Investors watch US inflation, cryptos’ downfall, and oil at two-week low

On Thursday, the dollar edged higher ahead of U.S. inflation data, which is scheduled for release later in the day. However, the price of cryptocurrencies remained under pressure following the announcement that Binance would not be rescuing its ailing rival FTX, a crypto exchange.

As the U.S. inflation rate is set to fall for the fourth straight month, it is imperative to read beyond the headline numbers. This is in order to understand the true story. As Binance abandons its half-hearted effort to rescue FTX, the cryptocurrency markets are reeling once again as Sam Bankman-Fried's empire is on the verge of collapse. Even though stocks are poised to edge higher ahead of the CPI print, they are still in a holding pattern. The vice president announced Thursday that he would seek re-election after escaping a crushing defeat in the midterm elections, but there has been no response from his predecessor, Donald Trump. It's been a rough week for oil prices after weak lending data out of China - coupled with the fact that Vladimir Putin is too busy dealing with the worsening situation in Ukraine in order to attend the G20 summit.

CPI is set to fall, but the devil will be in the details

As the official data are released at 08:30 ET (13:30 GMT), the headline level of U.S. inflation is likely to have eased for the fourth consecutive month, but a closer look at the numbers may reveal that the story is less promising.

It is widely anticipated that the year-on-year CPI rate will decline to 8.0% from 8.2%, but the month-on-month dynamic is set to remain strong, with an increase in overall prices of 0.6%, and a rise in core prices of 0.5%, in line with consensus forecasts. As a result of that, the inflation rate in services has been accelerating significantly and is now taking over energy and food as the main driver of inflation.

The weekly unemployment claims are due at the same time, but they predate the drama caused by job losses at Big Tech this week. Both Regional Federal Reserve Presidents Esther George and Loretta Master will be speaking later in the day and may have something to say about both sets of numbers.

Crypto slumps as Binance gives the coup de grace to FTX

The cryptocurrency market has been in full retreat mode for the past few days after Binance pulled out of a rescue attempt to save rival FTX, saying that the problems of its rival were too big to be dealt with.

It goes without saying that FTX's spectacular fall from grace is another devastating blow to the crypto community in general, underlining the fact that the backing of big-name venture capitalists during an era of easy money was not the guarantee of soundness that many believed it to be. Earlier this year, Sequoia Capital, a private equity firm that participated in FTX's funding round at a valuation of $32 billion, said it would write down its investment to zero in order to reduce its risk.

A two-year low of $15,588 was reached overnight, before bitcoin rebounded to $16,291, down 8.7% for the day. In the past few months, it has lost around a quarter of its value since it became apparent that FTX was facing serious problems. Meanwhile, the native token of FTX, FTT, had a similar fate as Celsius Network in the first week of this year. This is because it declined by more than 90% in a matter of days.

A weak China credit report led oil prices to slip

In October, the cost of crude oil hit a record two-week low due to fresh evidence of the Chinese economy's slowdown: new loans extended by the Chinese banking system dropped to their lowest levels in over five years in October, according to the People's Bank of China.