Day: February 11, 2025

Bitcoin vs. Gold: Peter Brandt Weighs In as Gold Hits Record $2,940

Posted on by Arslan Butt

Gold has reached an all time high of $2,940 per oz and is solidifying its position as a strong hedge.

Meanwhile Bitcoin is struggling to break $100,000 and is seeing capital outflows, so the old Bitcoin vs gold debate is back. Peter Brandt says institutional investors are moving funds from Bitcoin into gold at least for now.

Continue reading “Bitcoin vs. Gold: Peter Brandt Weighs In as Gold Hits Record $2,940” →

Why Is Tesla Stock Falling This Week?

Posted on by Timothy St. John

For the fourth consecutive day, Tesla (TSLA) stock dropped, losing 3.01% by the end of trading on Monday. It does not look any better as Tuesday trading begins.

Tesla stock is in decline after Musk buyout attempt.
Musk’s plan sot buy OpenAI could be driving Tesla stock down.

It appears that Tesla CEO Elon Musk could be stretching himself too thin and not prioritizing the electric car company. He is a part of President Donald Trump’s administration, heading up the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). He is also running Tesla, X, xAI, SpaceX, and other interests.

On top of that, Musk has made a bid for OpenAI, though the company is not up for sale at the time. OpenAI runs ChatGPT, and CEO Sam Altman said “no thanks” publicly to Musk on X. As the two exchanged public words, Tesla stock dropped more than 10%. Investors are worried that this losing streak will continue.

Tesla Performing against the Larger Trend

There are market trends that Tesla stock is perming contrary to right now. One is the overall Tesla stock movement since the November US election. That stock gained 70% between that point in November and January 20th, when Trump officially took office.

Tesla is also performing against the current bullish stock market trend. Meta, Amazon, Apple, Google, and Nvidia are all up this week, but Tesla is one of the notable stocks that is falling and falling sharply.

It may seem  extreme for Tesla stock to fall so much based solely on a business discussion that does not necessarily impact Tesla directly. However, when Musk is not focusing on Tesla, the investors get worried, and if he is planning to invest billions into buying an AI company, he may not be as concerned if Tesla flounders.

A lot of Tesla’s stock value has fluctuated over the last couple of months based mostly on political statements and internet chatter more than on solid numbers. That means that when Musk makes a declaration on X about how he plans to invest the company’s billions, it affects the stock price. Investors may prefer that he attempt to make his deals less publicly, but so far, that has not been his style.

We do expect a market correction now for Tesla, since it appears that Altman is not interested in the buyout. But if it looks like Musk is still shopping around with billions, that could drive the stock price down further. 

 

Bitcoin Price Prediction- When Will It Be Back to $100K?

Posted on by Timothy St. John

Currently sitting at $98,094 (BTC/USD), Bitcoin (BTC) is slowly climbing back to its crucial $100K level, but how soon will it hit that marker?

Bitcoin is slowly making upward progress.
Bitcoin Faces Pressure Amid Trump Tariff Concerns

Over the past 24 hours, Bitcoin has gained 0.25%, but the token is still struggling to hit $100K and regain its footing from where it was a week ago. Bitcoin should have no problem hitting $100K in the next few days, but it could be held back by the U.S. CPI report that releases Wednesday.

Bitcoin hit a low of $91K just last week and then made a swift recovery up to $97K. As the price continue sot recover, the odds of Bitcoin hitting $200K by the end of the year are elevated, up to 12% from 11%, says Nick Forster of Derive.xyz.

Factors to Consider when Predicting Bitcoin’s Price Movement

There are a few key long-term and short-term factors that have to be taken into account when trying to assess where Bitcoin may move in the near future and then by the end of the year.

President Donald Trump’s policies concerning cryptocurrency and Bitcoin should elevate the token and allow it to move much higher throughout the year. That positive factor will be counterbalanced by some of the negative factors, but this could be the most significant factor this year.

