Weekly Overview: Gold, Stocks, Bitcoin
This week’s overview of price movements for Bitcoin (BTC), gold, and our stock pick Google-parent Alphabet Inc.
BTC
The price of Bitcoin (BTC) in January has gone from bad to worse. Already having dropped coming into the new year, BTC was trading around $44,000 on January 13.
Over the next few days it traded down to $43,000 before reaching $42,000 by January 20. However, after a brief spike, BTC proceeded to plummet into the following days, hitting as low as $34,000 on January 22, and $33,000 on January 24. Buying pressure then returned pushing it back up to $37,000, and as high as $38,000 by January 26.
It is currently trading below $37,000.
According to Caxton market intelligence head Michael Brown, Bitcoin’s recent decline reflects the “institutionalization” of crypto assets, in the sense that they are increasingly traded like other risky assets.
“Unsurprisingly, given that the ‘easy money’ party is now coming to an end, it is the most risky assets — crypto – that are bearing the brunt of the market’s ire,” he said. “With the Fed likely to ramp up the hawkish commentary in upcoming remarks, further downside looks likely.”
GOLD
While gold had a good past week, it has since dropped below last week’s lows. On January 13, the price of gold was roughly $1,824. Over the next few days it traded down to $1,812 by January 19, when it suddenly spiked up to $1,840. Hitting $1,848 on January 20, gold traded down a bit before pushing back up to $1,852 by January 25.
However, by the next day, the price of gold plummeted and is now trading around $1,796.
Gold prices extended losses to a more than one-week low, while the U.S. dollar and Treasury yields rallied, following U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell signaling an interest rate hike in March. That sent U.S. Benchmark 10-year yields close to one-week highs while the dollar rose to its strongest in over a month.
“The reaction was normal in the sense that Chairman Powell stressed the strength of the economy and the determination to fight inflation,” said Commerzbank commodities analyst Carsten Fritsch.
GOOG
Alphabet has had a pretty dismal start to the new year. Starting out 2022 at around $2,900, Alphabet started falling by January 5 and reached roughly $2,740 by January 7. After gapping down the next trading day GOOG proceeded to push up the next two days, eventually gapping up to $2,850 by January 12. That momentum had reversed the next day, with GOOG gapping down to $2,740 by January 18, then continuing falling, gapping down again to $2,550 by January 24.
Since then however, GOOG has recovered a bit, and is currently trading around $2,640.
Earlier this week, YouTube announced it was considering adding non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to its features for creators this year, according to a letter from the CEO. The letter marks the first time YouTube’s owner, Alphabet Inc.’s Google, has announced integration with the cryptocurrency collectibles.
“We’re always focused on expanding the YouTube ecosystem to help creators capitalize on emerging technologies, including things like NFTs, while continuing to strengthen and enhance the experiences creators and fans have on YouTube,” Chief Executive Officer Susan Wojcicki wrote in her annual letter to creators.
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