BTC price cools after latest US data as Bitcoin liquidates $80 million in shorts
Bitcoin (BTC) edged toward $24,000 at the Wall Street open on February 16 after fresh US macroeconomic data exceeded estimates.
Hot US PPI data “rattles” the markets
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD resuming some of its recent gains of the day, trading at around $24,400 on Bitstamp at the time of writing.
The pair had hit $24,895 on Bitstamp overnight, marking its highest level in six months, as a surprise rally appeared to catch many traders off guard.
In the two days to February 16, $80 million in short positions were liquidated on Bitcoin alone, with $65 million coming on February 15 – the most in a single day since January 20.
The US producer price index (PPI) printout for January nevertheless extinguished some of the tension around risk assets when it showed that prices rose more than expected on an annual basis.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite Index were both down 1.1% at the time of writing.
“Some signs of economic weakness in today’s macro data,” says investment resource Game of Trades wrote in part of a Twitter reaction, which also noted that jobless data had come in below the expected 200,000 claims for the week.
Markets rattled on hot US PPI data. US PPI for Jan was warm (warmer than CPI from a few days ago), headlined +0.7% MoM vs +0.4%, PPI YoY at 6% vs 5.4% expected. Core US PPI also disappointed at +0.6% MoM vs +0.2% expected, 4.5% YoY vs 4% expected. pic.twitter.com/IE7SWvcM8Q
— Holger Zschaepitz (@Schuldensuehner) 16 February 2023
As stocks fell, the US dollar index (DXY) showed renewed strength, climbing above 104.1 to its highest levels since the first week of the year.
“It’s still going perfectly as expected, so far we see a D1 downtrend break and reversal, eyes on the D1 200 EMA in the 104.5-104.7 area as discussed in the last couple of weeks,” popular trader Pierre wrote in a Update at events.
What is in a death cross
Bitcoin met its own important moving averages, meanwhile, in the form of the 50-week and 200-week trend lines, which have just printed their first ever “death cross” in a warning to bulls.
Related: Why Is Bitcoin Price Up Today?
However, for Cointelegraph contributor Michaël van de Poppe, there was reason not to pay too much attention to the post-2022 bear market phenomenon.
“The death cross only takes place based on historical price events,” he told Twitter Followers February 15.
“The whole bear market of the last year, finally coming into that cross. The best thing to do with something like that is to go long instead of short.”
Fellow trader Crypto Tony summed up the sentiment among more conservative market participants.
In an update following the recent local highs, he argued that much depended on Bitcoin’s behavior around $25,000.
“My main target on this 5th wave is $25,000 as this is also the previously untapped swing high,” he explained next to a chart.
“From here we will gain a better understanding of whether we are actually in a flat bearish correction, or whether this is the start of something more exciting.”
The views, thoughts and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