The U.S. CPI report will be coming out this week and could drive Bitcoin down slightly, since that CPI report is expected to show sticky inflation and high consumer prices. Even if this report comes in within expectations, it will still be elevated and indicate a larger inflation problem that is not going away anytime soon.

The tariff war between China and the United States could drive down Bitcoin as well. While the trade war will not directly affect Bitcoin prices, the higher cost on some goods will leave less disposable income to invest in Bitcoin. There does not seem to be any indication that the trade war will stop anytime soon.

If Bitcoin can push above $100K and stay there for a few days, that would help drive it further upward. So far, that level has proved difficult to maintain in 2025. If that trend changes, though, and BTC can remain higher, that will restore some investor confidence in the coin and help push it to a higher support level.

Elevated Stock Market Continues Strong Week Leading to CPI

Posted on by Timothy St. John

A bullish stock market is holding steady as the week progresses closer to the release of the consumer price index, with the Dow Jones up by 0.38% Monday evening.

US inflation is expected to remain steady at 2.9%
US inflation is expected to remain steady at 2.9%

Tuesday’s market could open strong thanks to an elevated closing on Monday, with all three indices up, including the Nasdaq Composite gaining 0.98% and the S&P 500 adding 0.67%. We could see the market remain high even when the CPI report releases on Wednesday, as it is likely to show price increases that reflect sticky inflation.

Magnificent Seven stocks are mostly elevated as well, with many of the favorite stocks showing signs of strength at the moment. This includes Microsoft, Apple, Google, Nvidia, Amazon, and Meta. One of the prominent stocks that has fallen this week, though, is Tesla (TSLA), which dropped by 3.01% on Monday evening.

That stock is balanced out on the indices by Nvidia (NVDA), which gained 2.87% as well as Amazon (AMZN) 1.74%. Several of the top stocks are benefitting from decent quarterly earnings reports, while others continue to get a boost from President Donald Trump’s economic policies that are aimed in part at big businesses.

What to Expect from the CPI

U.S. consumer inflation was still high when 2025 began, remaining at 2.9% for much of last year. The cost of living is expected to demonstrate a 2.8% increase for the last year, according to a report coming out of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That indicator is down slightly from December of last year, when it was 2.9%.

Inflation fell in mid-2024 and then climbed again in December, where it has remained since then. Inflation is expected to show a certain stickiness for now that the Federal Reserve cannot deny, meaning that the Fed will be unlikely to issue any interest rate cuts beyond the very few it has already discussed for 2025.

If the CPI is within expectations, then the stock market could remain elevated, though taking a slight dip after the report. A higher than expected CPI, however, could cause the market to drop significantly.

Shiba Inu Price Analysis: SHIB Makes History with UAE Federal Partnership

Posted on by Arslan Butt

Shiba Inu (SHIB) has signed a historic alliance with the UAE Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure (MoEI), therefore pioneering a development for the crypto industry and marking the first federal government level integration of blockchain technology.

Shiba Inu Price Analysis: SHIB Makes History with UAE Federal Partnership
Shiba Inu price analysis

As of February 11, 2025, the popular meme coin, despite reaching important milestone, still faces pricing resistance and trades at $0.00001605.

Shiba Inu’s Historic UAE Partnership Signals Institutional Legitimacy

Shiba Inu’s partnership with the UAE government marks a paradigm change in national approaches to Web3 technologies. With Shiba Inu’s Operating SystemTM implemented throughout all Emirates, this alliance may establish a standard for government blockchain use. Recently overseeing worldwide partnerships for the Shiba Inu Ecosystem, lead creator Shytoshi Kusama characterizes this as a “nationwide movement” rather than merely another crypto alliance.

