Apple Yanks World’s Most Popular Bitcoin Wallet From App Store

Apple has removed the world’s most popular bitcoin wallet from its App Store.

Late Wednesday, the tech giant yanked the Blockchain app from the popular mobile app marketplace and did not provide a specific reason, says Nicolas Cary, the CEO of Blockchain. The app is currently used by about 120,000 people to send and receive the world’s most popular digital currency. Blockchain users can still run the app on their iPhones and Macs, but they will no longer be able to get software updates via Apple. There are more than 1 million Blockchain users worldwide.

http://www.wired.com/

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U.S. Treasury likely to run out of funds Feb. 27

U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew urged Congress Friday to increase the debt ceiling, saying he is not confident extraordinary measures will last beyond Feb. 27.

In a letter addressed to House Speaker John Boehner, Lew highlighted that the Treasury must start implementing “extraordinary measures” to continue to pay the nation’s bills because Congress has not acted to approve its normal borrowing authority.

Mr Lew said he could rely on emergency measures to pay US debts after the limit is reinstated on 7 February.

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Give the smartphone a rest tonight ;)

For a productive day at work tomorrow, give the smartphone a rest tonight.

Reading and sending work email on a smartphone late into the evening doesn’t just make it harder to get a decent night’s sleep. New research findings show it also exhausts workers by morning and leaves them disengaged by the next afternoon.

http://blogs.wsj.com/images

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U.S. Payrolls Rise Less Than Forecast; Jobless Rate Falls

Payrolls in the U.S. rose less than projected in January as retailers cut back after the holidays and government hiring fell. The unemployment rate unexpectedly declined to 6.6 percent.

The 113,000 gain in employment,  NFP followed a 75,000 increase the prior month, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median forecast of economists in a Bloomberg survey called for a 180,000 advance. The unemployment rate  , NFP dropped to the lowest level since October 2008 even as more Americans entered the labor force.

http://www.bloomberg.com

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Bitcoin new safe heaven ?

The lack of trust in the custodians of fiat money has provided a fertile context for the rise of Bitcoin, the ultimate digital alternative store of value as against mainstream, central bank managed currencies like the US dollar, sterling and the euro.

Ever since advanced market central banks began rolling the printing presses, the warnings from various quarters foretelling the implosion of fiat currencies have been getting louder and louder.

For International Monetary Fund (IMF) CEO Christine Lagarde, the unconventional measures taken by central bankers – such as the Fed’s quantitative easing (QE) and zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) and the ECB’s Long Term Refinancing Operation – have been key to preventing a re-run of the Great Depression.

http://www.economywatch.com/features/can-bitcoins-be-a-global-reserve-currency.07-02.html

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Bad day for Bitcoin at Mt. Gox.

Mt. Gox “temporarily pause on all withdrawal requests” 

This a warning sign for me !

Dear MtGox Customers,

In our efforts to resolve the issue being encountered by various bitcoin withdrawals, it was determined that the increase in the flow of withdrawal requests has hindered our efforts on a technical level. To understand the issue thoroughly, the system needs to be in a static state.

In order for our team to resolve the withdrawal issue it is necessary for a temporarily pause on all withdrawal requests to obtain a clear technical view of the current processes.

We apologize for the sudden short notice. All bitcoin withdrawal requests will be on pause, and the withdrawals in the system will be returned to your MtGox wallet and can be reinitiated once the issue is resolved. The trading platform will perform as usual for the needs of our customers. 



Our team will resolve this problem as soon as possible and will provide an update on Monday, February 10, 2014 (JST).



We deeply apologize for the inconvenience caused, and thank you for your kind support and considerations. 


Sincerely,

The MtGox Team

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What is Bitcoin for you ? A currency ?

Read what @johngapper write in @ft

Bitcoin is being forced to grow up fast. The arrest last week on money laundering charges of Charlie Shrem, a leading Bitcoin champion, coincided with a regulatory hearing in New York to consider what on earth it is – a virtual currency, speculative asset or a means of exchange?

Bitcoin allows one person to hand a token of value to another securely, with no intermediary

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German judges refer ECB’s bond-buying to European Court

Germany’s Constitutional Court will refer a complaint against the European Central Bank’s flagship “unlimited”  bond-buying plan to the European Court, removing the prospect of it curbing the program.

The court said on Friday there was good reason to think the scheme “exceeds the European Central Bank’s monetary policy mandate and thus infringes the powers of the member states, and that it violates the prohibition of monetary financing of the budget”.

The ECB’s Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT) programme, announced by ECB chief Mario Draghi in September 2012 at the height of the sovereign debt crisis, is widely credited with stabilising the euro.

Euro/Usd drop on this news

screenshot.24

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When will FED rise the funds rate ?

Before the weak employent report of the 10 Jan 2014, traders expected the fed funds rate to average 0.45% in June 2015. That estimate is based on price movements in the June 2015 fed funds futures contract. Put another way, traders saw a high probability that the Fed would start a rate hike campaign by mid-2015. Now the expected fed funds rate in June 2015 is 0.265%, meaning a low probability of a Fed rate hike by then. This is an especially dramatic shift from last September, when the expected fed funds rate in June 2015 was 0.92%, which meant futures traders thought the Fed would already be a few rounds into a rate hike campaign by mid-2015.

Remember FED officials have been hammering home the message that “tapering isn’t tightening.” 

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Friday 07-feb-14 watching

US debt limit deadline

The debt limit – the maximum amount of debt the federal government can issue to the public and other federal agencies – was suspended on 17 October 2013 until 7 February 2014, as a short-term fix to the debt ceiling crisis in October.

On 8 February 2014, the limit will be reset at the level of debt at that date. The latest figure for the amount of debt subject to the limit is USD17.3trn.

US January Employment Report (13:30 GMT)

Get involved in the most intense market events. As such, I think you should know that U.S. Non-Farm Employment Change figures are expected tomorrow,Friday, January 8, at 13:30 (GMT), and you need to be prepared.

Market events like this one tend to create either big changes to current trends or push current trends even further.

Generally, the Majors are the ones most affected by market events in general, but Crude Oil, Gold prices, and even the price of Silver can change dramatically in the seconds after such a publication.

Consensus is 185K

 

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