Weekend Brief
Thursday’s Core PCE data came in marginally higher than forecasted (2.7% YoY actual vs 2.6% YoY expected). On the contrary, Friday’s NFP data delivered a downward surprise (12k actual vs 110k expected), causing the DXY to rebound and reclaim the 104 level.
Despite the weaker NFP print, US unemployment rate remains unchanged at 4.1%. The market’s expectation of a 25bps November rate cut has now risen to 96.4% probability.
Equity indices closed Friday in the green after strong earnings from AMZN. US Treasury yield, which initially fell on a kneejerk reaction to NFP data, rallied to a four-month high as the market remain cautious of bond-buying into Election Week. Brent and WTI saw slight gains on reports that Iran was preparing a retaliatory strike on Israel.
BTC teased the ATH on Tuesday night, trading to a high of 73.6k in anticipation of election week. Despite how outstanding BTC has been performing in the entire week, ETH was relatively muted, failing to break through 2.7k levels.
These came on the backdrop of strong ETF inflows, with over 2.1bn of net inflows for BTC throughout the week. BlackRock’s IBIT saw 872m worth of net inflow in a singular day, the largest ever since its launch in January.
Despite Bitcoin’s dip below $69,000 on Friday, we continue to see significant interest in the market, with OI for both total BTC futures and BTC options staying heightened at $40.65b and $25.3b respectively (an increase of +24.20% and +36.76% compared to the start of Oct) .
Options market is trading BTC 7 day implied vols at 74.4%, substantially higher than the past 7 day realised vols of 41.4%, indicating a significant risk premium around the elections.
What to expect on Election Week
While Trump has been favoured as the next POTUS, bets on Trump have come off significantly from a 66% high on Polymarket, to 57% for Trump and 43% for Harris. Regardless of the outcome, we believe the Elections will be another sell-the-news action, replicating the Nashville Bitcoin conference.
