Drank too much yesterday and ended up super sleepy like a dog. Luckily, there wasn’t any super important data yesterday. The biggest news was the PPI data spiking, which made the market a bit nervous. But today’s CPI data on a yearly basis looks decent, staying within market expectations and not exceeding the previous value. However, the monthly CPI growth rate was a bit high, which still has investors worried that the Fed might raise interest rates in September. As for this, my personal take is that inflation (yearly rate) doesn’t show any clear signs of rising, especially since it’s been declining (core PCE) since May. The Fed has repeatedly said they’re not planning to provide forward guidance, so if inflation isn’t rising and is even decreasing, choosing to raise rates seems a bit odd to me. Plus, back when Powell was around and inflation was even higher, they didn’t raise rates. Of course, my judgment might not be correct—this is just my personal opinion. Also, I feel like if it were up to Waller, he probably wouldn’t encourage a rate hike either. Otherwise, Trump would be fuming. But the root of all this still lies in the Strait of Hormuz. Next Monday, Iran will meet with Gulf countries to discuss the Hormuz issue. If they can partially open it up, it would help ease oil prices. The question is whether Iran is willing to open even part of Hormuz before the midterm elections. That depends on whether other countries can apply enough pressure. Because of this uncertainty, I haven’t been trading Bitcoin pairs recently. But starting next week, I might give it a shot. For now, the price stability looks decent. Planning to try bitcoin:native at $75,000. @Gate Crypto, US stocks, Hong Kong stocks, Korean stocks, gold, CFDs, prediction markets—all in one place!