Markets
Bitcoin (BTC) Price Falls to $67.3K as Stocks Struggle
The price of Bitcoin (BTC) traded in an exceptionally tight trading range around $68,000 in the days following the U.S. Memorial Day holiday, but declined to near the week’s low during the hours Friday morning trading session.
At 11:45 a.m. ET, bitcoin was changing hands at $67,300, down 1% over the past 24 hours and down more than 2% from two hours earlier, when it briefly topped 69 000 $. The largest CoinDesk20 was down 1.1% over the past day.
May was a strong month for Bitcoin, however, which is now up 11% month to date, around the $60,000 level. This underperforms the CoinDesk 20’s roughly 20% advance, fueled by a 31% rise in the price of ether. (ETH) thanks to the surprising regulatory turnaround in the prospects of a spot ETF for this asset.
Bitcoin’s subdued action this week — the price remained mostly in the $67,000 to $69,000 range — was accompanied by struggles for other risky assets, including U.S. stocks. While remaining near its all-time highs, the Nasdaq is down about 2% this week, while the S&P 500 is down about 1.5%.
US economic data continued to smell of stagflation, with the April Core PCE price index up 2.8% year-on-year, in line with expectations and the same pace as the previous month. Chicago’s May PMI plunged to 35.4, compared to 41 and 37.9 expected in April. It was only in the depths of the 2008/2009 global financial crisis and the Covid-19 lockdowns of March/April 2020 that May’s poor results were matched. The bond market rallied on this news, with the yield on the 10-year US Treasury falling 5.5 basis points to 4.50%.
June begins on Saturday and next week should bring a little more clarity to the US economic situation thanks to Monday’s national PMI report and Friday’s national jobs report. Confirmation of slowing economic conditions and improving prospects for lower interest rates could prove to be the catalyst for bitcoin’s attempt to surpass its all-time high above $73,000 set in March. Strong economic data, however, could mean a retest of May’s lows.