Bitcoin grinds higherBy Arnaud Masset
On Tuesday Bitcoin rose 5% to US$11,646, its highest since 29 January, approaching key resistance at around $12,000. The entire alt-coins complex has seen significant, but uneven inflows. Q1 2018 looks very promising: many cryptos will release main versions of beta products. Kyber Network launched their platform on the Ethereum a few days ago – the launch will run until April. OmiseGo is also expected to deliver in the first quarter. Investors did not jump straight back into Bitcoin after its sell-off. But they are slowly coming back into cryptos and carefully avoiding panic buying.
Stealthy USD gainsBy Peter Rosenstreich
The greenback continues to rise, but why? Is it shorts unwinding, reaction to renewed bond sell-offs, risk aversion or catch-up to wide yields spreads? There is no shortage of optimism around the US economy (accelerated by massive fiscal spending), but it is tempered by bearish views of equities and twin deficits. US 10-year treasuries are edging back up after the US Presidents’ Day holiday but still below their Valentine’s Day high. Failure of EUR/USD to break new highs at 1.2555 put the pair in correction. Should German and European Union economic data come in weaker than expected, the bearish trend should continue.