Wholesale Inflation Surges Past Forecasts
Bitcoin traded sideways Thursday, shaking off escalating Middle East tensions and a hotter-than-expected producer price index. While a post-midday sell-off on Wednesday nearly erased the morning’s gains, 24-hour charts show the cryptocurrency steadily recovered to reclaim the $62,000 threshold by 9:14 p.m. EST on June 10.
The uptrend continued, briefly pushing bitcoin past the $63,000 threshold before it consolidated above $62,500, a level it held at the time of writing. At this price, bitcoin was up 0.6% over a 24-hour period but remained down 1.6% over seven days. The marginal increase helped lift bitcoin’s market capitalization to $1.25 trillion.
Mirroring the headline consumer price index (CPI), which topped 4.2% in May, data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed the PPI jumped 1.1% in May. The figure outpaced the 0.7% consensus forecast. With this increase, the U.S. annualized PPI climbed to 6.5%, marking the largest 12-month advance since November 2022.
According to the agency, the primary driver behind the headline spike was a 2.8% surge in final demand goods, fueled by a 10.7% jump in energy prices. With headline PPI outrunning CPI, wholesale input costs in the U.S. are rising faster than retail businesses can comfortably adjust prices. This signals that unless commodity pressures ease, companies will either have to absorb the costs—damaging profit margins—or pass them along to consumers, keeping the retail inflation loop hot.
Global risk assets appeared broadly immunized against the day’s macroeconomic and geopolitical headwinds. Asian and European stock indexes matched bitcoin’s flat-to-positive bias, closing with modest gains. Even the threat of direct military escalation failed to derail U.S. equities, which steadily ground upward into the green. This upward momentum held firm even as rhetoric from Washington intensified, highlighted by President Donald Trump warning of impending attacks on Iranian infrastructure and the potential deployment of U.S. forces to seize Kharg Island.
The latest U.S. strikes, which officials frame as defensive operations, came days after Iranian forces shot down a U.S. military Apache attack helicopter in the Strait of Hormuz. While both sides still publicly back negotiations, commentators fear the military exchanges will complicate a settlement and strengthen hawks who favor a return to full combat operations.
Without a deal to permanently end the fighting, shipping in the Strait of Hormuz will remain curtailed, weighing heavily on the global economy. Analysts warn that the longer the conflict drags on, the higher the chances that central banks will hike interest rates, potentially slipping the global economy into a recession.
At 1:28 p.m. EDT, U.S. President Trump moved to cool tensions and stated:
“Based on the fact that discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved, I have, as President of the United States of America, cancelled the scheduled strikes and bombings against Iran this evening. Discussions and final points have been, in both concept and great detail, approved by all parties involved, including the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Turkey, Pakistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt, and others. The Naval Blockade will remain in full force and effect until this Transaction is finalized — Time and place of the signing to be announced shortly.”
At press time, BTC is changing hands for $63,280 per coin.
