Bitcoin Reverses Post-US Jobs Data Upside as SEC Chair Gensler Lambasts Crypto Indsutry – Where Next for BTC Price?
Bitcoin saw a small pop this morning on weaker-than-expected weekly initial jobless claims, rising from under $26,500 to at one point above $26,800.
Claims jumped to 261,000 last week, up from 233,000 a week earlier, marking the second-highest reading of the year.
While 261,000 initial claims in one week isn’t a disastrous number, it is another sign that momentum in the US labor market, which has been strong up until this point, is starting to wane.
And Thursday’s jobless claims report comes after other recent US data releases have also shown cracks appearing in the US labor market.
For instance, last week’s official jobs market report for May showed a surprise jump in the unemployment rate to 3.7% from 3.5%, while the 3-month average of the number of monthly job openings as per the JOLTs report has been falling as of late.
A softening labor market is good news for the US Federal Reserve’s fight against still way too high US inflation, as an overly tight labor market has historically been viewed as inflationary.
If the labor market continues to soften in the coming months, that may mean that the Fed won’t have to lift interest rates anymore to get inflation down and could even entertain the idea of interest rate cuts.
That could be good for bitcoin, as easier financial conditions have historically boosted the price of risk assets like crypto and growth stocks.
Bitcoin’s trip back above $26,800 was short-lived.
The cryptocurrency has since dropped back to the $26,500 area, eroding the majority of its gains for the day after SEC Chairman Gary Gensler delivered a speech where he expanded on the agency’s decision to sue Coinbase and Binance earlier this week.
In his speech, he said that just because some cryptocurrencies have “some
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