Peter Schiff, a notable critic of cryptocurrencies, has called out CNBC for its intense focus on Bitcoin and the newly launched Bitcoin ETFs, at the expense of covering significant movements in the gold market. 

According to Schiff, CNBC’s coverage overlooked a noteworthy $43 increase in gold prices and the record-high price of the gold ETF, GLD. 

This, Schiff argues, is indicative of a broader issue within mainstream financial reporting. 

Gold’s recent rally 

Gold prices surged to a two-month high, climbing nearly 1.5% as U.S. factory data underwhelmed and consumer sentiment dipped, fuelling speculation of impending interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. 

The spot price of gold reached $2,075.03 per ounce, inching closer to the record high set in December 2023. 

This rally was bolstered by expectations that the Federal Reserve might lower borrowing costs to support the economy, as Treasury yields fell, marking gold’s most significant intraday increase since mid-January.

Schiff’s bullish outlook on gold

Schiff’s recent posts on the X social media network further emphasize the bullish signs for gold, pointing out that the new record-high price of the GLD ETF occurred despite nine consecutive weeks of outflows, suggesting a shift from “dumb money” to “smart money.” 

Schiff also called attention to the discrepancy between the strong fundamentals for gold and the weak sentiment towards gold mining stocks, which is exemplified by the world’s largest gold mining company, NEM, hitting a 5-year low just as gold prices soared. 

Schiff interprets these dynamics as clear indicators of gold’s enduring value and potential for growth. 

As reported by U.Today, Schiff recently dismissed the ongoing Bitcoin rally, predicting a swift crash. 

No Bitcoin (BTC) cycle has reached its peak without undergoing double-digit corrections, as pseudonymous trader @CryptoJelleNL has noted. All of them were spicy buy opportunities, but their patterns are changing cycle by cycle.

Bitcoin (BTC) dropping by 20-25% would open “buy-the-dip” opportunity

Bitcoin (BTC), the largest cryptocurrency, might see at least one double-digit correcton on its way to a new price high. Once it drops by 20-25%, an opportunity window opens for BTC bulls, as explained by a seasoned crypto investor who goes by @CryptoJelleNL on X.

Such corrections are registered every cycle. However, as the market is getting more and more mature, the dropdowns become smaller. 

To provide context, in the 2016-2017 cycle, BTC went through seven corrections that were very painful. They erased 30-45% of the Bitcoin (BTC) price each, with 32% as the average pullback.

The next cycle that pushed BTC toward its current all-time high (ATH) mark was far more forgiving for bulls: with five dropdowns, the average loss only reached 24%.

This cycle has only seen four major corrections so far, with an average pullback of 21%. As such, traders should be ready for at least one ugly red candle, data shows.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) local high 10% lower than 2021 ATH

Should @CryptoJelleNL calculations be valid, the $46,000-$47,000 zone is the best one for Bitcoiners interested in “buy-the-dip” opportunities.

By press time, Bitcoin (BTC) is changing hands at $61,683 on major spot exchanges. In the last week, it added over 20% and peaked one step away from $64,000.

This mark is less than 10% below its all-time high registered on Nov. 10, 2021, at about $69,000.

Whale Alert, the popular cryptocurrency tracker, which follows large crypto transactions and shares their details with the community, has noticed three hefty SOL transfers made over the past hour.

Aside from that, two big SOL chunks exchanged hands without any trading venues involved. This has coincided with a Solana price increase.

Almost $163 million in Solana on the move

The aforementioned data source detected five large Solana transfers, each carrying tens of millions of US dollars in the SOL equivalent. The largest ones carried 449,724 SOL (valued at $60,008,944) and 436,720 SOL (the equivalent of $57,677,853). These two SOL chunks were moved between anonymous cryptocurrency wallets.

Two more transfers, which contained 167,189 SOL (worth $22,241,902) and 93,446 SOL (evaluated at $12,322,070), were deposited to the largest US-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.

Finally, 81,173 SOL worth $10,819,672 was withdrawn from the same crypto trading platform. Overall, almost $163 million worth of Solana has been moved within a single hour.

Solana market performance

From Monday this week until today, SOL has put up a staggering 36.74% increase, following the tremendous rise of the flagship cryptocurrency Bitcoin this week. Having surged from $100.76 to the $137.78 price mark, SOL demonstrated a volatile behavior today, first dropping by 4.22% and then rising and falling once again. The overall decline today comprises 4.77%.

