Bitcoin’s back, Wancoin debutsBy Arnaud Masset
The premium cryptocurrency has made numerous runs at US$10,000 over the past weeks, and soon we think it will break through. Bitcoin has suffered from bearish speculation since December’s introduction of futures, but the tide is changing. According to last Friday’s Commodity Futures Trading Commission report, leveraged funds now are net long by 624 contracts. Prices lately have see-sawed. They recovered at the weekend, then reversed since Monday, sliding 6.10% from $11,770 to $11,040. Other alt-coins have also traded sideways since mid-January.
Numerous new cryptos are on deck. Populous, OmiseGo NEO/GAS, Walton and Wanchain. Since yesterday, initial-coin-offering investors can swap their ERC20 tokens to Wanchain Mainnet Wancoins. It’s a matter of days or even hours until Wancoins are available for trade – they will soar
US GDP disappointsBy Vincent-Frédéric Mivelaz
Preliminary Q4 2017 US Gross Domestic Product growth failed expectations, marking 2.60% versus a predicted 3.0%. Government spending was a major driver, accounting for a record high USD 6’586.71 billion (+1.027% increase from Q3 to Q4 2017). Personal consumption beat forecasts slightly at 1.50%, personal income rose higher than hoped at 0.40%, while household real consumption’s rise of 3.80% was the biggest since 2014. The rub is that all this consumption boosted imports, which weakens the dollar: USD/EUR -2.38%, USD/GBP: -3.48%, USD/JPY: -3.09% and USD/CHF: -4.09%. Moreover, with almost full employment and corporate tax reform in place, further GDP growth is bounded.