On Thursday, financial markets seem to be characterized by less volatility than in the first half of the week. Investors may continue to delve into the Fed's latest actions after the latest inflation reading from the U.S. and ponder how any rate hikes could affect stock, bond, dollar or cryptocurrency quotes.
Situation in the markets and mixed data from the Antipodes
This morning, the DAX was up 0.17 percent at 6:52 a.m. CET, while the CAC 40 was unchanged from its previous day's position at the same time. The FTSE 100 rose 0.49 percent. The euro fell 0.13 percent against the dollar to 0.99680 at 7:06 a.m. CET, while the pound lost 0.17 percent against the U.S. dollar to 1.15204. From macroeconomic data overnight, we learned that unemployment in Australia unexpectedly rose to 3.5 percent in August from 3.4 percent, the first increase in 10 months. This result may support the Reserve Bank of Australia's earlier signal of a potential move to smaller interest rate hikes. New Zealand's economy, on the other hand, grew more than expected in the second quarter (0.4 percent year-on-year), avoiding recession after a surge in Covid-19 cases caused the economy to contract in the first three months of the year.
Source: Conotoxia MT5, AUDUSD, D1
The Ethereum Merge
The world's two largest cryptocurrencies, bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH), fell on Thursday after the ethereum exchange rate earlier posted an intraday gain of more than 4 percent. This time, the second-largest cryptocurrency fell more than 2 percent, with the entire cryptocurrency community expecting a transition to a proof-of-stake model with proof-of-work (known as The Merge) to take place in the next few hours, BBH reported. The years-long, system-wide upgrade of the ethereum blockchain will mark one of the most historic events in the cryptocurrency sector, according to CNBC. Katie Talati, head of research at asset management firm Arca, said in an interview with CNBC: "we believe that after The Merge Eth bullish sentiment towards ethereum will be much stronger for a number of reasons." The main factor is expected to be a decrease in supply, which will make ETH a more scarce and harder-to-access token, which could translate into price, Talati added.
Source: Conotoxia MT5, ETH/USD, D1
Merge ETH, and what's next for BTC?
From the point of view of the chart of the world's largest cryptocurrency, the price of BTC remains in a fluctuating range between $18343 - $25016. In addition, in recent times, the BTC/USD exchange rate may be capped by the trend line drawn after previous peaks. It seems that only overcoming this place could be more favorable for the bulls. In turn, overcoming the support could open the way towards $12582.
Source: Conotoxia MT5, BTC/USD, W1
Daniel Kostecki, Director of the Polish branch of Conotoxia Ltd. (Conotoxia investment service)
Materials, analysis and opinions contained, referenced or provided herein are intended solely for informational and educational purposes. Personal opinion of the author does not represent and should not be constructed as a statement or an investment advice made by Conotoxia Ltd. All indiscriminate reliance on illustrative or informational materials may lead to losses. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.