Market Wrap: Bitcoin and Ether Start the Week Higher
BTC crossed $19,600 at one point but appears likely to continue trading in its recent narrow range.
Price Action :
Bitcoin and ether started the week in positive territory as risk assets of various stripes rose. Macroeconomic data will be relatively light this week, although markets will be eyeing Wednesday’s inflation data from Great Britain along with U.S. housing starts on the same day.
Bitcoin (BTC) rose 1.4% on Monday on moderate volume as the price at one point reached as high as $19,670. BTC began a steady ascent early Monday, rising for five consecutive hours before retracing.
Ether’s (ETH) price increased 1.3% as the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization continued to hover above $1,300. ETH pushed higher during the 13:00 UTC (9:00 a.m. ET) hour before declining, and reached as high as 1,337. ETH is up approximately 0.01% since Oct. 8, when the asset became deflationary for the first time since the Sept. 15 Ethereum Merge upgrade from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake.
The CoinDesk Market Index (CMI), a broad-based market index that measures the performance of a basket of cryptocurrencies, is up 1.33%.
The top altcoin gainers recently were Polymath Network’s POLY and Injective Protocol’s INJ, which rose 27% and 13%, respectively. The laggards on the day were Index Chain’s IDX and XYO Network’s XYO.
Macro View :
The overriding narrative in crypto continues to be its connection with macroeconomic news, particularly on inflation and economic growth. The Oct. 27 release of GDP data will show whether the U.S. economy remains in a recession.
The CME FedWatch tool data shows the possibility of a 50 basis point interest rate hike, although the probability remains low at just 4.6%. The larger takeaway is that a 100 basis point hike no longer seems to be a possibility. Markets are currently assigning a 95% probability the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee will increase rates by 75 basis points in November.
Traditional financial markets were higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), tech-heavy Nasdaq and S&P 500 rose 1.8%, 3.5% and 2.7%, respectively.
In commodities, energy markets were mixed. West Texas Intermediate crude and European Brent crude were up 0.57% and 0.61%, while natural gas declined 7.2%. In metals, safe-haven gold rose 1.3% while copper futures increased 0.26%.
