Bitcoin hovers around $43k on latest jobs data

The US labor market added more jobs than expected in January, leaving analysts and investors doubting that an interest rate cut will come in March

share

Stocks and cryptocurrencies were mixed Friday as investors grappled with new earnings and economic data. 

Friday’s jobs report showed unemployment is unexpectedly low at 3.7% and 353,000 jobs were added in January. Weekly initial jobless claims have ticked higher though, keeping in line with recent reports of layoffs in the tech and media industries. Still, initial claims are averaging lower than they did over the summer, according to economic data from the Federal Reserve. 

While a healthy labor market generally would be positive news, Friday’s unexpectedly strong report could mean investors need to reevaluate their expectations for when the Fed might start lowering interest rates. 

Read more: Polygon Labs to cut 19% of staff

Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday noted that a weakening labor market would cause central bankers to cut rates sooner, while “stickier or higher” inflation numbers would delay the timeline. The report pushed expectations of a March rate cut from 40% to 20%, according to data from CME group. 

Still, equities trended higher Friday following the release of the latest labor numbers. Ahead of the close, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indexes gained 1% and 1.6%, respectively, largely driven by a rally in big tech following positive earnings from Amazon and Meta Platforms. 

Cryptocurrencies, on the other hand, slipped Friday, with bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) each losing around 0.5% at the time of publication. Both were able to sustain modest gains over the week, but are still in the red year-to-date. Some analysts maintain that bitcoin’s recent headwinds might be letting up soon. 

Read more: No bull: Bitcoin has been in a kangaroo market for nearly a whole year

“Many technical factors pressuring bitcoin specifically (and crypto more broadly) are starting to be exhausted, in our view,” Coinbase analysts wrote in a note Friday. “This is evidenced by the liquidations at FTX (disposing of their Grayscale Bitcoin Trust or GBTC shares, for example) as well as the emergence of some large defunct entities from bankruptcy.” 


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Salt Lake City, UT

MON - TUES, OCT. 7 - 8, 2024

Blockworks and Bankless in collaboration with buidlbox are excited to announce the second installment of the Permissionless Hackathon – taking place October 7-8 in Salt Lake City, Utah. We’ve partnered with buidlbox to bring together the brightest minds in crypto for […]

Salt Lake City, UT

WED - FRI, OCTOBER 9 - 11, 2024

Permissionless is a conference for founders, application developers, and users. Come meet the next generation of people building and using crypto.

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

4.png

Research

This months PPGC covered four main areas. Firstly, debriefing the progress and status of the mainnet implementation of the Ahmedabad hard fork. Secondly, a retrospective on the testnet phase of the Ahemdabad Hard Fork. Thirdly, an update on PIP-36 which involves replaying failed state syncs. Lastly, PIP-47 which pushes upgrades to the Polygon Protocol Council.

article-image

The retail crowd is engaging with Robinhood both on and off chain, general manager Johann Kerbrat said

article-image

Gurbir Grewal, who has been at the agency almost as long as Gensler has been chair, will depart on Oct. 11, 2024

article-image

The stablecoin’s supply has declined about 50% in the last month, from $660 million to $320 million

article-image

Plus, Sky’s soaring stablecoin and simpler bitcoin staking

article-image

Bitwise took the initial steps for an XRP ETF Wednesday