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Bitcoin prices surpassed $60,000 today, breaking through that key, psychological level after briefly encountering resistance.

The world’s most prominent digital currency climbed above $60,000 close to 10 a.m. EDT, CoinDesk data shows.

The cryptocurrency rose to as much as $60,326.77, additional CoinDesk figures reveal.

[Ed note: Investing in cryptocoins or tokens is highly speculative and the market is largely unregulated. Anyone considering it should be prepared to lose their entire investment.]

“It’s an exciting day in the crypto world with Bitcoin breaking $60,000,” said Brett Sifling, an investment advisor for Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management.

“Ideally, we’d like to see Bitcoin build a base over $60,000 and cement that level as new support. All eyes would then be on the all time highs of $65,000,” he stated.

“If we break all time highs, there is no telling how high the momentum could take us,” added Sifling.

“The last time we had a major breakout over an all time high ($20,000) was at the end of 2020 and it went on to have a monster rally.”

Several other analysts also weighed in, offering specific figures for where bitcoin is likely to encounter resistance next.

Before the digital currency surpassed $60,000, Nick Spanos, cofounder of Zap Protocol, stated that rising above that price level would cause bitcoin to “gain fresh momentum to target its all-time high of $64,483.”

He noted that “if this resistance level is breached, Bitcoin would then have fresh momentum and traders would target the $68,000 and $70,000 resistance levels.”

Katie Stockton, the founder and managing partner of Fairlead Strategies, LLC,

“Bitcoin is shrugging off short-term overbought conditions on positive short-term momentum,” she stated.

“There is no resistance nearby, in my work, and the recent breakout yielded a target of final resistance closer to $65K.”

Michael Gu, a crypto analyst and founder of Boxmining, also provided some input, noting that after bitcoin’s most recent price movements, it will next face resistance at $66,000.

Julius de Kempenaer, senior technical analyst at StockCharts.com, offered some interesting perspective on bitcoin’s latest market activity.

“A solid break beyond 60k clears the path towards the 65k.”

“After that, BTC, once again, arrives in uncharted territory and things can go very rapidly as we have seen in the past,” he stated.

“Such resistance levels can be compared with a spring, the more they get tested the tighter the tension on the spring gets. Breaking resistance equals releasing the spring, and a lot of power becomes available.”

A resolution is imminent in the dispute over more than 1,000 bronzes stolen from the former Kingdom of Benin. Germany wants to return all the objects to Nigeria.

Germany is set to return more than 1,000 previously disputed bronzes looted from the former Kingdom of Benin, in present-day Nigeria.

The German Press Agency (DPA) quoted Nigerian Information and Culture Minister Alhaji Lai Mohammed as saying that delegations of both countries have signed a memorandum of understanding in Nigeria's capital, Abuja. An agreement will follow before the end of December.

"The German government and the German people have taken a courageous step by agreeing to return the artifacts voluntarily and without much pressure from Nigeria," DPA quoted the culture minister as saying.

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By Michael Olugbode

The federal government has declared Tuesday October 19th, 2021 as public holiday to mark this year’s Eid-ul-Mawlid Celebration in commemoration of the birth of the Holy Prophet Muhammad.

Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, who made this declaration on behalf of the federal government, congratulated all Muslim faithful both at home and in the Diaspora for witnessing this year’s occasion.

He admonished all Nigerians to imbibe the spirit of love, patience and perseverance which are the virtues of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), adding that doing so would guarantee peace and security in the country.

Aregbesola enjoined Nigerians, particularly Muslims, to refrain from violence, lawlessness and other acts of criminality. As the indisputable leader of our race, we must show responsible leadership in Africa.

While calling for a stop to all divisive tendencies across the country, the Minister urged all Nigerians and the youth in particular, to embrace the virtues of hard work and peaceful disposition to fellow humans, irrespective of faith, ideology, social class and ethnicity and cooperate with President Muhammadu Buhari’s led-Administration in its effort to build a progressive and enviable nation that all citizens would be proud of.

BY  Daniele Lepido and Alberto Brambilla, Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg) -- Italia Trasporto Aereo, the state-owned successor to Alitalia, is positioning itself for a partnership with a major airline that could come as soon as the end of next year, according to Chairman Alfredo Altavilla.

The new airline, which started operations on Friday after its predecessor shut down, is too small to survive as a standalone company, Altavilla said in an interview. It is being managed in a way that will make it attractive for one of the large airline groups, whether in Europe or another region like the U.S., he said. 

“I’m looking for a deal to be completed by the end of 2022,” Altavilla said. “I certainly don’t want to go beyond that.”

