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U.S. February Job Growth of 151K Roughly Matches Forecasts

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Solid strength in the U.S. employment market continued in February, though the unemployment rate ticked higher.

Nonfarm payrolls rose 151,000 last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday morning. Economist forecasts had been for a gain of 160,000. January payroll growth was revised lower to 125,000 versus an originally reported 143,000.

The February unemployment rate was 4.1% against forecasts for 4.0% and January’s 4.0%.

Seeing major price swings (mostly to the downside) for the last couple of weeks for any number of reasons — tariff threats, stock market plunges, and the idea of a U.S. strategic reserve (no longer a rumor) — bitcoin (BTC) spiked above $90,000 in the minutes following the report, and wallowed around the round-number level. The S&P 500 was also ticked a bit higher pre-market, while the 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield dropped 3 basis points to 4.24%. The U.S. Dollar Index (DXY) dipped to its weakest level since early November before grinding higher.

While cryptocurrencies moved slightly higher after the report, the market «has more chance of movement’ based on outcomes of today’s White House Crypto Summit,» Paul Howard, senior director of crypto trading firm Wincent, told CoinDesk in a Telegram message. While anticipation for potential announcements are growing, the event «in itself may bring no fresh news and BTC remains floating between $85-95k over the weekend,» Howard added.

Due in part to the jittery macro developments of late, market participants — previously having nearly written off the chances of any more rate cuts in 2025 — had raised the odds of a Fed rate cut to nearly 50% by May and of one or more rate cuts by June to almost 90%.

Indeed, a report from Challenger on Thursday showed that U.S.-based employers announced 172,000 job cuts last month, the highest reading since July 2020, likely driven by layoffs from the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) actions. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s GDPNow model forecasts the U.S. economy to shrink 2.4% in the first quarter of 2025, a stark contrast with analyst estimates of above 2% growth.

An economic slowdown, though could put the Fed in a tight spot — feeling the need to ease monetary policy to support growth even as inflation remains stubbornly perky, with the year-over-year headline rate in January at 3% and the core rate at 3.3%.

UPDATE (March 7, 13:55 UTC): Updates bitcoin, traditional markets price action following the report.

UPDATE (March 7, 14:13 UTC): Adds analyst comment.

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Circle Valuation Is ‘Outside Our Comfort Zone,’ Initiate at Underweight: JPMorgan

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Wall Street heavyweight JPMorgan (JPM) initiated coverage of stablecoin issuer Circle (CRCL) with an underweight rating and an underwhelming $80 price target.

The shares were trading 4.5% higher at around $189 at publication time.

Circle is well positioned, the bank said, and its USDC stablecoin has an «early-mover advantage,» with growing use cases in payments.

«We think highly of the Circle management team and are confident in the outlook for outsized stablecoin and USDC growth,» analysts led by Kenneth Worthington wrote.

Still, the analysts see the company’s market capitalization as elevated, and initiated coverage with an underweight rating. The stock priced at $31 a share in its initial public offering (IPO), and hit a record high of $299 last Monday.

Other Wall Street analysts were not as bearish. Broker Bernstein initiated coverage with an outperform rating and a $230 price target, saying Circle was an «investor must-hold.»

«CRCL is building a market-leading digital dollar stablecoin network, with a strong regulatory edge, liquidity headstart and marquee distribution partnerships,» analysts led by Gautam Chhugani wrote.

Bernstein is also bullish about the wider stablecoin market, and expects total market cap to reach around $4 trillion in the next decade from $225 billion today.

Rival broker Canaccord Genuity started coverage of Circle with a buy rating and a $247 price target.

The firm’s analysts view the issuer of USDC as «having many of the key attributes that could make it a long-term winner in this potentially very large and new market for truly digital money.»

Read more: Circle Mania Grips South Korea as Retail Investors Pile Into Stablecoin Play

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Popular Financial Advisor Ric Edelman Says Investors Should Allocate Up to 40% of Wealth to Crypto

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Prominent financial advisor Ric Edelman says investors should consider putting as much as 40% of their wealth into cryptocurrency, a bold recommendation that reflects how far digital assets have come in recent years.

“Today I am saying 40%, that’s astonishing,” Edelman told CNBC’s Crypto World on Friday. “No one has ever said such a thing.”

Edelman, founder of the Digital Assets Council of Financial Professionals, has been active in crypto for over a decade. He first urged investors to allocate part of their portfolios to bitcoin BTC in 2018. In his 2021 book “The Truth About Crypto,” he described even a 1% crypto allocation as “reasonable” for most people.

Now, Edelman believes the case for crypto exposure is far stronger, pointing to what he called a “massive change” in the industry over the past four years. In particular, he highlighted growing political support for digital assets, especially following the election of U.S. President Donald Trump.

“Today, all those questions have been resolved,” Edelman said, referring to regulatory uncertainty and institutional hesitation. “It’s radically changed and is now a mainstream asset.”

Edelman’s firm, Edelman Financial Engines, manages nearly $300 billion in assets. Though traditionally known for retirement planning and wealth management, the firm’s growing attention to digital assets mirrors a broader trend among financial institutions embracing crypto as a legitimate asset class.

Even though Edelman described crypto as the “best investment opportunity of the decade,” he acknowledged that a 40% allocation may not suit everyone, suggesting a more conservative 10% for those with lower risk tolerance.

Edelman’s recommendation marks one of the most aggressive calls from a mainstream financial figure to date. Most financial advisors in the U.S. are currently recommending well under 5% to their clients.

Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk’s full AI Policy.

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BitMine Immersion Stock Triples as It Raises $250M for Ether Treasury, Adds Thomas Lee to Board

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BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) has secured $250 million via a private placement of common stock and will use the funds to launch an ether (ETH) treasury.

When the deal closes, expected July 3, the Las Vegas-based miner said it will rank among the largest publicly traded holders of ETH.

The financing, priced at $4.50 a share, brought together investors including Founders Fund, Pantera Capital, Kraken, Galaxy Digital and Republic. Cantor Fitzgerald advised lead investor MOZAYYX, while ThinkEquity placed the deal.

BitMine justified its choice of ether as a primary reserve asset saying Ethereum currently leads in stablecoin payments, tokenized assets, and decentralized financial applications.

“By having a direcT ETH treasury position, the company has access to native protocol-level activities, such as staking and decentralized finance mechanisms, on the Ethereum network,” the company wrote.

The move also reshapes BitMine’s leadership. Fundstrat founder Thomas Lee, long known on Wall Street for his crypto research and bullishness, was newly appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Lee said the round reflects “the rapid and continued convergence of traditional financial services and crypto” and set a new key performance metric for the company: ether per share.

SharpLink Gaming (SBET) is one of the few other publicly traded companies creating and ether treasury, having recently boosted it to 188,478 ETH. Most other companies creating crypto treasuries focus on bitcoin (BTC).

BitMine’s shares have more than tripled in premarket action to nearly $14.

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