Crypto and stock markets are feeling the pain after the Sept. 13 inflation report printed an unexpectedly hot figure that showed headline inflation rising by 0.1% month-over-month.
Even with gas prices falling to multi-month lows and a cooling housing market, core inflation saw a 0.6% month-over-month bump and year-to-year inflation sits at 8.3%.
This chart from @TheTerminal shows why this #CPI number is so disappointing. The contribution of energy has declined, as expected; but services inflation is now rising sharply. Not what the #FOMC will have wanted to see. pic.twitter.com/BsfwFsuyD5
– John Authers (@johnauthers) September 13, 2022
While market participants and investors had estimated the next Federal Reserve interest hike to be a hefty 0.75 basis points, many also subscribed to a loosely held assumption that Sept. 13’s CPI report would come in softer than projected.
Given that the market had supposedly “priced in” a 0.75 bps hike, crypto traders expected Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and select altcoins to break out to the upside.
Well, obviously the complete opposite occurred.
Perma-bull Fed pivot CPI traders REKT. LOL
– Big Smokey (@big_smokey1) September 13, 2022
The Dow slid about 2.6%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq fell 2.9% and 3.6%, respectively. Naturally, risky assets also fell and Bitcoin price gave up more than 50% of its recent weekend gains with a 9% pullback to $20,350. With just 1 day left before the Merge, Ether price also pulled back 7.29% to $1,590, and the majority of cryptocurrencies in the top 100 are nursing single to double-digit losses at the moment.
While Bitcoin’s weekend rally from Sept. 9 extended into the start of this week and the price pushed as high as $22,800, the earlier analysis cautioned that BTC was also trading near a key overhead resistance.
As seen below, the multi-month resistance from BTC’s all-time high held as price crumbled at $22,400 when the market opened and the monthly CPI data hit media outlets. The analysis also highlighted the “successive bear flag continuation” trend that has been in play since Bitcoin price topped out at $69,000 on Nov. 10, 2021.
BTC/USDT 1-day chart. Source: TradingView
Barring an extremely bullish Merge event, the most likely direction for Bitcoin remains to the downside.
A positive point to note is, that despite Sept. 13’s correction, Bitcoin price continues to chop about in its 90-day range (pink box) between $25,400 and $17,600. From my vantage point, there’s “nothing to see here” until the price breaks below $18,500 or the yearly low at $17,600.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.