Bitcoin price dips under $75K as crypto markets miss tech-stock rebound
BTC price action stayed weak after US nonfarm payrolls data significantly beat forecasts, increasing bets of a December interest-rate hike.
Bitcoin (BTC) set new multi-week lows after Friday’s Wall Street open as BTC price action diverged from stocks.
Key points:
- Bitcoin fell to $74,762 after the start of Friday’s US trading session, its lowest level since Aug. 21.
- Investors piled into tech stocks after Thursday’s sell-off, with the Nasdaq Composite Index gaining 1.8% in the first hour.
- BTC price analysis warned that $69,000 could return if 50-week trend line support gave way.
Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD dipping below $75,000 to levels last seen in mid-August. The total crypto market cap was down 0.5% on the day.
BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
US stock markets rebounded as traders took advantage of heavily discounted tech shares. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite Index traded up 0.6% and 1.2%, respectively, at the time of writing.
Nasdaq Composite Index one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Certain tech stocks saw much sharper gains, with SanDisk and Micron Technologies both up 6.3%.
US nonfarm payrolls data released on Friday showed that the economy added 165,000 jobs in October, well above market expectations of 65,000. September’s 29,000 figure was also revised upward to 60,000.
“Employment increased in professional and business services, in health care, and in transportation and warehousing,” an official release from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported, adding that the unemployment rate was now 4.1% versus a predicted 4.2%.
US civilian unemployment rate. Source: BLS
Stronger labor-market performance can create a headwind for crypto and risk assets as it suggests that the economy can manage any financial policy tightening, which in turn can reduce liquidity inflows to the market.
On the back of the latest data, expectations of the Federal Reserve hiking interest rates by 25 basis points at its December meeting increased from 66.9% to 76.8%, per data from CME Group’s FedWatch Tool.
Fed target-rate probability comparison for December FOMC meeting (screenshot). Source: CME Group