Bitcoin price reached a new monthly high of $23,966 last night.
Fueled by the continued recovery of the US Nasdaq tech index, Bitcoin (BTC) and, above all, the altcoin sector, showed their bullish side in the past week. Strong sales numbers from automaker Tesla, coupled with better-than-expected US economic data, had a positive effect on the stock and crypto markets in the second half of the week. In particular, incoming orders for durable goods coupled with a strong real estate market were able to convince investors.
Earnings Season in the US is Coming to its Peak
This week, some of the biggest US tech companies release new company figures for the last quarter of Christmas. In addition to social media giant Meta, formerly Facebook, on Wednesday, investors are mainly looking at the results and outlook for Apple, Amazon, and Google parent Alphabet.
It’s hard to know whether these four tech giants can meet their sales and profit expectations. Meta and Alphabet have recently suffered from declining demand for online advertising. At Alphabet and Amazon, much like Microsoft in the previous week, lame driving force cloud storage, quarterly numbers, and especially the outlook for the next few business quarters could be shattered.
Although this area should continue to represent the source of income for these companies and generate a significant part of quarterly earnings, this sector could grow less strongly in 2023 than analysts expected.
US Consumer Confidence Figures
On Tuesday, January 31st, the Conference Board (CB) will publish new figures on US consumer confidence for the trading month of December. The degree of optimism about economic development in the US had again risen significantly to 108.3, contrary to forecasts.
For January, analysts expect more optimism among consumers and expect 109.0. If this value is reached or even exceeded, the US dollar index (DXY) is likely to recover from its current weakness in the short term, which could have a negative impact on price developments in the crypto market.
On the other hand, if the analysts’ expectations are not met, this will again have a negative effect on the strength of the US dollar, which in turn would be positive for the prices of Bitcoin and other cryptos.
US Jobs Report at the End of the Week
On Friday, February 3rd, the US Non-Farm Payrolls for January will be released. Experts expect a drop to 183,000 employees. Therefore, the forecast is well below the most recently released employment figures from December.
If market experts get their January forecast right, and the non-farm labor market cools noticeably, the probability of an impending recession should increase again in the coming months.
If the labor market remains resilient as in previous months and is above expectations, this does not necessarily have to lead to a correction in the stock and crypto markets. After the release of the last robust numbers at the beginning of the year, the stock and crypto markets trended north in lockstep.
By Audy Castaneda
