Bitcoin price action gets lively as US CPI data conforms to expectations, but traders are anything but unified on short-term price targets.
Market Update
Key points:
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Bitcoin nears three-week highs as US CPI data matches expectations.
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Plenty of market participants see Bitcoin heading higher as aresult, perhaps after a dip to trap late longs.
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CPI has seen BTC price fakeouts in recent months.
Bitcoin () saw telltale volatility at Thursday’s Wall Street open as US macro data furthered interest-rate cut odds.
CPI bullseye sees calls for Bitcoin going “higher”
Data from and showed BTC/USD spiking to $114,731.
The August print of the US Consumer Price Index () came in as expected, complementing a of the Producer Price Index (PPI) the day prior.
While CPI was at its highest since January, the headline figure was instead initial jobless claims, which saw their largest numbers since October 2021 at 263,000 versus 235,000 expected.
Weekly jobless claims just hit 263,000. That’s the highest weekly number since October 2021.
— Josh Schafer (@_JoshSchafer)
Amid ongoing concerns about labor market weakness, bets of the Fed cutting rates at its Sept. 17 meeting only strengthened after the CPI release, with markets even of the cut being more than the minimum 0.25%.
“Markets are now pricing-in 75 basis points of rate cuts by year-end,” trading resource The Kobeissi Letter in a follow-up thread on X.
“While CPI inflation continues to rise, the labor market is simply too weak to ignore. Next week will be a big week.”
Crypto commentators saw the case for higher prices next as Bitcoin passed $114,500 for the first time since Aug. 24.
“PPI much lower than expected, CPI as expected,” popular trader Jelle in an X post.
“Conclusion: Inflation not as bad as expected – bring on the rate cut later this month. News now behind us, time to resume the scheduled programme: higher.”
BTC price risks repeating US inflation data trap
BTC price forecasts also stressed the importance of .
Related:
For fellow trader BitBull, flipping $113,500 from resistance to support was the key low-time frame event, which opened the door to a rematch with all-time highs.
has reclaimed a very crucial level.
The $113.5K level which acted as a resistance has now been flipped into support.
Now the next key level for Bitcoin is to reclaim $117K level, and a new ATH will be confirmed.
— BitBull (@AkaBull_)
Some perspectives nonetheless saw a fresh support retest coming before a return to price discovery.
Trader Skew argued that the market would attempt to trap and liquidate longs that entered on the CPI release.
“One more liquidation before higher,” part of an X post , noting 2,000 BTC of liquidity appearing on exchange order books.
Crypto investor and entrepreneur Ted Pillows went further, suggesting that BTC/USD would copy previous CPI behavior to first rise then plumb fresh lows.
“In the last 3 CPI data releases, Bitcoin rallied before CPI data and dumped right after the data release,” he alongside an explanatory chart.
“This time, BTC has rallied before today’s CPI data release, which means a dump could happen.”
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.
