Speaking of the disappearance of a significant portion of profits, it should be noted that the cryptocurrency exchange Binance abandoned its planned acquisition of rival exchange FTX. The original plan was to take over FTX to address its insolvency problems, but now Binance CEO C. Zhao has washed his hands of it, citing an agency investigation and possible misuse of funds. The eccentric FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried went from being a man of over $15 billion to a man of less than $1 billion, losing 94% of his fortune in one day.

Aside from the fate of wealthy crypto CEOs, the general issues that arise regarding the valuation of crypto entities – and the non-crypto companies that invest in them – seem generally problematic. Especially in the already beleaguered Nasdaq index, where tech companies often practice holding crypto assets in diversified investment strategies, we can expect trepidation – and decisive corporate strategic moves from the investment class – in the future.

If we digress a bit and consider how favorable the cryptocurrency market was to the pandemic era and the subsequent government payouts of liquid capital, we may be seeing another iceberg fall into the ocean. Depending on how widespread the asset class is, this could be one of those things that “breaks down” when the Fed starts to tighten interest rates to lower inflation rates.

Speaking of inflation indicators, we are expecting the Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for October on Thursday morning, where the lowest reading since February of this year is expected. The core figure is also expected to fall, albeit more slowly, to the midpoint of the 6% range. This is still 3 times the Fed’s optimal inflation rate, but analysts would expect a deeper-than-expected decline in these CPI subtotals. Any risk of higher numbers is likely to be perceived as a cycle anomaly.