A deal has been part of the plan since he was appointed to lead ITA in June by Mario Draghi’s government, according to the 58-year-old executive, once a top aide to former Fiat Chrysler chief Sergio Marchionne.

The carrier reached an outline agreement to buy new Airbus SE aircraft last month and agreed late Thursday to purchase the Alitalia name, ensuring it will have global brand recognition. 

Yet it faces vicious competition from discounters such as Ryanair Holdings Plc, EasyJet Plc and Wizz Air Holdings Plc on domestic and regional routes, while major airlines in Europe and the U.S. dominate the profitable trans-Atlantic routes.

“It was crystal clear to me that this company can’t survive standalone, even if all the stars were to align for a tremendous rebound in the travel market,” Altavilla said. “Size does matter today and is going to matter more and more going forward.”

Altavilla said he’s been approached by all the major carriers in Europe and the U.S. Delta Air Lines Inc. CEO Ed Bastian said this month that discussions are underway over a possible alliance.  

BY  Jessy Bains

Canada’s major real estate markets are picking up steam heading into fall and not just in Toronto and Vancouver.

The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) says sales are down 17.5 per cent from the scorching pace during the same month last year, but they are up 0.9 per cent month over month.

September 2020 was a tough act to follow, setting a record for the month. But last month was the second-highest September on record for sales. It was also the first month-over-month increase since March.

The national benchmark price was up 1.7 per cent month-over-month and 21.5 per cent year-over-year.

Among major cities, Halifax is up 27.5 per cent in 2021 followed by Toronto at 18.3 per cent, and Montreal which was up 15.5 per cent.

As the below graphic shows, even bigger gains can be found in smaller towns that many might never have heard of. Most of them are in Ontario.

Home prices from here

CREA says a lack of homes for sale is a key factor behind price gains.

“We are still stuck at around 2 months of inventory nationally, the thing to keep a close eye on going forward will be the behaviour of prices,” said CREA’s Senior Economist Shaun Cathcart.

“While the acceleration in home prices we saw in September was more than most would have expected, the fact that prices are now moving back in that direction is not surprising.”

BMO senior economist Robert Kavcic says mortgage rates could be a factor but supply issues could accelerate price gains.

“One can't help but feel as though the Canadian housing market is walking on tinder again, with demand holding at historically high levels, listings getting quickly absorbed, and price growth running steady near a 20% pace," said Kavcic.

“That said, five-year fixed mortgage rates likely face meaningful upside in the months ahead, which could act as a dampener. If not, or if there is a heavy rotation to variable and the market starts to accelerate again from here, talk of earlier Bank of Canada moves will only grow louder."

Jessy Bains is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance Canada. Follow him on Twitter @jessysbains.

By Wole Oyebade

•Stakeholders flays interference

The Senate Committee on Aviation, yesterday, ordered the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to suspend the process of awarding the Air Operating Certificate (AOC) to a new airline, NG Eagle.

The committee, in a letter signed by its Chairman, Senator Smart Adeyemi, said the order was to enable lawmakers investigate issues surrounding the controversial carrier.

The Senate’s “meddling”, in response to a petition, is coming about a week after their counterpart in the House of Representatives ordered the NCAA to a meeting, and issued a similar directive against AOC.

The Guardian had reported that the local carrier, an initiative of Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), is emerging from the ‘ashes’ of distressed Arik Air, and has acquired at least three of its Boeing 737 airplanes.

One of the aircraft was sighted at Ethiopian Airline’s Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, awaiting rebranding into NG Eagle livery.

The Senate’s intervention was not unconnected to the protest by a section of the unions that had kicked against the move. The Association of Nigerian Aviation Professionals (ANAP) and National Union of Pensioners (NUP) branch at the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, (FAAN) had faulted the rationale of creating a new airline from the assets of Arik Air that is in financial distress.

Adeyemi’s letter to the NCAA stated: “Having carefully considered the submission by the union, the Senate Committee on Aviation in consonance with the House Committee on Aviation, hereby direct you to immediately suspend the issuance of the Air Operating Certificate (AOC) to NG Eagle.

“The essence of this suspension is to enable the committee and relevant authorities carry out a thorough investigation on all allegations leveled by the union in their petition. The committee expects full compliance with this directive until a workable resolution is achieved,” the letter read in part.

Aviation stakeholders have, however, faulted the directive, describing it as the most unfortunate.

President of the Aviation Safety Round Table Initiative (ASRTI), a think-tank group of the local sector, Gabriel Olowo, said it is not the responsibility of the National Assembly to direct the NCAA to issue or not to issue an AOC.

“It is established in the International Civil Aviation (ICAO) regulations that no matter how powerful the Ministry is, the political arm of government, it can only wield influence but not dictate to the NCAA,” Olowo said.

