Price Action
Bitcoin is certainly liking the air above $19,000.
The largest cryptocurrency by market value remained above this threshold for the 14th consecutive day as investors continued to digest a range of issues that have been plaguing markets for weeks or longer.
Bitcoin was recently trading at about $19,200, up ever so slightly from 24 hours earlier. Ether was recently changing hands just below the $1,300 level that has been its primary compass point for more than a month. Other major altcoins were largely flat, although XRP was up over 3%.
The CoinDesk Market Index (CMI), a broad-based market index that measures the performance of a basket of cryptocurrencies, recently rose 0.6%.
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Bitcoin (BTC) was recently trading at about $19,200, roughly where it stood Thursday, same time, and near the bottom of the $19,000 to $21,000 range BTC has held for more than a month. Trading volume remained moderate.
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Ether’s (ETH) was recently changing hands just below $1,300, also about the same from Thursday, and near its bottom support for much of the past month.
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Among the top altcoin gainers recently were XRP and EOS, which both climbed about 3%. Earlier in the day, Aptos’ APT token rose 4.5% to recover from its bumpy start a few days before. AXIE was off about 6%.
Macro View
Traditional financial markets ended the week on a high with the tech-heavy Nasdaq, Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and S&P 500 all gaining close to 2.5%. The first two weeks of third-quarter earnings have been better than expected, despite gloomy economic forecasts. Investors continued to chew over high inflation, a downtrodden yen and a U.K. government in turmoil. Data showed that bitcoin’s 30-day price volatility is now almost identical to that of the U.K.’s currency.
In commodities, Brent crude oil, a measure of energy markets, ticked up slightly to trade over $93 per barrel, up more than 15% from the start of the year. Safe-haven gold climbed 1.6% to trade at $1,654 per ounce.
The U.S. Federal Reserve is widely expected to raise interest rates by another 75 basis points during its next meeting on Nov. 2-3, but futures traders now anticipate the central bankers to moderate their current monetary hawkishness.
The CME FedWatch tool currently shows that traders see a 50-50 chance that the Fed’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will raise rates by 50 basis points in December. The more optimistic sentiment follows remarks on Friday by San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly, who said that “the time is now to start talking about stepping down – the time is now to start planning for stepping down.”
Latest Prices
● CoinDesk Market Index (CMI): 935.73 +1.1%
● Bitcoin (BTC): $19,184 +0.8%
● Ether (ETH): $1,303 +1.5%
● S&P 500 daily close: 3,752.75 +2.4%
● Gold: $1,660 per troy ounce +1.8%
● Ten-year Treasury yield daily close: 4.21% −0.01