In the meantime, the market’s main catalyst, Bitcoin, has also stopped growing – it has lost 2.85% within the last 24 hours and is trading at $61,474 at press time.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

• Monday:
  Switzerland CPI.
• Tuesday: Tokyo
  CPI, China Caixin Services PMI, Eurozone PPI, US ISM Services PMI.
• Wednesday:
  Australia GDP, Eurozone Retail Sales, US ADP, BoC Policy Decision, US Job
  Openings, Fed Chair Powell Testimony.
• Thursday: Japan
  Wage data, Switzerland Unemployment Rate, ECB Policy Decision, US Jobless
  Claims, Fed Chair Powell Testimony.
• Friday: US
  NFP, Canada Labour Market report.

Monday

The Switzerland CPI Y/Y is expected to
fall further to 1.1% vs. 1.3% prior. The last
report missed expectations by a big margin
and sparked a strong dovish reaction with the market pricing a 60% chance of a
25 bps rate cut in March. Another miss should seal the rate cut this month,
but even if it beats, it shouldn’t change much for the market.

Tuesday

The Tokyo Core CPI Y/Y, which is seen as a
leading indicator for National CPI, is expected to rise to 2.5% vs. 1.6% prior.
Inflation in Japan has been falling steadily and it’s now basically at target
(excluding the ex-energy/food measure). Nevertheless, the BoJ is solely
focused on wage growth and the spring wage talks will dictate their policy. BoJ’s
Takata recently said that the momentum is
rising in wage talks and that the achievement of the 2% inflation target is
getting in sight. That sparked a strong reaction in the market with the Yen
rallying across the board before giving back most of the gains.

The US ISM Services PMI is expected at
53.0 vs. 53.4 prior. The recent US
S&P Global Services PMI surprisingly
missed expectations with the commentary noting that “services output held its
positive momentum, consistent with a positive change in new business, although
the pace of growth fell to a three-month low. In the meantime, service
providers continued to increase their headcounts. Still, the pace of hiring
slowed as the downtrend in sales growth drove companies to grow cautious of
slowing orders. On the price front, cost inflation faced by firms waned
during the period, but service providers continued to increase their output
charges.

Wednesday

The BoC is expected to keep interest rates
steady at 5.00% with the market expecting the first rate cut in June. As a
reminder, the central bank dropped the tightening bias at the last
meeting and the recent economic data
suggests that the BoC is likely to keep everything unchanged and maintain its
patient stance. Therefore, this particular meeting should be a non-event.

The US Job Openings are expected to fall
to 8.895M vs. 9.026M prior. This will be the first major US labour market
report and, although it’s old (January data), it’s generally a market
moving release. The market will likely focus on the hiring and quit rates as
they both fell below the pre-pandemic trend recently.

Fed Chair Powell will testify to Congress
and, as always, market participants will be attentive to any view or hint about
the monetary policy trajectory. The text is generally released before the
testimony so that will be scanned for clues or “bias”, but the market will also
be focused on the Q&A session following the opening remarks.

Thursday

The Japanese Average Cash Earnings Y/Y will
be a data point to watch given the BoJ’s sole focus on wage growth. The
last month, the data missed forecasts rising by 1.0% Y/Y vs. 1.3% expected and
0.2% prior. The attention though remains on the spring wage negotiations but
the easing in inflation might help to bring real wages into positive territory.

The ECB is expected to keep the deposit
rate unchanged at 4.00%. The central bank members continue to support a
patient stance and the consensus is to wait for the Q1 2024 wage data before
considering a rate cut in June, which is also the current market’s
expectation. The recent data supports the ECB stance as the Eurozone
CPI beat expectations and the labour
market remains historically tight.

The US Jobless Claims continue to be one
of the most important releases every week as it’s a timelier indicator on the
state of the labour market. Initial Claims keep on hovering around cycle
lows, while Continuing Claims remain firm around cycle highs. There’s no consensus
at the time of writing but the last week Initial Claims came at 251K vs.
210K expected and Continuing Claims at 1905K vs. 1874K expected.

