Good morning and welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on the stories moving markets and policy.
Congress has moved to formally block the Federal Reserve from developing a central bank digital currency, passing legislation that bans a so-called digital dollar. For crypto markets, the signal is nuanced — it removes a potential government competitor to decentralized assets, but also reflects deep congressional skepticism toward blockchain in monetary policy broadly.
Staying in the digital asset space, Strategy Incorporated has restructured its capital framework around Bitcoin holdings, authorizing a two billion dollar dual buyback program and lifting the dividend on its STRC preferred shares to twelve percent. The move is designed to close a persistent discount to par and gives preferred shareholders a cleaner lens into the company's crypto-backed balance sheet.
And on the inflation front, Wall Street is growing more confident that peak tariff-driven price pressure is behind us — but analysts are flagging a second wave risk as import costs work through supply chains with a lag. The Dow, S&P five hundred, and Nasdaq have all rallied sharply even as inflation touched a three-year high, suggesting equity markets are pricing in a soft landing that the data has not yet confirmed.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
