[Bitcoin Now] Rising on Fed's Expected Pace Adjustment... Focus on Corporate Earnings

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jung-yoon] The price of the representative cryptocurrency Bitcoin is rising by more than 1%. This is interpreted as an upward trend due to expectations of the Federal Reserve's (Fed) slowing pace of tightening and the resulting rise in the U.S. stock market.

According to the global cryptocurrency market tracking site CoinMarketCap, as of 10:57 a.m. on the 24th, the price of Bitcoin was recorded at $19,427 (approximately 27.87 million KRW), up 1.30% from the previous day.

Bitcoin prices are strong due to expectations of the Fed slowing the pace of interest rate hikes. Earlier, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that after the Fed's "giant step" (a 0.75 percentage point increase in the benchmark interest rate) in November, it would discuss slowing the pace of hikes in December.

Due to the expectation of slowing the tightening pace, the U.S. stock market closed up more than 2% on the 21st (local time). The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 31,082.56, up 748.97 points (2.47%) from the previous session, the large-cap-focused S&P 500 index closed at 3,752.75, up 86.97 points (2.37%), and the tech-heavy Nasdaq index recorded 10,859.72, up 244.87 points (2.31%).

Additionally, expectations for the earnings of major U.S. companies such as Apple and Amazon are also driving the rise in Bitcoin prices. Cryptocurrency specialized media CoinDesk stated, "Since about one-third of S&P 500 companies will announce earnings this week, this rebound will be put to the test," adding, "If the U.S. is indeed at the start of a recession, earnings could serve as an early warning signal."

Meanwhile, according to cryptocurrency data provider Alternative, the Fear & Greed Index, which indicates investor sentiment as an index, fell by 1 point from the previous day to 22 points (extreme fear) on the same day. Alternative's Fear & Greed Index means that the closer to 0 points, the more pessimistic investors feel, indicating extreme fear, and the closer to 100 points, the more optimistic they are.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.