MARKETS week ahead: February 17 – 23Last week in the news
Fed Chair Powell’s testimony in front of the US Congress, US inflation data in January and Retail Sales were the main topics which shaped the market sentiment during the previous week. The US Dollar lost some of its strength, but the price of Gold also eased by 1% at Friday's trading season, following the profit-taking. The positive sentiment on the US equity markets was back, where S&P 500 almost reached its all time highest level, ending the week at 6.114. The US Treasury yields reacted on January inflation data and significant drop in retail sales in January, bringing down the 10Y Treasury yields toward the 4,47%. Many concerns of investors put aside the crypto market, where since the beginning of February BTC continues to trade in a channel between the $ 98K and $95K.
At the beginning of the previous week markets were closely watching Fed Chair Powells testimony in front of the US congress. The key takeaways from a two days Congressional hearing include points that Fed is not in a hurry to cut interest rates and that the Fed's policy will not be impacted by the US Administration, alluding to a question regarding US President request for immediate cut of interest rates. Generally, there was no new significant information which was not previously communicated with the public. As for macro data during the previous week, the US January inflation data surprised markets with a 0,5% increase for the month, higher from forecasted 0,3%. The PPI also rose 0,4% in January, again higher from market estimate. Still, the retail sales of -0,9% improved market mood, with a figure much higher from market estimate of -0,1%. This was a signal that the current inflation level might not impact too much Fed's decisions over future course of interest rates.
During the previous week markets were talking about the final payout of the fallen crypto exchange FTX during the week ahead. This represents a part of FTX restructuring program, where first in line will be claims up to $50.000. Analysts are providing their assumption over its potential impact on crypto markets and specific tokens, however, there are also those who anticipate that this payout will not have a significant impact on the price of major crypto coins.
A lot of news covered the bid of Elon Musk for purchase of Open AI. He offered a figure of $97,4 billion for shares of Open AI in case that this company stays non-profitable. The latest news published by Reuters on Friday states that OpenAI rejected the bid from Elon Musk, noting that the company is not for sale and that any future bid will be also rejected.
Crypto market cap
After almost three consecutive weeks in red, the crypto market finally ended the week in green. However, it could be noted that the volatility with altcoins run at relatively higher levels during the past few weeks. At the same time, BTC remained volatile within the channel between levels of $ 98K and $95K from the beginning of February. Whether the final break is ahead is about to be seen, still, the total crypto market capitalization managed to recover a bit during the previous week, but it still holds in a -2% negative territory from the beginning of this year. During the previous week, total crypto market capitalization increased by 2% on a weekly basis, adding $ 70B to the total market cap. Daily trading volumes dropped a bit from the week earlier, to the level of $170B on a daily basis. Total crypto market increase from the beginning of this year, currently stands at -2%, with $50B outflow of funds.
It was a volatile week, but with a positive end. BTC gained $ 23B on a weekly basis increasing its cap by 1,2%. ETH also had a modest increase in capitalization of almost $ 8B or 2,5%. Altcoins were the ones which drove market capitalization to the higher grounds. DOGE was traded higher by 9%, adding more than $ 3B to its market cap, same as ADA, which increased its value by 12,7%. This week BNB managed to add almost $ 5B to its market cap, increasing it by 5,4%. Among higher gainers was for one more time XRP, with an astonishing increase in market cap of $ 20B or 14,5%. Litecoin should be mentioned as the coin had a very good week, where it added $ 2B to its market cap, which was an increase of 25,5%. The majority of other altcoins managed to add up to 10% to their market value.
When it comes to circulating coins, it was one of relatively calmer weeks. Tether added 0,2% of new coins to the market, increasing by this percentage its market capitalization. Polkadot decreased the number of coins on the market by 0,4%, while Filecoin had an increase of 0,6%. The majority of other coins had an increase of 0,1% or less of their coins on the market.
Crypto futures market
The crypto futures had finally one green trading week. BTC futures were higher by around 1,6% for all maturities. Futures maturing in December this year were last traded at the price of $105.185, while those maturing a year later closed the week at $114.370.
ETH futures had a higher rebound of approximately 5,4% for all maturities. In this sense, December 2025 was closed at the level of $2.914, and maturities in December 2026 were last traded at $3.131. It is positive that the ETH long term futures were back for one more time at levels above the $3K.