He insisted that the criteria of awarding AOCs are the exclusive preserve of the NCAA.

“That is the agency that has the right to issue a licence. The NCAA is recognised internationally as an institution to regulate civil aviation. The autonomy of the NCAA is not negotiable. We will be killing the NCAA, if we allow such interferences over its activities.

“This is an aspect of unnecessary political interference we’ve been addressing over the years in the NCAA’s autonomy. This will not help the sector. If care is not taken, we will begin to see such interferences on safety issues; which airline is to ground or not to ground despite safety violations, and so on. Standard ICAO regulation on issuance of AOC should be followed.”

Apparently in agreement with Olowo, Aviation consultant and former Commandant of Lagos Airport, Grp. Capt. John Ojikutu, said the National Assembly cannot legitimately interfere in critical issues concerning the issuance of AOC, citing its strict protocols.

And if they are so inclined, Ojikutu said, the lawmakers should begin by deactivating the NCAA’s oversight functions on AOC and ground handling companies’ charges, and push them beyond the authority’s responsibilities in the Nig. CARs (Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations), which was approved by the National Assembly in 2006 and reviewed in 2012.

“The present NASS needs to direct their responsibilities towards legislative functions rather than to executive functions. Like someone said, they could make resolutions, which are not binding but given directives on the executive functions can create conflicts between them and the executive.

“I think we need to advise the NASS members of the aviation committees to have copies of the CAA and Regulations, which they promulgated, read them to know where they have powers in them before they exercise those powers. They need to decide on which side of the divide they want to be and move there; not a bird and rat at the same time.”

The Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the mileage was part of about 5000km to 6000km,  which the present administration planned to embark upon.

He named the Abuja -Kaduna Railway,  the Itape-Warri and the Lagos-Ibadan as the projects that had been completed.

According to the minister,  over N1 billion has been paid into a special account as the ministry’s contribution to repay part of the loan collected for the rail projects.

”We have awarded a contract to three more companies if you add this ones I have mentioned and one is 225km Itape-Warri.

”The one from Lagos to Ibadan is 156km, then the one from Abuja-Kaduna is about 186km, so close to 700km of rail completed and carrying out commercial activities.

”Within this period as the minister, we have never paid money to the government but we got to the Ministry of Finance and asked them to open an account where we pay money every month as our own contribution for repayment of the loan.

”And I think we have gotten over N1 billion already in the last few months.

”Every month that we pay, we are able to return close to N200million per month,” Amaechi said.

He said that the Federal Government was already negotiating for a new facilities to construct the rail from Ibadan to Kano.

‘We have not finished the loan negotiation with China but we have commenced from budget not from loan, the construction of Kano to Kaduna.

”So that at any point in time the Chinese are able to give us loan, we know that it will be from Ibadan to Abuja, but for now we have done Abuja to Kaduna, we are now doing Kaduna to Kano.

On the 2022 budget, NAN reports that over N205 billion was earmarked in the budget for the transportation sector.

According to the Federal Government, the money is to help address the huge rail infrastructure deficit in Nigeria since the last 30 years and the last six years have been top priority of President Muhammadu Buhari ‘s administration.

The transportation sector was included as one of the beneficiaries of about N1.45 trillion critical sectorial allocation in the year 2022 budget.

About N71.67billion as counterpart funding was allocated to six ongoing rail project across the country and more than N4 billion was for rehabilitation of various railway tracks.(NAN)

By Musliudeen Adebayo

Hundreds of commuters plying Ibadan-Abeokuta road have threatened to block the road over alleged abandonment of the road.

They noted that they will make the road impassable until President Muhammadu Buhari makes funds available to complete the abandoned rehabilitation works on the road.

The aggrieved road users noted that they were losing millions of naira due to hardship they face daily on the road.

Some of those plying the included residents of Omi-Adio, Orile and Kila in Ido local government area in Oyo State.

Others are residents of Odeda Local Governments area in Ogun states.

The commuters vowed to stop vehicles from using the road if nothing is done by the federal government to address the bad condition of the road.

The concerned residents in a protest letter signed by

The concerned residents who spoke through their spokesperson, Pa Fasanmi Coker expressed disappointment over the status of the road.

He maintained that it was unfortunate that the federal government has “failed to dualise the busy Ibadan- Abeokuta Expressway.

He then urged the “federal government to begin the dualisation to check the high rate of accidents on the highway.

He said the “Ibadan-Abeokuta Expressway, being one of the oldest in the country, is overdue for dualisation”.

The aggrieved residents who expressed disappointment over government’s handling of the road said that the government short-changed the public.

The Federal Controller of Works in Oyo state, Engineer. Kayode Ibrahim, when contacted, appealed to the public to bear with the government.

