Aurelia Butler

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    in Economy

    Oil breaches $120 a barrel as petrol and diesel prices soar

    Oil rose higher than $120 a barrel on Monday as increasing prices for fuels, such as petrol and diesel, combined with lingering concerns over supplies from Russia to propel crude to its highest level in two months.Brent crude, the international benchmark, hit $120.50 a barrel, up 1 per cent ahead of the July contract’s expiry on Tuesday. US benchmark West Texas Intermediate rose by a similar amount to more than $116 a barrel. The rally in crude oil comes as supplies of refined products, such as petrol, remain tight at major delivery hubs at a time when demand is expected to pick up steam in many countries, including the US.Lower exports of diesel from Russia, which many western companies are shunning or cutting back on following the invasion of Ukraine, have tightened markets even more so than crude. The gas oil contract in Europe, a proxy for diesel and other distillates, is trading close to record levels near $1,200 a tonne. Sky-high product prices mean that motorists in many countries are paying record prices for diesel and gasoline despite crude being well below its all-time high of $147.50 a barrel, which it hit in 2008. The key US summer driving season kicked off on Monday with the Memorial Day holiday.An easing of Covid-19 restrictions and government subsidies have both helped to support demand, said Keshav Lohiya at consultancy Oilytics.“Despite record high prices in local currencies, political decisions like subsidies continue to distort the market,” said Lohiya. “In addition, post-Covid demand continues to keep mobility very high in Europe, especially with the run-up to summer.”In a sign of pressures on the market, traders are willing to pay a premium to secure supplies immediately because of tightness in the market. Brent for delivery in July is trading at a roughly $4 premium compared with August.Analysts are also monitoring any EU decision on restrictions or an outright embargo on Russian oil purchases in the coming days. Bloc members are due to meet on Monday and Tuesday. A full ban on Russian oil purchases has been opposed by some members such as Hungary, but the EU is keen to increase pressure on Russia.An EU leader’s summit starting on Monday evening is expected to vow to include oil and petroleum products in a sanctions package, but will allow a “temporary” exemption for crude delivered by pipeline, according to draft conclusions seen by the Financial Times.Reticence from the Opec+ group to accelerate oil production increases is also supporting prices. The group meets on Thursday and is widely expected to stick with its plan of raising production by about 400,000 barrels a month, a target that has been in place since last year. Concerns about shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, through which a third of seaborne oil exports pass every day, after Iran seized two Greek-flagged tankers on Friday, have added to factors boosting the price.Greece, which has more supertankers sailing under its flag than any other country, has warned Greek oil tankers and other vessels to avoid sea waters close to Iran. More

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    in Economy

    German inflation at highest level in nearly half a century

    Consumer prices, harmonised to make them comparable with inflation data from other European Union countries (HICP), increased an annual 8.7%, the Federal Statistics Office said on Monday. The last time inflation had been similarly high in Germany was during the winter of 1973/1974, when mineral oil prices spiked as a result of the first oil crisis, said the office.The figure, which beat the 8.0% predicted by analysts in a Reuters poll, marks a second month in a row of record highs, after April’s rise of 7.8% was the biggest in four decades. [L5N2WQ6JB]According to the office, energy prices rose by 38.3% in May compared to the same month last year, while food prices also rose at an above-average rate of 11.1%.Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg Bank, said there is still some inflationary pressure in the pipeline for goods affected by supply bottlenecks and food before the situation eases from autumn. More

