MARKETS week ahead: December 4 – 10
Last week in the news
December started in a positive tone on financial markets. Gold hit new yearly highs above 2K, in expectation of Fed's rate cut during the course of 2024, while US equities reached this year`s highs for one more time, on the same assumption. The crypto market is still under expectations of the approval of the first spot BTC ETF, where the price of BTC surged to the levels above the 38K.
Previous week started with sad news that one of the greatest investors and vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, Charlie Munger died just one month after his 100th birthday. His investment philosophy along with his partner, Warren Buffet, left the mark on generations of new investors on financial markets. During his long career, both Charlie and Warren managed to build the Berkshire empire, today worth $800 billion.
Released second estimate for the US GDP annualized growth rate of 5.2% for the third quarter of this year was a huge surprise for financial markets. This is perceived as the fastest growth of the US GDP since the year 2021. This has additionally heated investors’ confidence that the Fed might sooner than expected cut interest rates. On the other hand, Fed Chair Jerome Powell held a speech at Spelman College in Atlanta on Friday, where he for one more time noted that talks about rate cuts are premature and that the Fed is currently ready to tighten the policy further in case that it is necessary in order to return the inflation rate down to targeted 2%. For one more time within the latest cycle, the markets and the Fed are on the opposite side when it comes to expected monetary moves.
Expectations and preparations for the approval of the first spot BTC ETF are still in the spotlight of the crypto industry. Coindesk is reporting that a crypto asset manager Grayscale just hired John Hoffman, who formerly held a position as a Head of Americas investment department in Invesco company. His new role at Grayscale will include a leading position in the distribution and partnership team, in expectation that Grayscale`s filing for its spot BTC ETF will be approved by the SEC. The asset manager Invesco is one of the biggest issuers of ETFs in the US.
ARK Invest, an asset manager led by Cathie Wood continues to offload shares of Coinbase (COIN). As per reports, ARK Invest just made its third sale of COIN shares, with market value of around $4.7 million. Previously, ARK Invest sold another $15 million worth of shares during November this year. At the same time, COIN shares are currently traded at the highest level since April last year.
Crypto market cap
December started in a positive mood on the crypto market, but only at first sight. Namely, the frenzy over the potential first spot BTC ETF is still strong on the market, pushing this week BTC`s price to the levels above the 38K resistance line. Still when it comes to developments with other altcoins and especially futures market, some modest market exhaustion could be spotted. Market expectations on potential Fed's rate cut in May next year, is an additional aspect that should be taken into account. Namely, the market is currently pricing a potential cut, pushing the value of the US equities to the highest level for this year. On the other hand, Fed Chair Powell stressed for one more time that Fed is not thinking about rate cuts and that potential further increase is still on the table for FOMC members. Considering that markets pushed the prices of equities higher and dropped Treasury yields lower after his statements, shows that the market and the Fed are once again on a different side when the state of the economy and further moves in the monetary segment are in question. Who is right, the time will show. Total crypto market capitalization was increased by additional
23B or 1.6% during the previous week. The highest funds inflow into this market is coming from Bitcoin. Daily trading volumes decreased during the week, moving around $ 67B on a daily basis, from $ 81B traded a week before. This is the first sign of market exhaustion. Total crypto market capitalization increase since the beginning of this year currently stands at 89%, where it has added a total 670B to the market cap.
For one more week, Bitcoin was in the spotlight of the market, considering the on-going frenzy about the first BTC ETF. BTC gained $ 20B in market value which is an increase of 2.7% within one week. ETH gained modest 2.4B or less than 1% on a weekly basis. Other coins were traded in a mixed mode. One of the significant gainers on a weekly level was Solana, with an increase in the market cap of 1.44B or 5.8%. Miota should also be mentioned in relative terms, considering that this coin increased its market value by an incredible 77% within one week. This was a market reaction to IOTA`s $100 million Ecosystem DLT foundation in Abu Dhabi. Several other coins with solid weekly performance were LINK with an increase in market cap of 6.45% w/w, while DOGE added 7.2% to its cap. Majority of other coins had an increase between 2% up to 5%. There were almost equal numbers of coins which finished the week in red, like Filecoin, which decreased its market cap by 2.25%, Tron was down by more than 3%, BNB decreased its value by additional 2.7%.
There has been increased activity when it comes to circulating coins, where the highest drop on a weekly basis had Maker, with a drop of 6.1% of coins in circulation. Tron and Polkadot decreased their available coins by 0.1% both. On the other side were Miota, with an increase of 0.6% of coins, Solana had an increase of 0.2%, while Filecoin increased the number of coins on the market by 0.5%. There should be mentioned Tether, which added 0.9% coins during the previous week.
Crypto futures market
During the previous week the optimism from the spot market was not clearly reflected in the crypto derivatives market. This refers to ETH futures, which actually finished the week lower from the end of the previous week, although ETH gained almost 1% on the spot market for the week. Short term futures were traded 0.42% lower from the week before, where December this year finished the week at a price of $2.119. Longer term futures were down by 1.6% on average, where futures maturing in December 2024 ended the week at price $2.178 and March 2025 at $2.208. It represents a sort of exhaustion of investors for ETH at current levels, which are still not quite sure about the ETH`s potential for the future period.
At the same time, market exhaustion was reflected in the long term BTC futures. Namely, although the short term ones were traded higher by more than 2%, with December this year ending the week at price of $39.290, longer term futures were traded almost flat compared to the week before. Futures maturing in December 2024 are still holding modestly above $ 41K level.
