Business Lookahead: Crypto gain, Europe pain

STORY: From what’s next for bitcoin to the European Central Bank’s next move, these are the stories to watch in business and finance in the coming week.

:: Four and counting for the ECB

The ECB is expected to deliver its fourth quarter-point rate cut on Thursday, with more cuts anticipated.

For ECB policymakers, their last meeting in October must seem a lifetime ago.

Since then, Donald Trump’s U.S. election win means the euro area likely faces renewed economic pain from tariffs and governments in France and Germany have collapsed.

A pick-up in inflation means a bigger rate cut is unlikely.

:: A cut and a hard place

Australia’s central bank is in a tight spot as it meets on Tuesday.

The economy is sputtering, the currency is at four-month lows and yet inflation is sufficiently persistent to make repeated rate cuts unlikely.

The Bank of Canada, by contrast, has said inflation is a thing of the past and more cuts could be in the offing.

The market is split on whether its Wednesday meeting will yield a 25- or even a 50-basis points cut.

:: Little reason to hurry cuts

Markets gaming out the trajectory for Federal Reserve policy in the coming months get a U.S. inflation reading on Wednesday.

Expectations are towards another 25 basis points cut later in December.

But the path ahead is less clear. The economy has proved stronger than expected, and Fed Chair Jerome Powell has said there is little reason to hurry the pace of cuts.

:: Bitcoin breakout

There was something inevitable in bitcoin’s record surge past $100,000 after Trump’s election promises to make America “the crypto capital of the planet.”

While $100,000 is just a number, it’s one that the faithful and the skeptical regard as a major milestone towards the cryptocurrency’s 16-year journey towards legitimacy.

While numbers like $150,000 are already being mentioned for 2025, the token is flashing overbought on daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly charts.