This week for the first time - in the name of "transparency" - the London Bullion Market Association unveiled that as at 31 March, 2017 there were 7,449 tonnes of gold, or 596,000 gold bars, valued at $298 billion sotred in the vaults around London as well as $19 billion in silver. Only the gold hoard at Fort Knox and among Indian households said to account for more than the LBMA's inventory, which clears just over $18 billion in gold daily.
Despite the ongoing demise of Bitcoin Cash (down another 13% today) since the fork 4 days ago, cryptocurrencies are surging higher this morning with Bitcoin up 12% to a new record high at $3230.
CoinTelegraph reports that various experts and developers including Paxos principal architect Jimmy Song have noted earlier this week, Bitcoin price is likely rising due to the imminence of SegWit activation.
In the first known case of special counsel Robert Mueller’s team asking the White House to hand over records, investigators working for Mueller - who is investigating whether President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign colluded with Russia and who last week reportedly empanelled a grand jury - have asked the White House for documents related to former national security adviser Michael Flynn, the New York Times reported late on Friday.
US retailers just can’t catch a break.
For all the talk about a "coordinated global recovery", it may come as a surprise that 57% of the acceleration in global GDP this year has come from a handful of commodity exporters (those whose food/metals/fuel exports are > 40% of total), which together combine for just 17% of global GDP growth. A slightly different way of looking at the same data, is that 66% of the global acceleration in GDP is due entirely to emerging markets.