Following the hawkish remarks by Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Walsh last Friday, as tensions escalated between the US and Iran around the Strait of Hormuz, copper prices on the London Metal Exchange (LME) for three-month delivery fell for two consecutive sessions to below $14,200 per ton. The continuously rising oil prices over three straight sessions are reviving fears of inflation and weighing on the outlook for the global economy.
Copper is seen as a gauge of the world economy’s health. Although this metal’s price is still up nearly 4% in August thanks to tighter supply, the upswing has now been checked. The market is beginning to reprice the risk that the Fed may need to keep raising interest rates to rein in price pressures stemming from the energy crisis, rather than easing policy as previously expected.
In traditional financial markets, the combination of geopolitical risk and inflation concerns is driving bond yields and the USD higher, while also putting downward pressure on industrial commodities and other risk assets. A cautious mood is causing capital to pull back from highly leveraged positions in search of safer havens.
For the crypto market, this macro pressure is capping the breakout momentum of
$BTC . With global liquidity facing the risk of tightening further and risk-aversion sentiment prevailing, fresh inflows into crypto may stall in the near term, keeping the market in a range-bound accumulation phase until the interest-rate picture becomes clearer. 🌐
#vi_mo #fed #lam_phat