Welcome to 2023. The first week of 2023 ended up stronger with both US Equities and Digital Assets edging higher by almost 2.0% compared to a week ago. The NASDAQ index closed the first week higher by (NASDAQ⬆️1.0%) at $10.569 and S&P 500 higher by (S&P500⬆️1.5%) at $3.895. The Ethereum cryptocurrency outperformed US equities and Bitcoin, closing higher by more than (ETH⬆️5.0%) at $1.264, while Bitcoin ended the week higher by only (BTC⬆️2.0%), closing at $16.955.
The rally in prices came as a result of a sharp drop in ISM Non-manufacturing Index from 56.5 to 49.6. Anything below 50 indicates economic contraction. The ISM Manufacturing Index also came down to 48.4 in December, which was its second consecutive drop. Further, the non-farm payrolls indicated a sizable slowdown from the 300k prints that were regular in 2022. All this may indicate that the Fed will raise rate just 25 basis points in early February, instead of 50 basis points.