EQUOS — Morning Update — October 27th

The topics haven’t changed but the intensity has. With the coronavirus spread showing no sign of stopping, and, the stimulus bill going nowhere, investors turned risk-off in a dramatic fashion. There are other noteworthy news but less impactful: the Ant IPO is set to raise about $34.5 Bn in Shanghai and Hong Kong; US-China relations are worsening by the day; the US is about to sell around $2.4 Bn of anti-ship missiles to Taiwan.

From Friday’s close to Monday’s intraday low, the S&P 500 dropped almost 3%, retracing some of those losses by the end of the session, closing 1.8% down. Similarly, the Nasdaq, which had already fallen about 1% on Friday, continued yesterday, down 1.35% from last week’s close. In Asia, equities look set to follow the US session down.Treasuries were bought ‘en masse’ and the 10-year yield dropped but remained above 0.8%. Gold is holding on for dear life, just at $1,900.

It remains to see how long it will last but in the crypto space, we’re having a blast. Not that prices moved significantly over the weekend but, rather, that we’re staying put amid the traditional market moves.

BTC is currently flat at $13,050. XMR, remains steady at $132, after a string of positive days. XLM, ADA, DASH are all down about 2.5%. ETH, more volatile, dropped about 2.9% overnight, closing at $394. LINK which briefly breached through the $12.60 resistance is back down at $11.80 (down 2.8% on the session). LTC, which had risen close to 30% since Thursday last week, is down 3%, at $57. BCH is down 4.5%. DOT, on the other hand, made a wonderful comeback, up about 9% on the session, currently at $4.7.

BTC dominance is currently up, at 62.33%. It’ll be interesting to see how that shifts (or not). With the focus clearly being on BTC but also a large option expiry this Friday (about $800 M worth), things could move sharply in the coming days and/or over next weekend.

While we might get caught in the ups and downs of short-term price action or the relative under/overperformance of one coin versus the other, I can’t help but feel very enthused by the crypto space right now: the way it’s holding strong compared to traditional markets, the strides it’s made in USD terms, the shift in perspective by market participants about cryptocurrencies in general (~$10 B worth of BTC is held by publicly listed companies).

Most holders of BTC right now are actually in profit; that’s always nice.