Weekly market update : Inflation is not over yet – Stock market news

Atmosphere: It cannot be said often enough. Central banks are like trains: one can always hide one, if not several. And in this game, investors are particularly spoiled for choice. They have seen the British, Swiss, Norwegian and Turkish central banks come and go. Not to mention a special treat concocted by Michelin-starred chef Jerome Powell. We won’t go into detail about the various rate hikes and other sleeve effects already reported in Romain Fournier’s daily column, but instead focus on the common denominator: the fight against inflation. In the UK, core CPI inflation rose to 7.1% yoy, from an estimated 6.8%, while in Turkey price increases approached 40%. At the other end of the spectrum, inflation in Switzerland, while limited to 1.9%, is still at its highest level in 20 years. Of course, since the phenomenon is global, the response is just as global (with the notable exceptions of China and Japan, which swim against the tide), and monetary tightening continues steadily. The probability of a rate hike by the Fed in July is more than 75%. The US 2-year interest rate even remains well above 4.23%, with record highs on the horizon.

Currencies. Interest rate tectonics did not move currency markets. For example, the Norwegian krone and the pound did not benefit much from the aggressiveness of their central banks. The dollar made good progress against the yen, but retreated against the euro to $1.10. However, poor European PMI indicators released on Friday ended the single currency’s rally, which ended the week at USD 1.0877. Against the Turkish lira, the greenback also rose to 25.5520 after the country’s central bank decided to raise its key rate from 8% to 15% to normalize monetary policy, with the arrival of the new governor.

cryptocurrency. In the wake of Bitcoin mocking ETF deposits from institutional players such as BlackRock, Wisdom Tree, Bitwise and Invesco, bitcoin is clearly picking up this week. The cryptocurrency market leader is up more than 14% and is back above the $30,000 mark at the time of writing, close to its yearly highs. Meanwhile, ether is also gaining ground, but to a lesser extent, up 9% since Monday to approach the $1,900 mark. The institutional infatuation with bitcoin in recent days, spearheaded by asset management giant BlackRock, could give crypto assets another boost if ETF applications are accepted by the US regulator.