Markets opened soft after CPI came in a touch hotter than expected. Headline inflation rose to 2.9% YoY, in line with forecasts but up from 2.7% last month. The MoM print surprised to the upside at 0.4% vs. 0.3% expected. Prices sold off early, but risk rallied after the equity open, pushing major indexes to session highs. Rate cut odds for September ticked up anyway, with the probability of a 50bp move rising from 8.9% to 11.3%.
Bitcoin continues to lag macro liquidity indicators. CF Benchmarks pointed out that BTC is trading well below fair value when mapped against U.S. M2 growth, with the current gap as wide as any time since August 2024. Similar setups in 2016, 2019, and 2021 preceded major upside. Meanwhile, gold is holding near all-time highs, and the BTC-to-gold ratio is nudging into levels that previously marked local bottoms for crypto.
Flows continue to rotate out of ETH and back into Bitcoin and higher-beta alts. ETH options show rising demand for downside protection, while SOL has caught a strong bid. TVL on Solana just hit a record $12.2 billion, up 57% since June. SOL has outperformed ETH by 25% since the end of August, helped by ETF tailwinds and a $1.65 billion raise by Forward Industries to build the largest Solana-focused treasury in the corporate space.
MicroStrategy missed entry into the S&P 500 despite checking the technical boxes. The rejection may reflect institutional discomfort with the BTC-on-balance-sheet model, and could tilt flows toward listed firms with active crypto operations, exchanges, miners, infra, over passive holders.
In Europe, the ECB held its benchmark rate at 2.15% this morning, pausing after eight rate cuts since June.
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