The Senate in the U.S. approved a stopgap funding measure that will fund the Federal Government's operations until November 17th. While this serves as a short-term relief, it is only a matter of 45 days or less before another impasse occurs, so hardly anything will change the sentiment on the heavy spending and debt burden the U.S. is facing.

Labor Market Still Resilient

Meanwhile, the labor market continues to display remarkable strength, as evidenced by the latest release of the August Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report. In August, job openings surged by 690,000, bringing the total to 9.61 million.

Rates: “Higher for Longer”

With this resilience, it should be very unlikely that the Fed will derail from its “higher rates for longer” policy. Market futures currently indicate we are unlikely to see any rate cuts until at least June 2024.

Mortgage Rates Approach 8%

The average interest rate on a 30-year mortgage in the U.S. is at a high of 7.88%; this rate has tripled over the past three years from 2.6% at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ramifications of that surge can be hard to grasp, but imagine a household used to pay around 1300 USD in mortgage per month on an 800.000 USD house. This same household will now need to be more than 5,000 USD per month, assuming they are not locked in on lower rates.

Interestingly, despite these high rates, mortgage delinquency rates remain at historic lows. This is largely because many current mortgages were secured at the previously lower rates.

VC Funding in Crypto at Multi-Year Lows

The crypto market is reeling from the effects of the bear market, with the total market capitalization hovering around $1 trillion, which is only a third of what it was when the market peaked in November 2021.

At the same time, investors are shying away from allocating funds toward Web3 projects. A recent report by Messari revealed that Q3 2022 marked a 36% quarter-over-quarter decline in funding and the number of deals closed, with only $2.1 billion invested in 297 deals.

However, on the brighter side, when looking at a longer-term horizon, the crypto market has grown significantly over the past five years.

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Industry Shakers


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