Bitcoin price fails to seal fresh CPI gains as $18K support hangs in balance
Bitcoin (BTC) wobbled at $18,000 at the Jan. 12 Wall Street open despite United States inflation continuing to fall.
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD encountering predictable volatility around the release of Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for December.
The first such release of 2023, the event preceded the start of trading on Wall Street, with Bitcoin briefly gapping higher before returning to threaten a breakdown below the $18,000 mark.
In so doing, the largest cryptocurrency copied behavior from one month prior, with resistance at $18,500 remaining untested.
CPI came in at 6.5% year-on-year, in line with the majority of predictions. According to CME Group's FedWatch Tool, markets were correspondingly betting on a smaller 0.25% interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve at the February meeting of its Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC).
For traders, it was still a case of "wait and see" in spite of the trend of declining inflation persisting in the U.S.
"Not every pump means the bottom is in and a reversal is happening," popular trader and analyst Crypto Tony cautioned in part of a Twitter update.
Michaël van de Poppe, founder and CEO of trading firm Eight, likewise suggested that Bitcoin could see a temporary drop next before joining a broader risk asset recovery on the back of the CPI data
"Another month in which inflation falls, now lower than November 2021. Month-to-month even showing negative numbers," he tweeted.
A subsequent post reinforced the chances of downside "probably" setting for BTC/USD, potentially toward $17,700.
Meanwhile, stocks, which had already priced in the CPI result, stayed muted in the hour following the open.
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