Bitcoin and Ether prices jumped in Friday morning trading in Asia after the December U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) released overnight rose 6.5% year-on-year, which was in line with expectations and lower than inflation readings in previous months. All other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies rose.
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Fast facts
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Bitcoin surged 5.23% to US$18,868 in the 24 hours to 8 a.m. in Hong Kong, a 12% gain over the past calendar week and the highest since Nov. 9.
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Ether rose 3.84% to US$1,418 to post a gain of 13.5% for the week, according to CoinMarketCap data.
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Among the top 10 crypto by market capitalization, Cardano added 2.67% to US$0.33, bringing its gain for the week to 22.6%. Dogecoin rose 3.11% to US$0.08, up 12.2% on the week.
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The total crypto market capitalization increased 4.78% to US$906.87 billion, while trading volume surged 91.6% to US$66.17 billion.
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December’s CPI reading fell from the 7.1% recorded in November for the largest monthly decline in the inflation indicator since April 2020, which raised expectations the Federal Reserve may now ease back a policy of raising interest rates.
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“The data confirms that inflation is finally being tamed, which means there’s a higher chance that the Federal Reserve will pursue less aggressive interest rate hikes in the world’s largest economy,” Nigel Green, chief executive of investment advisor deVere Group, said in an email to Forkast.
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Last month, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 50-basis points to between 4.25% and 4.5%, the highest in 15 years. It had raised rates by 75 basis-points for the prior four consecutive meetings to curb inflation. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has warned of more rate increases in 2023, with the next Federal Reserve meeting to be held from Jan. 31 to Feb. 1.
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U.S. equities finished higher on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.64%, the S&P 500 Index rose 0.34% and the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.64%.
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