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    in Cryptocurrency

    Dogecoin Pulls off Comeback as SpaceX Prepares to Accept DOGE for Merch

    It has already been some time since Tesla car owner’s gained the ability to supercharge their cars using Dogecoin. The opportunity became a reality in February, when Tesla Supercharger announced that Tesla drivers in Santa Monica would be able to pay at charging stations in DOGE.At the time, Elon Musk teased that perhaps one day Dogecoin might be made available for purchasing subscriptions to his satellite broadband internet system, Starlink.In light of the announcement, the value of Dogecoin (DOGE) has seen a rapid rise. Illustrating this, DOGE had been trading at $0.078 5 minutes prior to the tweet conveying the news. Just half an hour later, the price of the meme coin had risen to $0.084. Despite this, the momentum didn’t last, and DOGE fell back down to $0.080 a few hours later, but this still represented an overall gain of 1% amid undeniably difficult circumstances of the crypto market – in fact, Dogecoin was the only top 10 crypto asset to be in the green over the 24 hour period.When Will DOGE Fly to the Moon?The new SpaceX integration saw Dogecoin’s price skyrocket for a couple of hours, but other recent tweets by Musk only had short-lived impacts on the asset’s price. It seems that the recent bump to the price of DOGE is ongoing though, and the dog-themed coin is now trading at $0.086305 at the time of writing, according to CoinGecko. The iconic meme coin has made a surge of 5.7% over the last 24 hours, but in terms of a 7 price point, it remains in exactly at the same spot it had previously been week-to-date. Dogecoin (DOGE) still has a long way to go to bounce back from the recent crypto market crash brought on by the downfall of Terra (LUNA) and Terra (UST). The market price of DOGE is floundering 36% lower than it was a month ago, and 88% below its ATH reached on May 8th, 2021 ($0.73).Will Elon Musk manage to cause a permanent boost to the price of his favorite cryptocurrency through his tweets?On the FlipsideRead more about the return of the Dogefather, and DOGE’s potential to become one of the main payment options for Twitter subscriptions.Continue reading on DailyCoin More

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    in Cryptocurrency

    Trending Cryptos To Check Out: RoboApe (RBA), Stellar (XLM), and STEPN (GMT)

    Stellar’s (XLM) established networkStellar (XLM) is an open network for storing and moving money. All forms of currency can be represented in digital form using Stellar. It’s designed to allow all of the world’s financial systems to communicate with one another over a single network.The XLM token is an established standard for transaction costs. However, the only factor that will determine the cost of a transaction will be the current XLM price. Transaction costs increase in direct proportion to the level of rising prices. The firm generated a supply of 100 billion XLM coins but eventually burnt half of it in 2019, resulting in a total supply of 50 billion XLM.As far as collaborations go, Stellar (XLM) has a substantial number of investors and partnerships. Many financial institutions have been using stablecoins and other bridge assets for transactions on the Stellar network for several years now. Victory Capital Management recently indicated that it would take steps to expose its US-based investors to the cryptocurrency market, and Stellar (XLM) was included as one of the coins for consideration.STEPN (GMT) is setting the new trendsAn emerging trend, known as M2E (Move-to-Earn), pays customers for being active in a range of businesses and services. M2E games attempt to encourage fitness, reduce obesity and sedentary lifestyles, and provide a way for people to earn money for improving their health through their participation.STEPN (GMT) is a “Web 3.0 lifestyle app” on the Solana blockchain with GameFi components. Move-to-earn games incorporate elements of both a play-to-earn game and a fitness app to form a new category. Users can earn in-game currency by walking, running, or jogging in NFT footwear.The Green Metaverse Token (GMT), STEPN’s governance token, has risen 24,500% since its token sale on Binance on March 9th. The $2.4 billion market valuation of M2E tokens means that despite their youth, they are already generating interest in the cryptocurrency community.Web 3.0 investors, including Sequoia Capital, have also put $5 million into STEPN (GMT) and in a seed fundraising round back in January.RoboApe (RBA) – a new and exciting crypto projectThe new cryptocurrency RoboApe (RBA), which is currently available in presale on its website, has the potential to explode in the future. In addition to the NFT market, a token swap protocol, community eSports contests, and DAO access, users will be able to use the RBA token to gain access to a variety of other services.In the future, a bridge function will be implemented on the RoboApe platform to make token swaps simple. Although the RBA token is an ERC-20 coin, it is capable of being transferred to other chains via a bridge.RBA’s total supply is limited to 900 million tokens, and the coin began trading at $0.00009. For a relatively low price, you can buy massive amounts of RoboApe (RBA) tokens that are just listed and have the potential to soar in value very soon. Token holders will also be rewarded with a variety of other benefits, which will be determined by the ecosystem. A DAO will democratically govern the entire community.RoboApe (RBA) has numerous applications for its customers. It has a great utility and will deliver decentralised finance (DeFi) amenities to its consumers, which could lead to a rise in its value once it is publicly launched.Find out more information on RoboApe (RBA) Telegram or Website. You can also find more about presale here.Continue reading on DailyCoin More

