Bitcoin (BTC) and altcoins are currently focused on the inflation (CPI) data coming from the US today. Investors ended the trading session on August 9th with a loss of nearly 200 points and a 0.54% decrease, closing at 35,123.36 points for the Dow Jones index. The S&P 500 index closed at 4,467.71 points, down 0.7%, and the Nasdaq index closed at 13,722.02 points, down 1.17%. The negative trend in the US indices led to a decline in the cryptocurrency market.
Today at 15:30 (GMT), the July inflation data for the US will be announced. Economists expect inflation to increase by 0.2% monthly and 3.3% annually in July. Forecasts suggest that core inflation, which is calculated by ignoring volatile food and energy items, will rise by 0.2% monthly and 4.8% annually.
On August 7th, Fed official Michelle Bowman, speaking at the “FED Listens” event held in Atlanta, stated that she supports the recent interest rate hike due to high inflation. Bowman said, “If we obtain inflation data lower than expected, we can make some Fed officials abandon their hawkish views on interest rate hikes and have a much higher chance of achieving stability in prices.”
Analysts believe that the July inflation data will provide important clues about the future monetary policy of the US Federal Reserve (Fed). It is evaluated that inflation below expectations will eliminate the possibility of additional interest rate hikes.
Current State of the Cryptocurrency Market Before Inflation Data
As investors await the inflation data to be announced today, it is observed that the cryptocurrency market is experiencing a negative trend. According to CoinMarketCap data, the largest cryptocurrency Bitcoin has traded at $29,480, down 1.09% in the last 24 hours. Although the crypto king briefly exceeded $30,000 on August 9th, it could not maintain stability above this level.
On the other hand, the price of the largest altcoin Ethereum (ETH) has also followed the negative trend in BTC. ETH has changed hands at $1,849, down 0.65% in the last 24 hours. The list of the altcoins with the highest value loss compiled and presented by CoinMarketCap shows that Optimism (OP) led with a 8.09% decrease in the last 24 hours, followed by Injective (INJ) with a 5.97% decrease at $7.58, and Hedera (HBAR) with a 5.85% decrease at $0.058.
