Bitcoin, copper, stocks, yields all fall; gold rises

Bitcoin, copper, stocks, yields all fall; gold risesYour day-ahead look for Oct. 15, 2026Oct 15, 2026, 7:15 a.m. EDTGold rallied as riskier assets declined. (Zlataky/Unsplash)This is an excerpt from CoinDesk newsletter 'Daybook.' Sign up here, if you haven't already.Bitcoin BTC$80,972.85 has dropped more than 2% in the past 24 hours, with some of the other major coins such as XRP (XRP), ether ETH$2,363.65 and solana (SOL) sliding even further. The move looks less like a crypto-specific story and more like a broad-based exit from riskier investments.Futures tied to copper, a closely watched barometer of global economic health, fell nearly 1%, extending Wednesday's 1.6% decline. Other growth-sensitive assets tumbled, with Asian stocks dragged lower by a rout in Korean chipmakers. Nasdaq index futures and risk-sensitive currency pairs such as Aussie dollar-Swiss franc, are down as well.At the same time, Treasury yields are falling — meaning bond prices are rising — while gold is up 1%. The yield on the 10-year note, the benchmark borrowing rate, has dropped by eight basis points to 5.08%, extending the pullback from the recent peak of 5.36%. Treasuries and gold are often treated as haven investments.Together, the moves point to investors reducing exposure to risk and seeking safety, with some stagflation fears mixed in.“It feels more like a stagflationary environment where risk assets and the US dollar generally underperform, while gold outperforms,” InvestingLive analyst Giuseppe Dellamotta wrote in a market update.Concerns the Fed will raise interest rates have been cited as one catalyst after Wednesday’s hotter-than-expected U.S. CPI report. But that concern appears to be fading.CME fed funds futures now price in only a 29% chance of the central bank hiking its benchmark rate into the 4%–4.25% range later this month. The remaining probability is for rates to stay unchanged at 3.75%–4%. Odds briefly approached 50% after the CPI print, but quickly scaled back.Looking ahead, Thursday’s producer price index will offer another read on how much inflation remains in the pipeline. A hot number could add fuel to the risk-off mood.Traders will also watch the AI trade and whether it continues to unwind. Analysts at 10x Research still prefer holding bitcoin while that unwind plays out, but only as long as BTC holds above $78,000. Further, they prefer to “use ether as a hedge for BTC long positions.”Stay alert!Read more: For analysis of today's activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today . For a comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk's "Crypto Week Ahead."What’s trendingBlackRock's Fink names a U.S. recession trigger, sounds alarm over $40 trillion national debt (CoinDesk): Companies are pouring so much money into the data centers that power AI that any attempt to slow it could hurt the U.S. economy, not just the stock market, said BlackRock CEO Larry Fink.Bitcoin mining pool once handling 2.3% of network shuts after hashrate falls 65% (CoinDesk): Crypto exchange Binance is shutting the bitcoin mining pool it launched in April 2020.Stocks slide as AI rout drives investors to bonds (Bloomberg): Global equities fell as a selloff in artificial intelligence gathered speed and pushed investors toward the safety of bonds. Today’s signalEther's daily chart. (TradingView)The chart shows ether’s daily price swings in candlestick format since May. Ether is testing a dual support zone near $2,350, formed by a horizontal trendline and an ascending trendline. The horizontal line has acted as persistent support since Aug. 23, while the ascending trendline marks the bullish trend from the July lows.A break below this confluence would signal a significant weakening of demand and could open the door to deeper losses.12345678910