Bitcoin and Ether fell Wednesday morning in Asia, along with all other unstable cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. Polygon saw the biggest drop, while BNB fell the least. A slew of U.S. economic data released on Tuesday, including earnings reports from retail giants and some Treasury bill rate hikes, weighed on stock markets.
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Fast facts
- Bitcoin has fallen 1.6% in the past 24 hours to trade at US$24,442 as of 8am in Hong Kong, although it was still up 10% over the past week , according to CoinMarketCap. Ethereum fell 2.6% to US$1,658, up 6.5% over the past seven days.
- Polygon lost 6.1% to US$1.39, although it still posted gains of 10% over the past seven days. BNB fell 1.2% to US$311.48, but was still up 5.2% for the week.
- The total crypto market cap fell 1.8% to US$1.11 trillion as of 8am Hong Kong. Total trading volume in the past 24 hours increased by 3.3% to $66.70 billion.
- U.S. stocks closed lower on Tuesday, which was the first trading day of the week, as markets closed Monday for President’s Day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2.1%, the S&P 500 Index fell 2% and the Nasdaq Composite Index ended the day down 2.5%.
- The three key clues posted the biggest one-day losses since Dec. 15, as the S&P 500 halved its year-to-date gains while the Dow Jones wiped out nearly all of its 2023 gains.
- The yield on two-year Treasury bills hit 4.7% on Tuesday, the highest level since 2007, while the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 3.9%. High levels of Treasury yields pose greater upside risk to yields, putting downward pressure on equities.
- The U.S. Federal Reserve will release the minutes of its January 31-February 1 policy meeting on Wednesday, which investors will check for clues on how the central bank might act to fight inflation.
- Retail giants Walmart Inc. and Home Depot Inc. released their holiday season earnings reports on Tuesday. Walmart’s revenue pink 7.3% to $164 billion from a year earlier, while Home Depot failed expectations, reporting $35 billion in revenue in the fourth quarter. Both companies forecast a difficult quarter ahead due to headwinds from supply chain shortages and continued inflation in the economy.
- Economic data released Tuesday suggest that business activity in the United States is expanding. The S&P Global Services Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) hit an eight-month high of 50.5 in February, from 46.8 the previous month, while the manufacturing PMI hit a four-month high of 47 .8 against 46.9.
- The Fed raised interest rates to a range of 4.5% to 4.75% on February 1 to tackle inflation, the highest level since October 2007, with the latest price index data consumption up 6.4% in January compared to a year ago, against 6.5. % in December and 7.1% in November.
- The analysts of The CME group predicts a roughly 75% chance that the Fed will raise rates another 25 basis points next month.
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