Another miserable day for European equity markets as the prospect of recession becomes ever more real.
US markets aren’t faring any better after the jobless claims data that showed the labour market is still performing remarkably well despite all of the challenges the economy faces. While that would ordinarily be celebrated, on this occasion that resilience could translate to stubborn inflation and more rate hikes.
Focus will now shift to inflation, income and spending figures tomorrow. Another batch of stronger data could tip investors over the edge given how fragile sentiment already is. It will be interesting to see how they react to any positive surprise (lower inflation, weaker income and spending) considering how burned they were by the July CPI data.
Bitcoin Struggling At $20,000 Again
Another volatile session for Bitcoin, which is trading more than 1% lower on the day after failing just shy of $20,000 earlier in the day. The rally at the start of the week will have gotten some excited but it couldn’t hold onto gains and now it’s struggling at that psychological threshold once more. A recovery in risk appetite may give it the boost it needs but that may be hard to come by in this environment.