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Brent climbed on stalled Hormuz talks, reviving the inflation worry that has capped bitcoin all summer. Today’s US payrolls print is the next catalyst.
By Shaurya Malwa and Omkar Godbole
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Metals momentum continues on Friday. Gold is up a further 1%, trading near $4,300 an ounce, while silver has surged above $64 an ounce, gaining more than 4% over the past 24 hours. The metals appear to be the biggest beneficiaries of the AI slowdown, which has prompted a rotation out of AI stocks and into precious metals.
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Nothing good happens when the yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury note trades above 4.5%, Fidelity’s Director of Global Macro Jurrien Timmer said Friday.
“Long-term bond yields are on the move again, with the 10-year yield well into the danger zone at 4.73%. As I have written many times, recent history suggests that nothing good happens above 4.5%,” he noted.
The rise in yields could be driven by several factors, Timmer explained.
One possibility is a reverse “crowding out” effect: rather than heavy government borrowing squeezing out private-sector investment, insatiable demand for financing from AI companies may be diverting investor appetite away from Treasuries.
Another explanation is growing skepticism that a hawkish Federal Reserve will back its rhetoric with meaningful action. Alternatively, the move may reflect the consequences of a less transparent Fed, as reduced clarity tends to increase uncertainty and push up risk premia.
“Less transparency means more uncertainty, and more uncertainty usually means high risk premia. Either way, we have a bear steepening on our hands,” he noted.
Hardening bond yields often create a headwind for stocks and emerging technologies such as cryptocurrencies.
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SK Hynix will invest 54 trillion won, about $38 billion, to expand its chipmaking facilities in South Korea, the company said Friday. It is building new fabs in Yongin and Cheongju to meet what it called the continuously growing demand for memory in the AI era.
The spend is one of the largest single commitments yet from the memory maker, whose stock has been among the most volatile of the AI trade this year, swinging the Kospi through sharp selloffs and a record US listing.
For crypto, it reads as another sign the AI infrastructure spending that bitcoin has loosely tracked is still climbing.
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Bitcoin traded near $64,350 on Friday, unchanged on the week, as the whole market drifted ahead of the US payrolls report, per CoinDesk data. Ether held at $1,903 and the rest of the majors sat within a point or two, a market waiting on the data rather than moving on anything of its own.
The setup turned slightly less friendly overnight. Brent rose 1.4% to $83.61 after reports Iran will try to restrict US and Israeli ships through the Strait of Hormuz and demand compensation from countries it deems hostile before letting them pass, stalling the deal that had been pulling oil lower. Higher crude revives the inflation worry that keeps the Fed leaning tight, and the 10-year Treasury yield climbed seven basis points on it during the US session.
That macro chain is the one bitcoin has been stuck inside all summer. Oil up feeds inflation, inflation keeps yields and the dollar firm, and firmer financial conditions cap risk assets. The dollar just posted its best day in two weeks, which is the opposite of the easing setup bulls want.
Today’s jobs number is the release that matters. A soft print revives the case for the Fed to loosen and gives bitcoin room above its range. A strong one, stacked on climbing oil, hands the hawks another reason to hold, and the range that has held since May holds again. Watch the reaction in yields, not just the headline number.
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MiCA’s transitional period ended July 1, triggering USDT delistings across EU exchanges, while tokenized equity volumes surged 288% to a record $11.3B.
Jul 31, 2026
MiCA’s transitional period ended July 1, triggering USDT delistings across EU exchanges, while tokenized equity volumes surged 288% to a record $11.3B.
Why it matters:
MiCA’s transitional period ended July 1, triggering USDT delistings across EU exchanges, while tokenized equity volumes surged 288% to a record $11.3B.