December started in a positive tone on financial markets. Gold hit new yearly highs above 2K, in expectation of Fed's rate cut during the course of 2024, while US equities reached this year`s highs for one more time, on the same assumption. The crypto market is still under expectations of the approval of the first spot BTC ETF, where the price of BTC surged to the levels above the 38K.
Previous week started with sad news that one of the greatest investors and vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, Charlie Munger died just one month after his 100th birthday. His investment philosophy along with his partner, Warren Buffet, left the mark on generations of new investors on financial markets. During his long career, both Charlie and Warren managed to build the Berkshire empire, today worth $800 billion.
Released second estimate for the US GDP annualized growth rate of 5.2% for the third quarter of this year was a huge surprise for financial markets. This is perceived as the fastest growth of the US GDP since the year 2021. This has additionally heated investors’ confidence that the Fed might sooner than expected cut interest rates. On the other hand, Fed Chair Jerome Powell held a speech at Spelman College in Atlanta on Friday, where he for one more time noted that talks about rate cuts are premature and that the Fed is currently ready to tighten the policy further in case that it is necessary in order to return the inflation rate down to targeted 2%. For one more time within the latest cycle, the markets and the Fed are on the opposite side when it comes to expected monetary moves.
Expectations and preparations for the approval of the first spot BTC ETF are still in the spotlight of the crypto industry. Coindesk is reporting that a crypto asset manager Grayscale just hired John Hoffman, who formerly held a position as a Head of Americas investment department in Invesco company. His new role at Grayscale will include a leading position in the distribution and partnership team, in expectation that Grayscale`s filing for its spot BTC ETF will be approved by the SEC. The asset manager Invesco is one of the biggest issuers of ETFs in the US.
ARK Invest, an asset manager led by Cathie Wood continues to offload shares of Coinbase (COIN). As per reports, ARK Invest just made its third sale of COIN shares, with market value of around $4.7 million. Previously, ARK Invest sold another $15 million worth of shares during November this year. At the same time, COIN shares are currently traded at the highest level since April last year.
Crypto market cap
December started in a positive mood on the crypto market, but only at first sight. Namely, the frenzy over the potential first spot BTC ETF is still strong on the market, pushing this week BTC`s price to the levels above the 38K resistance line. Still when it comes to developments with other altcoins and especially futures market, some modest market exhaustion could be spotted. Market expectations on potential Fed's rate cut in May next year, is an additional aspect that should be taken into account. Namely, the market is currently pricing a potential cut, pushing the value of the US equities to the highest level for this year. On the other hand, Fed Chair Powell stressed for one more time that Fed is not thinking about rate cuts and that potential further increase is still on the table for FOMC members. Considering that markets pushed the prices of equities higher and dropped Treasury yields lower after his statements, shows that the market and the Fed are once again on a different side when the state of the economy and further moves in the monetary segment are in question. Who is right, the time will show. Total crypto market capitalization was increased by additional
23B or 1.6% during the previous week. The highest funds inflow into this market is coming from Bitcoin. Daily trading volumes decreased during the week, moving around $ 67B on a daily basis, from $ 81B traded a week before. This is the first sign of market exhaustion. Total crypto market capitalization increase since the beginning of this year currently stands at 89%, where it has added a total 670B to the market cap.For one more week, Bitcoin was in the spotlight of the market, considering the on-going frenzy about the first BTC ETF. BTC gained $ 20B in market value which is an increase of 2.7% within one week. ETH gained modest 2.4B or less than 1% on a weekly basis. Other coins were traded in a mixed mode. One of the significant gainers on a weekly level was Solana, with an increase in the market cap of 1.44B or 5.8%. Miota should also be mentioned in relative terms, considering that this coin increased its market value by an incredible 77% within one week. This was a market reaction to IOTA`s $100 million Ecosystem DLT foundation in Abu Dhabi. Several other coins with solid weekly performance were LINK with an increase in market cap of 6.45% w/w, while DOGE added 7.2% to its cap. Majority of other coins had an increase between 2% up to 5%. There were almost equal numbers of coins which finished the week in red, like Filecoin, which decreased its market cap by 2.25%, Tron was down by more than 3%, BNB decreased its value by additional 2.7%.
There has been increased activity when it comes to circulating coins, where the highest drop on a weekly basis had Maker, with a drop of 6.1% of coins in circulation. Tron and Polkadot decreased their available coins by 0.1% both. On the other side were Miota, with an increase of 0.6% of coins, Solana had an increase of 0.2%, while Filecoin increased the number of coins on the market by 0.5%. There should be mentioned Tether, which added 0.9% coins during the previous week.
Crypto futures market
During the previous week the optimism from the spot market was not clearly reflected in the crypto derivatives market. This refers to ETH futures, which actually finished the week lower from the end of the previous week, although ETH gained almost 1% on the spot market for the week. Short term futures were traded 0.42% lower from the week before, where December this year finished the week at a price of $2.119. Longer term futures were down by 1.6% on average, where futures maturing in December 2024 ended the week at price $2.178 and March 2025 at $2.208. It represents a sort of exhaustion of investors for ETH at current levels, which are still not quite sure about the ETH`s potential for the future period.
At the same time, market exhaustion was reflected in the long term BTC futures. Namely, although the short term ones were traded higher by more than 2%, with December this year ending the week at price of $39.290, longer term futures were traded almost flat compared to the week before. Futures maturing in December 2024 are still holding modestly above $ 41K level.
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