Friday

The US NFP report is expected to show 200K
jobs added in February vs. 353K in January and the Unemployment Rate to remain
unchanged at 3.7%. The Average Hourly Earnings Y/Y is expected at 4.4% vs. 4.5%
prior, while the M/M measure is seen at 0.3% vs. 0.6% prior. The Average Weekly
Hours are expected to rise to 34.3 vs. 34.1 prior. The last
report surprised the markets with a huge
beat with the only bad readings in the household survey showing the second
consecutive drop in employment and the average weekly hours falling sharply to
recessionary levels, which also skewed the average hourly earnings print.

The Canadian Labour Market report is
expected to show 20K jobs added in February vs. 37.3K in January
and the Unemployment Rate to tick higher to 5.8% vs. 5.7% prior. The focus
will also be on the wage growth figure as that’s what the BoC is more concerned
with.

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The new month has begun with a correction on the cryptocurrency market, according to CoinStats.

SHB/USD

SHIB has followed the drop of other coins, going down by 0.16%.

On the hourly chart, the price of SHIB is rising after the breakout of the resistance of $0.00001333. Until the rate is above the $0.00001350, buyers are controlling the situation on the market. 

In this reagard, the growth may continue to the $0.000015 area soon.

On the bigger time frame, traders should pay attentiont to yesterday’s peak of $0.00001473. If the daily bar closes near it, the midterm rise may lead to the $0.000015-$0.000016 zone next week.

From the midterm point of view, the price of SHIB is its way to testing the $0.00001591 level. However, the aproach to this mark plays a huge role. If it happens fast and a false breakout happens, bears might seize the initiative, which could lead to a correction.

SHIB is trading at $0.00001430 at press time.

The ISM manufacturing headline number for February on Friday was also interesting, coming in softer than expected at 47.8 versus expectations of 49.5 (touching the lower range estimate), with new orders and the employment index also softening (the former dipped into contractionary territory). However, the prices paid index remained elevated, with only minor softening versus prior data and expectations.

Where We Are This Week

The Bank of Canada (BoC) are centre stage on Wednesday at 2:45 pm GMT and are anticipated to stand firm at 5.0% this week (marking a fifth consecutive session on hold at a 22-year high). Year-over-year headline inflation cooled to 2.9% in January (down from the 3.4% jump in December), marking its lowest rate since June of 2023.

This coupled with economic activity increasing by 1.0% on an annualised basis for Q4 2023, suggests policymakers are unlikely to move on rates at this week’s meeting. Investors are betting the first 25bp rate cut will not be seen until July’s policy meeting (34bps of easing priced in), which is largely in line with market forecasts for the Fed and the European Central Bank (ECB).

The ECB will claim the central bank’s spotlight this week on Thursday at 1:15 pm GMT and is widely expected to remain on hold for all key benchmark rates for a fourth consecutive meeting. Following regional inflation numbers from France, Spain and Germany, the latest inflation data out of the euro area on Friday revealed that headline inflation slowed to 2.6% in the twelve months to February from 2.6% in January, according to the latest flash estimate from Eurostat.

Core inflation also cooled from 3.3% in January to 3.1% in February. Though we continue to see a disinflationary process play out (albeit February’s softer inflation was largely fuelled by base effects), this and accompanying data since the last meeting in late January are unlikely sufficient to prompt a cut at this week’s meeting or either April’s meeting.

As of writing, the OIS curve forecasts 74bps of easing for the year (you may recall that we have seen a significant hawkish repricing recently from around 150bps of easing priced in for the year) with the first 25bp cut expected in June (well -24bps). What will be widely watched this week are the new Staff Projections (released four times per year) on growth and inflation—both of which are expected to be revised lower in 2024, and, of course, the ECB President Christine Lagarde’s comments at the presser 30 minutes after the rate announcement. Should downside revisions come to fruition, Europe’s single currency could come under pressure.

The market is facing a slight correction, according to CoinMarketCap.

DOGE/USD

DOGE is one of the biggest losers today, falling by 3.63%.

Despite today’s fall, the price of DOGE is looking bullish on the hourly chart. If the daily candle closes above the $0.1236 level, the rise may continue to the $0.13 zone tomorrow.

On the bigger time frame, one should focus on the bar’s closure in terms of the nearest level of $0.1233. 

If it happens above that mark and with no long wick, the upward move may lead to a test of the $0.1350-$0.140 area soon.

Bulls are also more powreful than bears on the weekly chart. At the moment, there are no reversal signals yet. If bears cannot seize the initiative shortly, there is a chance to see a test of $0.15 this month.

DOGE is trading at $0.1261 at press time.