MARKETS week ahead: June 24 – 30Last week in the news
Markets used the week after the FOMC meeting for some repositioning and profit-takings in expectation of new data which will provide a clue when the Fed will start its pivoting cycle. The S&P 500 finished the week lower, after reaching a new all time highest level, where Nvidia for one more time was in the center of market interest. The US Dollar gained in strengths, pushing the price of gold toward the level of $2.321. The US 10Y Treasury yields remained relatively calm modestly above the 4.20% level, while the crypto market was eyeing lower grounds, and BTC testing the $ 65K support line during the whole week.
China was in the center of the news during the previous week, as the both US and EU are imposing further restrictions for products made in China. The negotiations were held between EU and China officials related to tariffs that the EU will impose on China's electric vehicles, in an attempt to protect its own auto industry. On the other hand, the US issued a set of rules which would put a halt to specific investments in the products related to artificial intelligence and other technological developments in China, under the reasoning that they might impose a threat to the US national security.
Apple has announced that their three new features named Apple Intelligence, which is based on AI, iPhone Mirroring and enhancements to SharePlay screen shall not be launched in the European Union upon its official release. The company notes that “the interoperability requirements of the DMA could force us to compromise the integrity of our products in ways that risk user privacy and data security”. Although such a move from a company might disappoint consumers in the EU, and in this sense, potentially decrease the sale of Apple devices in EU countries, still, the market for Apple shares remained flat on the news.
The US banking regulators publicly disclosed the weaknesses in the resolution plans in four from eight US largest banks, including Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America. Deficiencies in plans were related to derivative portfolios and the way the banks are planning to handle any potentially negative situation. The regulators noted that plans of these companies have “material limitations”.
Standard Chartered bank announced that it will establish a trading desk where their clients will be able to trade bitcoin and ether coins. The desk will be based in London as a part of the bank`s FX trading unit. Standard Chartered will be the first bank to allow its clients to trade BTC and ETH directly from their trading platform.
Crypto market cap
Crypto market continued to slow down also during the previous week. Fed`s pivoting point is still in the center of market interests, in which sense, some repositioning is occurring, considering latest available data on the state of the US economy and potential next Fed`s moves. Currently decreased interest for BTC is evident not only on the spot market, but also in the futures and among ETF`s. As per news reports, BTC ETF`s faced some $900 millions in outflows during the previous week. As the market is searching for new equilibrium levels, the crypto market lost additional 3% in value on a weekly level, losing around $ 69B from its market cap. Daily trading volumes were again decreased to the level of $93B on a daily basis, from $120B traded a week before. Total crypto market capitalization increase from the end of the previous year, currently stands at $653B, which represents a 40% surge from the beginning of this year.
The majority of coins were on a losing track during the previous week, except only a few ones which ended the week in a positive territory. In a nominal sense, BTC lost the most of all coins, around $38B on a weekly basis, or 2.9%. ETH managed to end the week relatively flat compared to the week before. Among higher weekly losers were Binance Coin, with a drop in value of $2.8B or 3.1%, there was also Solana, which dropped its market cap by $4.9B or 7.3% w/w. In a relative terms, the highest weekly losers were coins like OMG Network, with a drop in value of 16.3%, Zcash was down by 11.4% same as NEO, Filecoin and Uniswap both lost around 15% on a weekly basis, while Algorand was down by 12.7%. The majority of other altcoins dropped up to 10% w/w. Among few gainers were EOS, who managed to increase its cap by 14.8% w/w, while Maker ended the week higher by 7%.
There has been some increased activity when coins in circulation are in question. In this sense ETH`s circulating coins increased by 1.8% on a weekly level, Tether increased its number of coins by 0.3%, same as the total value of its market cap. This week LINK had an increase of its circulating coins by 3.6%, while Filecoin, traditionally increased the number of its coins in circulation by 0.6% w/w.
Crypto futures market
Decreased activity on the crypto futures market continues. In line with the spot market BTC futures were traded lower compared to the week before, while ETH futures ended the week higher. BTC short term futures were traded lower by more than 2%. Futures maturing in December 2024, closed the week at price $67.560 or 2.5% lower from the week before, while those maturing a year later were last traded at $74.355 relatively flat on a weekly level.
ETH short term futures closed the week around 3% higher. Futures maturing in December 2023 ended the week at $3.651 or 3.3% higher w/w, while December 2025 was closed 3.7% higher at level of $3.909.
