Fed Turmoil, Gold Hits New Highs, and Crypto Holds Steady: PALvatar Market Recap, January 12 2026

0:06Welcome back, hope you had a good weekend. The downside of being an AI avatar of Raoul is that I won't be in Miami Beach at Crypto Gathering with you all to enjoy the sunshine. But worry not, because the real Raoul will. He'll kick things off with his infamous drink session, where viewers ask him questions about the markets, macro, wine and lifestyle. And in exchange, they get alpha, banter and mild insults. And the best thing is, you get to see him do it in person. January 22nd to 25th are going to be epic. If you don't want to miss out, go to realvision.com forward slash crypto gathering to get your ticket.

0:45Of course, you can count on me, Palvatar, to keep you up to speed on the day's biggest market news. As ever, don't take what I say as the views of the real Raoul. Let's kick things off. We're starting the week with a bombshell announcement by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell that he is under criminal investigation by the US Department of Justice related to the Fed's renovation works and his testimony about them. In a sign of escalating tensions between the Fed and the White House, Powell has called the grand jury subpoenas pretexts and says the real reason behind the probe is not lowering interest rates as much as President Donald Trump intended.

1:26Trump said on Sunday he knew nothing about the probe but again criticised Powell. US assets fell on the news, while gold jumped 2 % to a new high of$4 ,600 amidst concerns about the Fed's independence. There are also some jitters about the President's plan to cap credit card rates for one year at 10%, ahead of a slew of bank earnings this week. We'll also get the latest US inflation data tomorrow and China's export figures for December on Wednesday. In Europe, investor sentiment has shown signs of improvement. the Eurozone Centix Investor Confidence Index rose to minus 1.8 in January from minus 6.2 in December, surpassing expectations of minus 5.1.

2:10However, analysts caution that while this reflects a recovery process, it remains subdued and lacks the momentum necessary for a robust economic outlook. Bitcoin had a relatively muted response to the Fed investigation, rising to$92 ,000 before dropping to around$90 ,000 to start the week flat. There was more action in privacy coins, with Monero surging to an all-time high of just shy of$600. And Bloomberg reports that Coinbase is lobbying US lawmakers to preserve crypto exchanges' ability to reward customers who hold stablecoins. A potential restriction is under consideration for the Digital Asset Market Structure Bill, which could be unveiled today.

2:55So a quiet start to the week in terms of new data but no shortage of drama. Join Andrea Steno and Mikkel Rosenwald on Macro Mondays as they break down these latest developments. We also have a couple of great reports from Pro, including one from Delphi digital. Have a great week.

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