Weekly Sentiment: Soft US Data Trims Fed Bets, Hormuz Tightens, Gold Holds Highs

The week ended with a mixed-but-constructive tone across risk assets. Softer US inflation and retail sales data pulled Fed hike expectations lower, the dollar sagged, and both gold and equities held near multi-month highs. Underneath the calm surface, though, two frictions kept traders on edge: Strait of Hormuz shipping disruptions that refuse to normalise, and a bitcoin futures market showing an increasingly lopsided positioning profile. Here is how the threads pieced together.

Softer US data halved September hike odds

The defining macro shift this week was the collapse in market-implied odds of a September Federal Reserve rate hike. Following the mid-week CPI print and Friday's retail sales release, the probability of a September move fell from roughly 50% to around 25% — a halving in less than five sessions. July CPI landed broadly in line with expectations, while PPI came in slightly below, and retail sales pointed to a consumer losing some momentum.

The reaction was textbook. The dollar index softened, front-end Treasury yields drifted lower, and rate-sensitive assets caught a bid. EUR/USD opened the new week around 1.1588 — an eight-week high — extending gains as traders repriced the divergence between a Fed with "time on its side" and a more urgent tightening path elsewhere. GBP/USD tested the upper end of its recent range, and gold held close to multi-month highs after its recent rally, with profit-taking capping — but not reversing — the advance.

Goldman Sachs framed it plainly in a note circulating Monday morning: a September rate increase now looks "very unlikely." The market read this as confirmation of a pause, not a pivot. That distinction matters — the tape treated the data as risk-supportive without pricing an aggressive easing cycle, which explains why the dollar softened without collapsing.

Hormuz shipping stress kept a bid under crude

Oil refused to normalise. Tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz slowed further over the weekend, and by Monday morning Brent was changing hands near $88.62 with WTI around $82.18. Some Asian refiners have reportedly asked Saudi Aramco to reroute crude pickups to Egypt's Sidi Kerir on the Mediterranean, as vessel owners grow reluctant to transit the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

The knock-on effects showed up in two places. First, integrated oil majors have booked what one report characterised as a $93 billion windfall from the Iran-war-driven pricing regime — a reminder that the profit distribution from this squeeze is highly concentrated. Second, Europe's gas storage buffer is running thin: inventories are at their lowest level in 17 years heading into heating season, with available supply tighter than in 2022.

For cross-asset traders, the read was familiar. Energy-linked equities outperformed on the majors' earnings tailwind, European industrials underperformed on the gas-cost overhang, and inflation-hedge assets — gold and silver in particular — retained their bid even as US inflation data cooled. The Hormuz story is now a structural feature of the tape rather than a headline risk, and we observed positioning adjust accordingly.

Equities drifted higher, but breadth told a subtler story

Global equity indices closed the week firmer without any of them delivering a clean breakout. The FTSE 100 rose as soft US retail data trimmed Fed bets. European bourses edged up on falling yields and pause bets. Japan's Nikkei 225 closed 0.70% higher on Monday, though the index stalled at a 61.8% Fibonacci retracement level that technicians have been watching. The DAX diverged below its all-time high near 26,485, and US futures were little changed on Sunday as investors waited for further Fed signalling.

Japan's Q2 GDP added a wrinkle. The economy expanded 0.3% q/q, or 1.1% annualised, well short of consensus around 2.0% and a step down from Q1's 2.1% annualised pace. Weaker domestic demand did the damage, but export-led growth kept the September Bank of Japan hike scenario alive — a narrative that has been supporting the yen against a softer dollar backdrop.

The cross-asset read: this is not a broad-based melt-up. It is a rotation-driven grind higher, in which softer US data has done more work than any single earnings catalyst. Traders watching for a decisive risk-on regime are still waiting for confirmation from either a Fed minutes surprise or a break in the Hormuz stalemate.

Crypto flows quietly turned while positioning stretched

Bitcoin traded flat near $63,500 on Monday morning, but the flows underneath told a different story. US spot bitcoin ETFs absorbed more than 14,000 BTC over five days, and Q3 flows have flipped positive — described by one desk as "fresh demand landing in the thinnest, most sold-out market in years." Bitcoin briefly topped $64,000 in Asia hours, and every major coin gained on Sunday, though bitcoin, ether, XRP and solana were all still lower over seven days.

The counterweight is positioning. The bitcoin futures market is showing what one report described as a dangerous liquidity mismatch, with open interest outpacing trading volume by a significant margin. XRP told a similar story on a smaller scale: futures open interest climbed to $2.78 billion with Binance and OKX traders leaning heavily long, even as social sentiment hit a three-month low.

That combination — improving spot flows, stretched derivatives positioning — is what makes crypto the most sentiment-sensitive corner of this tape. We noted it without drawing a directional conclusion. Traders should be aware that the ratio of open interest to underlying liquidity is a variable worth monitoring on any risk-off headline.

Looking ahead

The calendar thins out but does not go quiet. FOMC Meeting Minutes on Wednesday at 14:00 GMT+3 will be scrutinised for any dissent around the pause narrative and for language on the balance of risks — particularly given how far September hike odds have already fallen. Earlier that day, UK CPI at 02:00 GMT+3 (forecast 2.9% y/y vs prior 2.6%) will test whether sterling can hold its recent bid if inflation surprises higher. Australia's employment report on Thursday and the Riksbank's inflation-expectations release round out the week's incremental catalysts.

As always, we cover these events as they land, without a directional call. If you want to review your risk exposure or position sizing ahead of Wednesday's Fed minutes, our execution desk is available throughout the trading week.