Bitcoin and Ether dropped during Wednesday afternoon trading in Asia amid losses among all top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, excluding stablecoins, led by Shiba Inu. The Hang Seng Index’s second day of sharp gains was cut short by closure due to a typhoon warning in Hong Kong.
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Fast facts
- Bitcoin lost 0.76% in the past 24 hours to trade at US$20,431 at 4 p.m. in Hong Kong, while Ether fell 1.52% to US$1,566, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
- Cardano lost 3.79% to change hands at US$0.40, and Solana dropped 3.87% to US$31.47. Memecoin Shiba Inu led losses among the top 10 cryptos, slumping 6.05% to US$0.0000122.
- Dogecoin fell 5.18% to US$0.14, despite soaring 109.67% over the last seven days, after its richest proponent, new Twitter owner Elon Musk, received widespread criticism for a new policy that would add a monthly US$8 price tag to the social media platform’s blue verification mark. Musk reportedly hopes to integrate the memecoin into Twitter as a payment method.
- Asia equity markets were largely positive after Wall Street fell overnight. The Nikkei 225 was little changed, inching 0.06% down in Tokyo, while the Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.15%. The Hong Kong Hang Seng Index closed 2.41% up when trading was suspended at 1.55 p.m. after the H.K. Observatory issued a No. 8 signal tropical cyclone warning.
- The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates by 75 basis points for the fourth consecutive time on Wednesday, but has signaled it will begin to slow its rate hikes in December. Michael Gapen, a chief economist at Bank of America, told markets to focus on the Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s messaging in his announcement, not the rates decision.
- Germany’s trade balance rose to €9 billion in September 2022 from €0.3 billion in August, though down from €16.1 billion in September 2021. Exports rose 20.3% year-on-year to the all-time high of €142.4 billion, with imports rising at a faster 30.7% to also post a record high of €133.4 billion.
- Global economic woes continued Wednesday as the world’s largest container shipping firm, Maersk, widely regarded as a global trade barometer, warned of “dark clouds on the horizon” as they refined global container demand projections for 2022 to between 2% and 4%, down from a previous projection of +1% to -1%.
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