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    in Cryptocurrency

    Can You Invest in Gold Through Crypto? The AABB Gold Token Story

    The popularity of investing in gold during periods of crisis and high inflation is well-known in the financial world. Nowadays, investors have the option of buying gold-pegged cryptocurrencies.Asia Broadband, Inc. (AABB) is a famous company in the gold business, and its management joined the crypto market with high ambitions. This piece will share essential details to understand how gold-pegged crypto works. At the same time, this article will introduce AABB Gold Token’s main features.How Does the Gold-Crypto Link Work?This type of cryptocurrency is one with a strict connection to gold. These digital coins have a fixed value based on the prices of the most famous precious metal.Because of most cryptocurrencies’ “intangible” nature, their value fluctuates with the number of transactions and investor interest. In contrast, gold-backed cryptocurrencies rely on the physical and “tangible” value of the gold market’s current spot price of gold.Because of this system, it appears more straightforward to identify what causes gold-backed tokens to change in price. The price swings of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies seem to be random, especially to those less familiar with the market. The value of gold-backed cryptocurrencies fluctuates along with the price of gold.The relative “stability” of gold-backed cryptocurrencies depends on the fact that their value will never fall below that of gold. There is a chance that the value of these cryptocurrencies might even grow above the value of gold.Gold-backed coins are attractive to risk-averse digital currency investors because of this built-in stop-loss function.Joining the Growing Crypto HypeAsia Broadband’s goal is to produce, supply, and sell metals principally to Asian markets.With the AABB Wallet and the AABB Cryptocurrency Exchange, the company has been making movements in the expanding crypto market. The management is also interested in breaking into the nascent NFT market.A mining project in Mexico’s Tequila area, owned by Asia Broadband, has recently begun production. A retrofit improvement is underway to expand the processing mill’s capacity from 50 tons per day (TPD) to 100 TPD.A large-scale extension of the company’s manufacturing and processing facilities is also under study. The larger-scale mining operations will benefit greatly from mining equipment automation and efficiency developments.The Development of a New Crypto EcosystemFor $82 million, AABB sold its mining operations in Mexico’s Guerrero Gold Belt (GGB). The company utilized these funds to establish its ERC-20 token, which runs on the Ethereum blockchain.With over 99.9% of the stock market, the company has $68.4 million in its bank account. Its most recent annual report shows that AABB has almost $30 million in gold bullion.AABB Gold (AABBG), Asia Broadband’s newly minted mine-to-token gold-backed crypto, is the company’s latest challenge. The token relies on the backing of $30 million in actual gold stored by the Company.AABB envisions its token as a global standard of exchange with gold backing that is reliable, safe, and trustworthy. The founders highlight the chance for this token to grow in price over time.To assure the stability and security of the token, Asia Broadband created a crypto exchange. The exchange’s various and intricate systems are continuously growing in a real-time environment. The system already supports hundreds of different cryptocurrencies.The Launch of PayAABBAnother essential feature of this project is creating a payment gateway system. All crypto enthusiasts dream of a future where people can freely use tokens to buy services and goods. Intending to facilitate the arrival of this future, AABB is ready to launch the PayAABB service.The project’s Merchant API will allow anyone using AABB’s Wallet to access a B2B and B2C payment system. Thanks to this product, business owners will have the ability to start accepting crypto payments from their customers.Key TakeawaysKnowing the gold market and its trends is undoubtedly beneficial to understanding how gold-pegged tokens work. AABB is bringing a growing ecosystem to the market to catch more and more attention from potential investors.AABB updates are easy to find online. Everyone interested in the project can look up its website online. Furthermore, the company is active on social media platforms (Reddit, Twitter (NYSE:TWTR), and YouTube).Continue reading on CoinQuora More

