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Bitcoin Under Pressure as Goldman Trims Fed Rate Cut Expectations, BofA Sees Potential Hike After Blowout Jobs Report

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2025-01-14 | 5m

Bitcoin (BTC) started the new week on a negative note as major investment banks reassessed their expectations for Federal Reserve (Fed) rate cuts following Friday's strong jobs report. The leading cryptocurrency by market value dipped below $93,000 during the European hours, representing a 1.6% drop on the day. Prices looked set to test the support zone near $92,000, which has consistently acted as a floor since late November.

In traditional markets, futures tied to the SP 500 traded 0.3% lower, pointing to an extension of Friday's 1.5% drop that pushed the index to the lowest since early November. The dollar index (DXY) neared 110 for the first time since late 2022, with elevated Treasury yields supporting further gains.

Data released Friday showed nonfarm payrolls increased by 256,000 in December, the most since March, surpassing expectations for 160,000 job additions and the previous figure of 212,000 by a big margin. The jobless rate declined to 4.1% from 4.2%, and the average hourly earnings came in slightly lower than expected at 0.3% month-on-month and 3.9% year-on-year.

That prompted Goldman Sachs to push out the next interest rate cut to June from March. "Our economists now expect the Fed to cut just twice in 2025 (Jun/Dec vs Mar/Jun/Dec previously), with another rate cut in June 2026, Goldman's Economic Research note to clients on Jan. 10 said. "If December's FOMC decision marked a significant shift back towards inflation in the Fed's relative weighting of risks, the December jobs report may have completed the pendulum swing. The soft average hourly earnings figure kept the print from sending a more alarming re-heating signal, but the case for cutting to mitigate risks to the labor market has faded into the background," the note explained.

Source: CoinDesk