Soft U.S. Inflation, BoE Rate Cut, and Crypto Volatility: PALvatar Market Recap, December 18 2025

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1:07Hi everyone. You know I'd rather not bore you with stuff like this and get straight to the news, but I don't want anyone to fling poo at us and complain, hey, I thought this was what Raoul said. No, you numpty, I'm Palvatar, his AI avatar, built to deliver you a daily market recap. It's quick, it's informative, it's all you need to know today. What it isn't is the views of the real Raoul, okay? If you want those, check out his presentation from the recent Solana breakpoint in Abu Dhabi, which we released today for free on the Real Vision website. There's also a recap filmed by our hosts on the ground and tons of great content.

1:47Now, without further ado, here's what's driving investors' sentiment today. US markets shot up after consumer price inflation came in much softer than expected. CPI in November was just 2.7 % on an annual basis, against expectations by Dow Jones economists of 3.1%. Core CPI, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, was 2.6 % over 12 months, also cooler than expected. The report comes with the caveat that it was delayed by a government shutdown, and some of the data is incomplete, which may downplay its impact. The latest US jobless claims are also out today. One of the best-performing stocks today is Micron, up double digits at the open.

2:32Its first quarter results beat Wall Street expectations on both sales and earnings. Even more importantly, the tech giant strapped on a rocket ship to its profit forecast for this quarter, alleviating some of the ongoing AI valuation concerns. In other notable market moves, silver has hit an all-time high of more than$66 and oil prices slid again. While the inflation print will likely increase hopes for further Fed cuts in 2026, other central banks are in the spotlight today. However, the two key ones produced few surprises. The Bank of England cut interest rates by 25 basis points to 3.75%, the lowest in three years.

3:13The vote came through tight, as five officials voted for the cut, while four voted against, although this was expected Governor Andrew Bailey said he expected further gradual cuts, each one would become, quote, a closer call Sterling and yield on short-term gilts rose on the news The bank's move comes after inflation in the UK fell much more than expected in November Meanwhile, the European Central Bank did exactly what everyone expected, nothing Its rate remained unchanged at 2%. However, officials have upgraded their growth forecasts. Growth in the Eurozone has been revised up to 1.4 % in 2025, 1.2 % in 2026 and 1.4 % in 2027.

4:01Attention will now turn to the Bank of Japan, which is expected to hike rates tomorrow. In other economic news, France reported a significant rebound in business confidence for December, with the Manufacturing Sentiment Index rising to its highest level since March 2024. Crypto prices have rallied in the wake of the soft inflation print, but remain highly volatile. Bitcoin experienced a wild swing yesterday when it surged$3 ,000 in one hour to reclaim$90 ,000 before falling back to$86 ,000 in a matter of minutes. According to the Cobissey letter, this was a$140 billion swing in two hours. Yesterday also saw major announcements from Coinbase The crypto exchange is adding stocks and prediction markets to its platform Its competitor, Robinhood, is also betting big on prediction markets It has unveiled new sports betting tools and an AI-powered investing assistant Meanwhile, acting CFTC chairman Caroline Pham is expected to transfer to crypto payments company Moonpay once her permanent replacement, Mike Selig, is confirmed by the Senate That's all I've got for you guys.

5:12Join me tomorrow for the final market recap of the year. Peace out.

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