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    in Cryptocurrency

    Bitcoin reclaims $30,000 as the broader crypto market turns green

    Although Bitcoin had corrected slightly to around $30,640 as of press time, it was still up by 5.5% on a 24-hour window, according to CoinMarketCap. The slight rally has also done little to erase this month’s losses as data from Coinglass shows that Bitcoin is down by 18.63% this month.The major question on the lips of many traders is whether Bitcoin is primed for recovery.”Markets are long overdue for a relief rally,” the CEO of social media trading platform Alpha Impact, Hayden Hughes, told Bloomberg. “Bitcoin just went through eight consecutive weeks in red territory and got technically oversold to levels we traditionally only see at the bottom of bear markets.”Moving to the broader crypto market, a significant portion of the market is in green on Monday morning. Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, is up by 5.79% over the past day and is currently trading at around $1,900, per CoinMarketCap data. However, Ethereum is still down by 8.18% on a weekly chart.Meanwhile, Cardano is currently leading the pack as the biggest gainer for the day on a list of top-10 cryptocurrencies by market cap. The digital asset saw an 11.45% gain.Continue reading on BTC Peers More

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    in Economy

    Shanghai declares lockdown end from June 1 after two months

    SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) -Shanghai on Monday announced an end to its two-month long COVID-19 lockdown, allowing people in virus-free areas of China’s largest city to leave their homes and drive their cars.The news brought an outpouring of relief, joy and some wariness from exhausted residents. “I’m so emotional that I’m going to cry,” said one Weibo (NASDAQ:WB) user.Most of the city’s 25 million residents have been confined to their homes for almost all of two months, with curbs only slightly relaxing in recent weeks to allow some to go out for short periods of time. Local authorities had earlier this month said they planned to fully restore normal life by next month but it as not clear how they would carry that out amid an insistence on sticking to China’s zero-COVID policy. Some residents greeted the news with disbelief, reflecting on how what was originally supposed to be a lockdown lasting just under five days for most became a longer ordeal. “Please don’t be lying to me,” one person said on social media. “I’m numb,” said another. The easing of curbs applies only to those in low-risk areas, which are home to about 22.3 million people, according to government data. People will still be required to wear masks and are discouraged from gathering and encouraged to get vaccinated. It did not say whether activities such as restaurant dining would be permitted. “The epidemic situation in our city has been effectively controlled and the situation continues to improve,” the city government said on Monday in a statement announcing the removal of the lockdown’s most draconian measures. Most of the city’s 25 million residents have been confined to their homes for almost all of two months, with curbs only slightly relaxing in recent weeks to allow some to go out for short periods of time. QUESTIONS REMAINShanghai imposed the city-wide lockdown on April 1 to combat the spread of COVID-19, exacting measures that caused widespread public anger and pummelled supply chains and China’s economy. Residents have heavily criticised the city government over its communication during much of the lockdown. On Sunday, Shanghai announced it was removing restrictions on business reopenings, but gave no indication at that time on how it would lift other lockdown measures. It was also still unclear whether firms must continue to adhere to a “closed loop” management system in order to reopen. Companies have called such requirements problematic as they must find ways for workers to sleep on site and carry out regular disinfection. Eric Zheng, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, welcomed the city’s decision to lift lockdown but he said he remained concerned about “red tape” and the requirement for employees to live and work in a bubble as a condition for businesses to reopen.BEIJIING EASING China’s “zero COVID” policy aimed at eradicating outbreaks at just about any cost is at odds with other countries that have opted to live with the virus, and the lack of an exit strategy has worried investors.China’s new daily cases are in the hundreds compared with tens of thousands in many Western nations.In Beijing, which is fighting its own smaller outbreak, streets were busier on Monday as more residents returned to work and public transport curbs were eased. But officials said the emergence of a new case outside of quarantined zones after three clear days showed the tall task of quelling COVID.Beijing had reported no cases in the community for three straight days – the best run since its current outbreak began in late April – until a new case surfaced on Monday.”There was a new flare-up today, indicating Beijing’s ‘dynamic-zero’ mission is arduous and we should constantly be on alert,” municipal government spokesperson Xu Hejian told a news conference. The Beijing districts of Fangshan and Shunyi ended work-from-home rules on Monday, while that requirement has also largely been dropped in the city’s biggest district Chaoyang. Public transport has mostly resumed in all three areas.Libraries, museums, theatres and gyms were allowed to reopen on Sunday, though with limits on numbers of people, in districts that have seen no community COVID cases for seven consecutive days. Still, restaurant dining is banned throughout the city.While there have been signs that economic activity is recovering somewhat from a dismal April, the strength and sustainability of any rebound depends largely on COVID developments.Shanghai reported fewer than 100 new COVID cases for May 29, while Beijing recorded 12. Across the country, China reported 184 new cases, down from 293. More