve would become less aggressive in its action on interest rate rather than raising it. Because that would be the first symptom of a potential slowdown in the state of world economy.
Unemployment in the US is at a 17-year minimum of 4.1%. The only worrying factor that may bother the Fed and other central banks around the world is still the low level of global inflation.
It is very likely, however, that in an environment of record low unemployment, inflation will begin to rise in the new year and justify the US reserve policy in the direction of interest rates.

3 bitcoin concepts that everybody need to know (2)

2) The limitation of the bitcoin is the basis of the extreme volatility of the cryptocurrencies.
It is true that new bitcoins are being issued. But first, this is very slow and second, the total number of all the bitcoins is limited to 21 million. That is, the bitcoin is a currency that is limited and can not be increased by printing new coins, unlike traditional currencies.

3) Is the bitcoin a balloon?
According to some bankers, like Jamie Dimon, the bitcoin is a balloon. Given its limited supply, however, it is still not clear. The balloon would burst if, at some point in time, if the bitcoin looses its primary function of storing and increasing the value of investors. That is, if it is regulated, forbidden, or something else bad happens to it.

3 bitcoin concepts that everybody need to know (1)

Just a few years ago, almost nobody knew anything about cryptocurrencies, like a bitcoin. Now, everyone is aware of them and they are ready to hold fierce arguments about the future of digital currencies.
We will not provide an opinion on this one, but rather, we will introduce you to three basic concepts of cryptocurrencies that everybody should know.
1) Comparison with shares is not appropriate
With new records coming in at the bitcoin in mid-December, many experts began to make an analogy between the bitcoin and the stock markets, which, incidentally, also enjoyed an exceptionally strong year.
Comparisons have even begun between the bitcoin and the shares of individual companies.
However, you should know that such a comparison is not particularly relevant. The total cost of the bitcoin is about $230 billion. If the bitcoin was a company, it would be among the top 20 in the S&P 500 index.
But how can we compare the cryptocurrencies with the company's shares? The bitcoin is a currency and should be compared to other currencies.
According to the Fed, money supply M3 is at a level of 13.7 trillion dollars. This gives the US dollar a market capitalization of 13.7 trillion dollars, which is much higher than that of the bitcoin.

The prospects for precious metals in 2018

For next year the price of gold is expected to be far more volatile then in 2017, according to Georgette Boyle, an analyst at ABN Amro. The reason for this will be the ambiguity about the Fed's interest rate policy as well as the reduction in balance.
Otherwise, the prospects for gold are positive from a technical point of view after the metal has shed its 100-day moving average during the past week, at a level of $1,295 per ounce. While the metal is traded above this level, it is completely possible to see its further rise to $1,350 per ounce, market observers say.
For other metals, palladium is the best-performing metal, reaching its highest level since February of 2001. Palladium deals with an unusually high premium over other metals such as platinum.
Platinum rose 3% this year and silver only 6%. It is quite possible that this will give them a good catch-up potential for next year, according to analysts.

The gold with the highest growth in three years in 2017

Gold continued its rise to a three-month high on Friday, which helped it mark its biggest annual increase in three years. To a large extent, the weakness of the US dollar and the recent political tensions contributed to the rise in the price of precious metal.
The dollar recorded its worst year against the rest of the major currencies since 2003, following North Korea's tensions and continued record low inflation.
The dollar index reached a three-month minimum on Friday. Traditionally, the price of gold is rising when the dollar becomes cheaper.
After all, gold ended the year at levels above $1,300, marking a momentum of $1,307.60 per ounce at the end of last week.
Or the rise for the yellow metal was 12% for the year. And, although exceptional, this result is close to half of the performance of some of the leading US indices.
Returning to the last Fed meeting, despite the rise in interest rates by the reserve, there was a less aggressive tone in terms of the future policy of raising interest rates, according to analysts. This further contributes to the appreciation of precious metals.