MARKETS week ahead: April 28– May 4Last week in the news
The market is currently perceiving that there is sort of relaxation in the US-China trade war. This was the major premise which boosted US equity markets. The S&P 500 gained around 4,6% on a weekly level. A positive market sentiment and short relaxation on uncertainty brought the price of gold lower by 2% on Friday, ending the week at the level of $3.318. On the same premise reacted the US Treasury bond market. The 10Y US benchmark closed the week lower, at the level of 4,25%. The crypto market was also part of the positive sentiment, as BTC managed to make a break-through from previous levels and reach levels above the $95K.
The US-China trade war continues, however, with a softener rhetoric, which brought market sentiment to the positive side. Still, it remains quite confusing, where the majority of analysts are not sure what the final deal would look like. Actually, it seems that nobody knows, even the US Administration. The latest comment from the US President on the topic is that eventually tariff rates will “come down substantially, but it won't be zero”. Also, the US President commented that he has no intention of “firing Powell”.
The Financial Times posted an article in which the journal noted that Apple was planning to shift all Iphones assembly to India. Analysts, involved in the matter, reacted to this news with arguments that such a move is highly questionable, both from the logistic side and from a tariffs side.
The federal Reserve withdraws crypto guidance for banks. The Federal Reserve revoked its 2022 and 2023 guidance that required banks to notify or get approval before engaging in crypto or stablecoin activities.
As Reuters reported during the previous week, based on six sources, the ECB is considering further cutting of its policy rates at the June meeting. The relaxing inflation and drop in the economic outlook ECB members see as a good reason to further decrease their reference interest rates.
China is targeting the supremacy in the AI industry and development in comparison to its US counterparts. As news reported, the China President Xi Jinping called during the previous week for a “self-reliance and self-strengthening” in China within artificial intelligence. This now represents a key strategic area for China when it comes to their US counterparts.
JPMorgan published the results of a survey among investors over their perception of the US economy in the future period. There has been a consensus on a high potential of stagflation, while the majority of participants perceive the weak US Dollar during this year. The major risk is coming from the ongoing trade war, which will have a negative impact on the US economy, as per survey.
Crypto market cap
The crypto market is in green again. After several weeks of struggling, the crypto market finally made its final break-through and increased the value of the total market capitalization. This move was supported by the relaxation of rhetoric of the US Administration in an US-China trade war. Total crypto market capitalization was increased by 10% on a weekly basis, increasing its total value by $262B. Daily trading volumes almost doubled from the week before, trading around $166B on a daily basis. Total crypto market increase from the beginning of this year, currently stands at -10%, with $318B outflow of funds.
The major coins which drew the total crypto market to the higher grounds was BTC. The coin added $183B to its market cap, increasing it by more than 10% on a weekly basis. ETH also performed well, with an weekly inflow of $ 23B, which increased its market cap by 12%. Other major coins also performed well during the week. Solana added $5,4B to its market cap, which was an increase of 7,5%. DOGE surged by 14,8%, adding $3,4B to its market cap. Among higher gainers was IOTA, with a surge in value of 27,3%, LINK was traded higher by 15%, Algorand gained around 19% w/w. The majority of other coins gained above 10% on a weekly basis. This week there were almost no losers on the crypto market.
As for coins in circulation, this week Polkadot and Filecoin added 0,6% of new coins to the market, same as EOS. Maker made a significant increase of 0,8% within a single week. Stablecoin Tether increased its number of coins by 1,7%, which was one of the highest increases for this stablecoin within this year.
Crypto futures market
The crypto futures market also reacted on a positive sentiment caused by relaxation in rhetoric regarding trade tariffs. BTC futures were traded higher by more than 12% for all maturities. The positive development is that the long term futures returned to the levels above the $100K. Futures maturing in December this year closed the week at $99.770, and those maturing a year later were last traded at $105.755.
Similar situation is also with ETH futures. Positive is that the long term maturities reached levels above the $2K. In this sense December 2026 was closed at price $2.043, while futures maturing in December this year were last traded at round $1,9K.
