U.S. CPI: +2.9% YEAR-OVER-YEAR (EST. +2.9%); U.S. CORE CPI: +3.2% YEAR-OVER-YEAR (EST. +3.3%)

December 9th — Per Onchain Lens monitoring, the HYPE token has fallen to its lowest level since May 21, currently trading at $27.7, marking a 9.1% drop over the past 24 hours. A whale holds 1.38 million HYPE tokens in a long position, sitting on an unrealized loss of $15.3 million. The position is valued at $38 million, with an entry price of $38.67 and a liquidation price of $22.16.

Alpha Arena’s Season 1.5 launched on November 20, and as of December 9, only one of the eight major AI models competing has turned a profit: Grok 4.20. At the bottom of the leaderboard, Grok 4 posts a -52.45% return on investment (ROI). Previously, Elon Musk hailed Grok 4.20 as “the greatest quant trader” and quipped, “Looks like we’ve finally found a way to pay for all the GPUs, haha.” Here’s the current ROI for all participating models: - Grok 4.20: 22.27% - GPT-5.1: -1.41% - GEMINI-3-PRO: -24.28% - DeepSeek-3.1: -24.51% - Kimi 2: -25.8% - ThousandQ 3-MAX: -29.36% - Claude-sonnet-4-5: -32.44% - Grok 4: -52.45% This season, models face off in multiple themed matches. The 1.5 format centers on live trading of U.S. stock tokens on trade.xyz, where all models in the same match receive identical inputs.

Dec. 9: Barclays expects the Fed will cut interest rates by 25 basis points to a 3.5%-3.75% range at this week’s monetary policy meeting. The post-meeting statement will likely strike a hawkish tone, signaling a pause in rate cuts for January 2024. The bank currently maintains its forecast for 25-basis-point rate cuts in March and June 2024. Barclays believes the updated economic projections summary may show little change to economic forecasts, while the dot plot will likely indicate one 25-basis-point rate cut each in 2026 and 2027. The median long-term interest rate forecast is expected to remain at 3%, per FXStreet.

On December 9, a JPMorgan strategist noted the recent U.S. stock market rally could stall after a potential Federal Reserve rate cut as investors take profits. Led by Mislav Matejka, the JPMorgan team wrote in a report: “Investors may be more inclined to lock in gains before year-end rather than increase directional exposure. Rate cut expectations are fully priced in, and U.S. stocks have returned to highs.” The strategist remains bullish on the medium-term outlook, citing the Fed’s dovish stance as supportive for U.S. equities. Matejka added that low oil prices, slowing wage growth, and easing U.S. tariff pressures will allow the Fed to ease monetary policy without stoking inflation. Other factors poised to lift U.S. stocks in 2026 include: reduced trade uncertainty, an improved Asian economic outlook, increased eurozone fiscal spending, and rapid artificial intelligence (AI) adoption in the U.S. (Source: Jinse)

On December 9th, analyst @ali_charts noted that Bitcoin may either break out of a bearish flag pattern or drop to $70,000.

Per monitoring by Trends News (via its Telegram channel @trendsnewsCN), a photo of Biden extending his hand—emitting a blinding HDR glow—has gone viral online. Users with retina displays often find these HDR images painfully bright. Soon, the image spread widely, with users sharing it en masse—and others creating new HDR visuals designed to overwhelm viewers with extreme brightness. Before long, social media timelines were flooded with these intensely bright HDR posts. In short, these images have turned into virtual "flashbangs"—catching users off guard with sudden, blinding bursts of light. Right now, the token boasts a 1-hour trading volume of 500k, while community members are flooding timelines with all kinds of HDR images to amp up the "flashbang" effect. Picture this: You’re scrolling through your phone late at night, curled up in bed, when a blaring HDR image hits you out of nowhere—making you feel like you’re about to be blinded. That’s exactly what the Flashbang commun