Bitcoin Week Ahead Ep24: Powell Testimony, Jobs Data, and a BTC Price Crash Below $20K
Bitcoin price weekly analysis official CoinChapter image
NEW DELHI (CoinChapter.com) — The Bitcoin (BTC) price looks prepared to post its worst week since October 2022, followed by another seven days of market turmoil as investors await the US jobs report and the Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s testimony to lawmakers.
Bitcoin Price Action So Far
The BTC price has declined by around 5.75% week-to-date to around $22,200 per token, affected by the recent Silvergate fallout, wherein the crypto-friendly US bank admitted being under-capitalized to offer liquidity to cryptocurrency firms.
BTC/USD weekly price chart. Source: TradingView
From a technical perspective, the Bitcoin price dropped after testing a multi-month descending trendline as resistance. The same line was instrumental in limiting Bitcoin’s uptrend in November 2021 and March 2022, as the chart above illustrates.
Key Events This Week
Bitcoin’s price awaits another seven days of uncertainty in the week ending March 12 amid concerns that the Fed would continue raising its interest rates in 2023 to cool sticky inflation.
On March 7 and 7, Powell will deliver his semi-annual monetary policy to lawmakers.
He expects to agree to continue the Fed’s rate hike policy as consumer prices remain far above their target of 2%. However, a period of rate increases could put downside pressure on riskier assets like Bitcoin, which have been rallying in 2023, under the impression that Fed would slow down its rate hikes.
But that seems improbable as the US economy shows minimal signs of a recession, illustrated by its robust jobs market. For instance, payrolls increased by 215,000 in February, per the median forecast in a Bloomberg survey.
Meanwhile, the US employers added 500,000 jobs, and the jobless rate fell to 3.5%, the lowest in 53 years.
The resilient labor market has boosted consumer spending, which, in turn, has risked keeping inflation higher despite the Fed’s rate hikes. As a result, swap markets and Bank of American analysts expect the interest rates to rise to 5.5% and 6%, respectively.
In other words, Bitcoin has every reason to continue its decline in the week ending March 12. So let’s discuss the potential weekly targets.
BTC to $20K
On the daily chart, the Bitcoin price has broken below a decisive support level, underscoring risks of further declines in the coming week.
The support was BTC’s 50-day exponential moving average (50-day EMA; the red wave), near $22,370, which has flipped to become a resistance. Bitcoin’s price now eyes a technical rebound after testing another moving average — the 200-day EMA (the blue wave) near $21.775 — as support.
BTC/USD price daily chart. Source: TradingView
That could be the weekly accumulation level, which, if broken to the downside, would risk crashing the Bitcoin price to $20,000.
The post Bitcoin Week Ahead Ep24: Powell Testimony, Jobs Data, and a BTC Price Crash Below $20K appeared first on CoinChapter.
Filed under: Bitcoin - @ March 4, 2023 10:02 pm