Bitcoin, Ether down as markets brace for November inflation data

Bitcoin and Ether fell slightly in Monday morning trading in Asia, along with all other non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies in the top 10, excluding Litecoin. Investors await November’s consumer price index, a key inflation indicator to be released Tuesday, while bracing for another interest rate hike on Wednesday.

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Fast facts

Bitcoin was trading at US$17,106, down 0.1% in the 24 hours to 8 a.m. in Hong Kong, while Ether was US$1,264 after losing 0.2%, according to CoinMarketCap. Litecoin was the only token to gain among the top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies, rising 0.4% to US$76.64.
Memecoin Dogecoin saw the biggest losses, falling 3.7% to US$0.09, followed by Polkadot, which dropped by 2% to US$5.17.
The total crypto market cap was down 0.5% to US$850 billion by Monday morning in Hong Kong, while recording a 24-hour market trading volume of US$24.7 billion, a 4.5% increase from the previous day.
U.S. equity markets closed the trading day lower on Friday. The S&P 500 Index and the Nasdaq Composite Index both lost 0.7%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.9%, capping off its weekly drop at 2.8%, its worst trading week since September.
Wholesale prices in the U.S. increased 0.3% in November, up 7.4% from a year ago, according to the U.S Labor Department’s latest producer price index report on Friday. Many economists had predicted a 0.2% jump for the month, but prices remain high despite the Federal Reserve’s efforts to tamp down on inflation with a series of rate hikes.
The Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) next two-day meeting starts on Tuesday, Dec. 13, where a 50 basis points rate hike is expected, which is 25 basis points lower than the past four consecutive raises.
The Fed has increased interest rates since March to slow inflation, raising it from nearly zero to a 15-year high of 3.75% to 4%, and has signaled that rates may end up exceeding 5%. The central bank wants inflation in its target range of 2%. The consumer price index was at 7.7% in October, down from 8.2% in September.

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(Corrects sixth bullet point to say Fed has raised rates by 75 basis points four times this year, not five.)