Bitcoin spikes after softer July CPI fuels less aggressive Fed-hike bets

Bitcoin (BTC-USD), ethereum (ETH-USD) and other major cryptocurrencies grinded higher in Tuesday morning trading after consumer price inflation showed signs of easing in July in a move that prompted traders to hedge for less aggressive Federal Reserve interest-rate increases.The consumer price index for July rose +8.5% Y/Y in July, compared with the consensus of +8.7% and +9.1% in June. The move was greatly due to a decline in energy (oil, gas, diesel) prices from their recent peaks. When stripping out volatile food and energy prices, CPI increased +5.9% Y/Y in July vs. +6.1% expected and +5.9% prior. The largest digital token by market cap (BTC-USD) jumped as much as 4.3% to a session high of $24.08K about 30 minutes after the CPI release, but has since given up some of those gains, changing hands at $24.05K as of around 9:45 a.m. ET. And ether (ETH-USD) surged 8.7% to $1.83K at the time of writing.Similarly, the stock market gapped up with Dow up 1.6%, S&P 500 +1.8% and Nasdaq +2.3%."Inflation remains painfully high, but the worst appears behind us. Inflation should moderate in coming months and return to the Fed’s inflation target by spring ‘24. Of course, there are many threats to this inflation optimism, but today is a good day to be an inflation optimist," Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, wrote in a Twitter post. Indeed, markets are pricing in softer Fed rate increases at the central bank's upcoming ...