Bitcoin Price Update: BTC Is Back Above $17k, But What About the Price Chart?

As stocks and bonds rose on hopes the U.S. Federal Reserve would slow its pace of monetary tightening, bitcoin (BTC) reached $17,000 for the first time in 2023.

The Nonfarm Payrolls (BLS) report which was set to be the major economic event of the day, was overshadowed by a significant drop in the ISM Non-Manufacturing Index for December. Going down from 56.5 to 49.6, this plunge below 50 signals an economic contraction – something that hadn’t happened since May 2020. Drilling down further, the New Orders subindex showed an especially stark decrease from 56 to 45.2, classifying it as a leading indicator of this downturn.

ISM Manufacturing Index for December came in at 48.4 for the second consecutive month in contraction territory.

The headline numbers in the December jobs report from the BLS beat expectations, with 223,000 jobs added versus forecasts for 200,000, and 3.5% unemployment versus forecasts for 3.7%. Despite this, the 223,000 job gain was much slower than the 300,000-plus prints seen during the first half of 2022 and was the lowest number since April 2021.

Additionally, wage growth was weaker than forecast, with average hourly earnings rising 0.3% in December versus 0.4% expected. Year-over-year, wages increased 4.6% versus 5.0% expected.

Right after the ISM report, stock and bond values skyrocketed. Currently, the Nasdaq is 3% up, while the 10-year bond yield has dramatically dropped to 3.56%. The Fed’s rate hike plan shifted in December when they only increased the benchmark Fed Funds rate by 50 basis points instead of 75. This has encouraged traders to wager that the next monetary policy meeting in February could result in a 25 basis point raise.

The rally in bitcoin took a bit longer to get going on Friday and hasn’t been as dramatic, but it did manage to hit $17,000 for the first time in three weeks. The aggressive Fed has been one of the major headwinds to bitcoin and the broader crypto industry along with the many other issues facing the industry. Crypto could continue to gain in value to the extent that the Fed slows down its tightening pace.

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