The movement of the cryptocurrency market at the beginning of this week has slowed down a bit in the last few days, but that could all change this week as there are important data that the market is focused on.
It started with the US Fed Chairman's testimony to Congress this week. As already known, the US central bank has begun to raise interest rates quite aggressively to combat soaring inflation. The past few FOMC meetings have all resulted in hikes, some of them 75 basis points. However, the Fed's actions began to slow at the end of 2022, and the beginning of the new year brought similar sentiments.
Most experts believe Powell will simply reiterate the Fed's plan to raise interest rates by 25 basis points, as it has done in recent years. Other experts insist that the Fed will not raise rates to 6% as previously feared.
However, most financial markets, including crypto markets trade at low volatility.
On Thursday, the day after Powell's second testimony, the US is scheduled to release the latest data on jobless claims. This is a weekly report by the US Department of Labor that displays the number of people filing for unemployment insurance benefits.
As an important indicator of the current state of the economy, unemployment claims usually lead to small fluctuations in the stock market, as well as crypto, especially if the data is higher than expected. Riskier assets like cryptocurrencies tend to decline in such cases.
On Friday, there will be more information about the US economy. That is the unemployment rate and NFP employment data. Estimates show that the percentage will remain the same as the previous month at 3.4%, which is the lowest since 1969. Further expectations on the jobs report expected the economy to add around 200,000 jobs in February, which is a significant decrease from before.
Looking from the perspective of the crypto market, all of the above looks like potential catalysts for the price volatility to come, especially the volatile price movement over the past few days.
