Geoffrey Smith 

After the Federal Reserve grumbles about crypto’s financial stability threats, investing.com rises to an all-time high. According to reports, President Joe Biden has interviewed Lael Brainard for the Fed’s top job. The stock market is moving higher in anticipation of October’s producer price inflation data. There are also two important releases from the U.S. that will impact the oil markets. What you should know about financial markets Tuesday, 9th of November. 

1. All-time record for Bitcoin

Bitcoin reached an all-time record high of $68,493, thanks to favorable monetary policies that have been easing in recent days, as central banks stopped raising interest rates.

While there have been few triggers specific to Bitcoin itself, risk assets have flourished since Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell emphasized that the Fed hadn’t yet put the U.S. on a glidepath to higher rates, despite starting to wind down its bond purchases.

Others digital coins are also benefiting from the rally.

Bitcoin’s latest highs come a day after the Federal Reserve highlighted stablecoins – not Bitcoin itself – as one of the chief risks to U.S. financial stability.

2. Powell: Competition

Jerome Powell is up against it. Bloomberg reports that President Joe Biden interviewed Fed Governor Lael Brainard for the position of central bank chair last Monday.

Brainard is widely seen as an inflation ’dove’ and her recent public statements have shown no hurry to raise interest rates. The interview comes after vocal and repeated interventions from Democratic lawmakers such as Senator Elizabeth Warren opposing Powell’s reappointment for a second term.

Powell’s current term ends in February, and both vice-chair Richard Clarida and Randall Quarles, the Fed’s head of banking supervision, will step down in the two months prior to that – something that will give the Democrats the chance to shape the Fed’s board more to their taste. This could lead to lower interest rates over time, but it also means that the Fed may be more cautious about financial stability.

3. PPI data leads to stocks rising

U.S. stocks are set to continue their drift ahead of the latest update on the inflation front at 8:30 AM ET (1330 GMT), in the form of October’s producer price index.

They were at 6:20 AM ET and had dropped 36 points (or 0.1%) while they were flat, up 37 points.

Some stocks that will be of interest later include Robinhood (NASDAQ,:), which dropped in the premarket following a data breaches announcement and AMC Entertainments (NYSE:) whose numbers on Monday revealed how far AMC Entertainment has yet to travel to return to pre-pandemic levels.

DR Horton, NYSE:), is at the top of the list for early earnings reporters. Winn Resorts reports shortly after the bell.

4. The Covid-19 Program: More patients, more treatments

Regeneron (NASDAQ) will likely be another stock to watch later. The company announced on Monday that it had received trial results from its antiviral Covid-19 drug. These showed an 82 percent success rate in reducing severe illness.

It’s the third such drug to show such effects, after ones developed by Merck and Pfizer (NYSE:) This adds to the increasing number of solutions that reduce risks for economies remaining open and active.

The start of winter in the north hemisphere means that it will be difficult to predict the long-term. Infection rates are not falling as expected in the United States, but they have far outpaced previous highs in Europe and Central America.

The three parties likely to form Germany’s next government issued published a draft bill earlier Tuesday that would impose the so-called ‘3G’ system across almost all of public life for adults. The system is based on people having to prove that they have been vaccinated or acquired naturally occurring antibodies.

5. STEO and API lead oil rises

Two key U.S. releases were scheduled for later today, and oil prices continued to rise. First will be the government’s Short-Term Energy Outlook, which will update its forecasts for prices and output in the U.S., followed by weekly inventory data from the American Petroleum Institute.

In the face of rising prices and a slowing demand, crude stocks will likely have increased for seven consecutive weeks, to 1.90million barrels.  Some reports have suggested that the STEO may be used by the government to justify sales of crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve – although the causal link between the two is far from clear.

Futures rose 0.4% to $82.22 per barrel by 6:30 AM ET. They were 0.3% higher at $83.70 per barrel at the same time.