He noted that the contractor handling the project is being owed by the government.

Ibrahim said, “Yes, the contractor, Kopek Construction Company, normally carries out repair works on the road. We normally asked them to do that because you know the road is getting out of hand.

“The challenge is that the contractor has been owed a lot of money for a very long time, and the government is working round the clock to clear all their debts. And as soon as the debts are cleared, we will ask them to go back to the site”.

Managing Director of the contractor handling the project, Kopek Construction Company, Mr F. Issam urged the public not to attribute accidents on the road to structural design of the road.

Issam who spoke through the site Engineer, Mr Paul Chamun urged the public not to attribute the accidents on the road to structural design.

He said that engineering design and components of the highway have nothing to do with the accidents on the highway.

The United Kingdom Government has warned its citizens in Nigeria against visiting 12 states in the country over possible terror attacks.

The advisory from the UK through its Foreign and Commonwealth Office followed concerns on the possibility of terrorists carrying out attacks in Nigeria.

In a statement published on its website “still current at October 16, 2021,” it expressed concern over protests and a heightened security presence in major cities due to the trial of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu.

The foreign government also urged its citizens to monitor local media and avoid any demonstrations or large gatherings.

The UK listed the Nigerian states as: Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Gombe, Kaduna, Katsina and Zamfara.

Other states are: Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Cross River.

The FCDO also advised against all but essential travel to: Bauchi, Kano, Jigawa, Niger, Sokoto and Kogi aand within 20kilometres of the border with Niger in Kebbi State and Abia State.

It also cautioned UK citizens against travelling to the non-riverine areas of Delta, Bayelsa and Rivers States.

According to the advisory, events to mark the one year anniversary of #EndSARS protests are likely to take place nationally in the week commencing October 18.

“There may be protests and a heightened security presence in major cities such as Lagos and Abuja. In parallel, the high profile trial date of a separatist leader is also scheduled for 21 October in Abuja. There may be additional protests and a heightened security presence in Abuja and in the South-east for this reason. In all areas affected, you should monitor local media, and avoid any demonstrations or large gatherings,” the advisory stated.

FCDO noted that from September 3, 2021, the Nigerian government had mandated for all telecommunication operators in Nigeria to stop extending services to Zamfara State.

This, according to the FCDO, includes a suspension of all mobile telecommunications, including WiFi.

It added that a number of other state governments, including Kaduna, Katsina, Sokoto, Kebbi and Niger, had also implemented a partial shutdown of telecom services.

“Since 9 August, there has been an increase in protests and demonstrations in the South-east region of Nigeria. Protests, including “Stay at Home” protests, are likely during October in the South-east region. There have been reports of violence during Sit-at-Home protests previously. You should monitor local media, avoid any demonstrations or large gatherings and follow any instructions from local police and security forces,” the advisory explained.

It noted a number of attacks and targeted killings in the South East and South South regions, including in the states of Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Imo, Abia, Anambra, Delta, Edo and Ebonyi.

According to the FCDO, some of these attacks have been on isolated roads and in remote locations.

It, however, added that there is a chance that they could occur in metropolitan areas.

“There is also a heightened risk of indiscriminate attacks on police and security infrastructure, which may inadvertently affect bystanders. A number of states have imposed curfews. Travelers to these regions are advised to exercise caution if travelling in remote areas at night and follow local news and information outlets for further information, including on local curfews,” the advisory added.

by  Sunil Jagtiani, Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg) --

The Australian city of Melbourne will exit its sixth pandemic lockdown late on Oct. 21 after a jump in vaccinations. 

Victoria state, of which Melbourne is the capital, will ease curbs from 11:59 p.m. that day with 70% of the eligible adult population on the cusp of being fully vaccinated, state Premier Daniel Andrews said in a televised briefing on Sunday.

“There will be no restrictions on leaving your home, there will be no curfew,” Andrews said.

Sydney, Australia’s most populous city, exited more than three months of lockdown on Oct. 11 as the nation moved toward living with Covid-19 after ramping up inoculations and securing more drug supplies to treat infections.

The freedoms being restored in Victoria include allowing up to 10 people to visit homes daily in regional and metropolitan Melbourne, while a 15 kilometer (9 mile) travel radius will also be scrapped in the latter zone. Greater Melbourne has a population of about 5 million.

Venues such as restaurants and cafes will be able to reopen subject to occupancy, density and vaccination criteria. A staggered return to school will be brought forward to begin Oct. 22.

Meanwhile the national government said it’s in talks over a quarantine-free travel bubble with Singapore for fully vaccinated visitors. It has also secured access to additional Covid-19 treatments from Roche Holding AG and Pfizer Inc.