Equities slip lower as cryptocurrencies inch higher: This week in markets

Cryptocurrencies traded marginally higher over the last week, despite a robust jobs report.

The U.S. added 263,000 new jobs in September, above expectations of 255,000 and below the previous month, when 315,000 jobs were added. The unemployment rate fell to 3.5%, below expectations of 3.7%, according to Friday’s report. Markets ticked lower following the data.

Bitcoin plummeted below $20,000 on Friday following the release of jobs data — equities sank lower too. Bitcoin was trading at $19,525 today, up 1% over the past week, while ether traded up just under 1% at $1,324.

Binance’s BNB token fell drastically on Thursday following a hack that siphoned at least $100 million. BNB has since pared some of those losses. Elsewhere Ripple’s XRP token clocked the largest gains of the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap, up 11.30%, as the token builds momentum following developments in its SEC trial. 

Markets will now look to next Thursday’s inflation data as the Fed has fought inflation with rate hikes, and any sign that inflation is stemming may be taken positively by markets hoping for a Fed pivot. Still, a pivot is looking increasingly unlikely, especially as Neel Kashkari said the Fed is quite a way from pausing rate hikes. 

‘Market appears to have come to its senses’

From Coinbase to Silvergate, Friday was a bad day for crypto stocks. 

“While weak data earlier in the week fueled expectations that the Fed could consider a less hawkish stance, the market appears to have come to its senses. With inflation still over four times the Fed’s 2% target and the jobs market still strong, any dovish pivot is likely still a long way off,” Fiona Cincotta, senior financial markets analyst at City Index, said of the market moving lower. 

Jack Dorsey’s Block (née Square) fell more than 7.3% on Tuesday, trading at $57.41 at the the close on Friday, according to Nasdaq data via TradingView. Elsewhere, Silvergate was down 4.81% to $70.21, Coinbase shed 9.35% to trade at $67 and MicroStrategy was trading at $220.30, down 8.84%.

It was a mixed week for equities in general, the Nasdaq traded down marginally while the S&P 500 added modest gains.

The correlation between cryptocurrencies and stocks continued to decline throughout the week, with bitcoin’s correlation to the Nasdaq dropping to 0.56 and the S&P 500 slipping to 0.55, according to The Block’s data dashboard. 

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