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Oil prices getting higher, hit $80

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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Oil prices on Thursday hit their highest since December, 2014, pushed up after U.S. crude inventories posted a 10th straight week of declines and as the dollar continued to weaken.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Oil prices rallied to three-year high, boosted by a record 10th straight weekly decline in U.S. crude inventories.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">International benchmark Brent futures were nudging 71 dollars per barrel Both crude benchmarks are up by almost 60 per cent since the middle of last year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures climbed to 66.22 dollars per barrel in early trading, also the highest level since early December, 2014.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Price support has also been coming from supply restrictions led by a group of producers around the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia, which started last year and are set to last throughout 2018.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“The Saudi’s and Russians continue to work together to talk the oil market higher and last night, the countries’ two oil ministers said they were working together on other longer-term projects as well,” said Greg McKenna, chief market strategist at futures brokerage AxiTrader.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“That, and the USD fall, along with another inventory draw combined to drive (crude) up,” he added.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">U.S. crude inventories C-STK-T-EIA fell 1.1 million barrels in the week to Jan. 19, to 411.58 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That’s the lowest seasonal level since 2015 and below the U.S. five-year average around 420 million barrels.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In foreign exchange markets, the U.S. dollar hit its lowest level since December, 2014 against a basket of other leading currencies.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A weakening dollar often results in financial traders taking investment out of currency markets and into commodity futures like crude.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Analysts said that rising oil prices would likely start to have an inflationary effect.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Looming over the generally bullish oil market has been U.S. oil production, which is edging ever more closely towards 10 million barrels per day (bpd), hitting 9.88 million bpd last week.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">U.S. output has grown by more than 17 per cent since mid-2016, and is now on par with that of top exporter Saudi Arabia.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Only Russia produces more, averaging 10.98 million bpd in 2017.</span></div>
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Oil prices getting higher, hit $80

Oil prices on Thursday hit their highest since December, 2014, pushed up after U.S. crude inventories posted a 10th straight week of de...

Cryptocurrency traders get condition to operate in South Korea

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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">South Korea will ban the use of anonymous bank accounts in cryptocurrency trading from Jan. 30, regulators said on Tuesday.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is a widely telegraphed move designed to stop virtual coins from being used for money laundering and other crimes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Last week, reports were rife that the country <a href="http://www.nan.ng/economy/south-korea-plans-ban-cryptocurrency-trading/" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1193f6; line-height: inherit; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: opacity 0.2s ease-in-out, color 0.1s ease-in-out;">planned to ban traders due to alleged evasion of tax</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">However, in a turn of events, traders have been given condition upon which they can operate their crypto currency wallets and their bank accounts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Local cryptocurrency traders will not be allowed to make deposits into their virtual currency exchange wallets unless the names on their bank accounts matches the account name in cryptocurrency exchanges, Kim Yong-beom, the Vice Chairman of the Financial Services Commission told a news conference in Seoul.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Tuesday’s announcement follows a string of warnings from global policy makers about cryptocurrency trading, including those from South Korea’s chief financial regulator last week who said the government might consider shutting down domestic virtual currency exchanges.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The regulator has previously said it would come up with detailed guidelines for local banks to properly identify its clients by their real names in cryptocurrency transactions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To make deposits into virtual coin wallets, cryptocurrency traders will need to identify themselves with their real names at the exchange and have those matched with information at local banks by Jan. 30.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">According to Bithumb, the country’s second-largest virtual currency exchange, the bitcoin price in South Korea was down 4.35 per cent at $12,567 (8,987.34 pounds) from previous day as of 0214 GMT on Tuesday.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Bitcoin is trading up 3.7 per cent at 10,750 dollars on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange.</span></div>
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Cryptocurrency traders get condition to operate in South Korea

South Korea will ban the use of anonymous bank accounts in cryptocurrency trading from Jan. 30, regulators said on Tuesday. It is a wi...

Bitcoin dips below $10,000

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicCrliPMmcoTQOkV2N6F3TIrMfy23UDcD_ohTzoASNLof4hTg7DXHxFnB8e4E0sXpARux1oK1BLJQ9ni2YaZilge25xzztpVAUIY1m1JrXSbc7xV5ldH56PwdAHTmZ9syxkeKOROb6oR4/" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="" data-original-width="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicCrliPMmcoTQOkV2N6F3TIrMfy23UDcD_ohTzoASNLof4hTg7DXHxFnB8e4E0sXpARux1oK1BLJQ9ni2YaZilge25xzztpVAUIY1m1JrXSbc7xV5ldH56PwdAHTmZ9syxkeKOROb6oR4/" /></a><br><br><p class="story-body__introduction" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: 24px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; color: rgb(33, 33, 33); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Bitcoin has traded below $10,000 for the first time since early December.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: 24px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; color: rgb(33, 33, 33); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The value of one bitcoin fell to $9,958 (£7,222) before making a slight recovery, according to the <a class="story-body__link-external" href="https://www.coindesk.com/price/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; color: rgb(17, 147, 246); text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit; transition: opacity 0.2s ease-in-out, color 0.1s ease-in-out; outline: none;">price index run by the news site Coindesk</a>.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: 24px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; color: rgb(33, 33, 33); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">That represents a drop of nearly 50 per cent  since it peaked close to $19,800 five weeks ago.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: 24px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; color: rgb(33, 33, 33); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Other crypto-currencies including Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash have also experienced steep falls over the past day.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; line-height: 24px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; color: rgb(33, 33, 33); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">There has been concern among some experts that a bubble had been forming in the market as casual investors piled into an asset they did not fully understand.</p>

Bitcoin dips below $10,000

Bitcoin has traded below $10,000 for the first time since early December. The value of one bitcoin fell to $9,958 (£7,222) before making a s...