Bitcoin (BTC) Slips Back Towards $43,000 as Investor Digest Strong US Jobs Report, Monitor Expected Upcoming Spot ETF Approvals
Bitcoin (BTC) has fallen back to the south of the $44,000 level and is eyeing a test of $43,000 once again in wake of a stronger-than-expected US jobs report and as market participants eye the possibility of the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US within days.
The latest US jobs report showed that companies added slightly more employees than expected in December (216,000 versus median forecasts for 168,000), that the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.7% versus an expected rise to 3.8%, and that wages grew at a slightly faster-than-expected MoM pace of 0.4% versus projections for a 0.3% rise.
The robust data, whilst bolstering hopes that the Fed will be able to bring US inflation back to 2% without triggering a recession, failed to have an impact on the broader market.
Major US equity indices stabilized on Friday after a tough start to the year.
US government bond yields and the US Dollar Index (DXY) both also went sideways, not providing much by way of tailwinds or headwinds to the Bitcoin market.
The most important takeaway from the report for Bitcoin is that expectations for the Fed to start cutting interest rates in March remain elevated, with Fed easing a potentially important bullish narrative for BTC in 2024.
As per the CME’s Fed Watch tool, the US interest rate futures market implied the likelihood that the Fed will have lowered interest rates by at least 25 bps by March was last just under 75%, a tad higher than on Thursday.
At current levels in the $43,300s, Bitcoin is trading around the mid-point of this week’s $41,500-$46,000 range.
And the market is likely to remain tentative and consolidative ahead of the expected approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs by the US SEC, which most analysts are betting will come in
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