Bitcoin (BTC) edged away from weekly lows on Thursday after the US Producer Price Index (PPI) narrowly cooled in July.
Key points:
Bitcoin avoids further downside as US PPI data provides a boost to US equities.Cleveland Fed president stays hawkish on the outlook for interest-rate policy. Bitcoin long liquidations make $61,000 a key level to watch.
July PPI extends cooler US inflation trend
BTC/USD was up around 0.5% on the day near $63,900 with volatility broadly absent, data from TradingView showed.
BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
The July US Producer Price Index (PPI) print was unchanged month-on-month at 0.2%, while year-on-year increased 4.7% versus an anticipated 4.9%, per data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
“In July, a 0.2-percent increase in the index for final demand services and a 2.2-percent advance in prices for final demand construction offset a 0.7-percent decrease in the index for final demand goods,” the BLS release said.
“Falling gasoline and energy prices provided the biggest relief,” Econoday analysts highlighted.
US PPI one-month % change. Source: BLS
US stocks gained at the Wall Street open as PPI further cooled market bets on interest-rate hikes from Federal Reserve policymakers. The S&P 500 index and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index were up 0.87% and 0.94%, respectively, at the time of writing.
CME Group’s FedWatch Tool showed 65.6% odds of those policymaker holding rates at the current 3.50-3.75% level at the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) September meeting. Wednesday’s July Consumer Price Index (CPI) numbers matched expectations, already resulting in a boost to the rate-pause outlook.
Fed target-rate probability comparison for September FOMC meeting (screenshot). Source: CME Group
After their biggest split over the interest-rate path since 1970 in July, Fed officials continued to strike a cautious tone over policy. Speaking at an event with the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce in Kettering, Ohio, Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank president Beth Hammack questioned whether even recent cooler data prints would be enough to bring inflation down…
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