Institutional Interest and Market Sentiment

The UAE alliance has spurred more social media activity; mentions connected to SHIB-related rise 22% in 24 hours. But whale behavior seems to be cooling:

  • Major transactions (>$100,000) down 9.8%
  • Overall market engagement declining
  • Institutional interest focused on partnership implications

Shiba Inu Market Analysis

Recent market statistics shows [[SHIB/USD]] a complicated picture. Trading volumes reveal a different picture even while the token has proven durability with sporadic gains against more general market downturns. Particularly showing the erratic character of investor interest is the futures market:

  • Late 2024 brought a peak in futures volume at $2.72 billion.
  • Current volume dropped 90% to $0.28 billion.
  • Down 15.59%, trading volume is at $313,581,484.
  • Open interest remains significant at 9.4 trillion SHIB

This significant drop in futures trading reflects a larger trend across the meme currency market as rivals including Dogecoin, PEPE, and BONK experience similar patterns of speculative rises followed by severe corrections.

SHIB/USD Technical Analysis

[[SHIB/USD-graph]]

 

  • Immediate resistance: $0.00001620
  • Secondary resistance: $0.00001800
  • Critical breakthrough point: $0.00002000
  • Support level: $0.00001450

The token’s 30-day volatility of 11.87% points to probably ongoing price swings. The performance of Bitcoin is still a major outside influence; any movement beyond $100,000 might start an altcoin frenzy including SHIB.

Shiba Inu Price Prediction

Although some SHIB aficionados dream of the token reaching $1, technological study indicates more reasonable goals. From CoinCodex:

  • Maximum projected price by 2049: $0.002077
  • Required growth for $1: 6,209,260.22%
  • Short-term forecast: Potential decline to $0.00001506 by March 2024

FTSE Posts All-Time High Again – Retail Sales Show Strong Start to 2025

Posted on by Gino Bruno D'Alessio

UK retailers posted higher sales in January compared to the same month last year. Retailers see job cuts for 2025 due to new budget levies.

fste posts new all time high fueled by strong retail sales

  • January retail spending rose by 2.6% compared to 2024
  • YoY consumer spending was up 1.9%
  • Consumer confidence down to -22 in January

The [[FTSE]] posted another all-time today of 8,791 before declining slightly. The main UK stock index started the week with a previous ATH yesterday.

Retail Spending Remains High

Consumers started the year spending more than they did in January 2024. The British Retail Consortium posted dated showing an increase of 2.6% of the same month last year.

The number is also considerably higher than the average monthly growth of 0.8% over the past year.

Barclays also reported consumer spending up   1.9% on the year, the highest figure since March 2024.

The data shows a contrast in consumer confidence, which came in at -22 in January, dropping 4 points from December’s number of -18.

“January sales kicked off a solid month for retail,” BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson said. “While the bouts of stormy weather put a temporary dampener on demand, sales growth held up well throughout the rest of the month.”

FTSE Live Chart

[[FTSE-graph]]

 

Retailers See Tough Year Ahead

Some of the main UK retailers have signaled a tough year ahead, these include Tesco, Next, and Marks & Spencer.

Their main concerns are the increases in employer taxes and the pressure they may add to prices and job growth.

The UK’s second largest supermarket chain, Sainsbury’s stated plans to cut over 3,000 jobs in 2025. The supermarket chain stated concerns of what it sees as a “particularly challenging cost environment”.

Retail spending data showed a rise of 1.3% in Q4 2024 excluding auto fuel, but when adjusted for inflation the volume of sales showed a drop of 2%.

January’s figure from the BRC also needs some context. The figure from January 2024 was particularly weak, while sales for December 2024 showed a rise of 3.1%.

Forex Signals Brief Feb 11: FED’s Powell Could Rattle Stock and Forex Markets

Posted on by Skerdian Meta

Today Jerome Powell will testify at Congress, which could send markets either way, depending on the FED’s outlook as trade tariffs kick in.

Powell will testify at the US Senate today

Continue reading “Forex Signals Brief Feb 11: FED’s Powell Could Rattle Stock and Forex Markets” →

Ethereum Faces Record Wall Street Shorts Despite Layer-2 Surge: A Market at Crossroads

Posted on by Arslan Butt

As Ethereum (ETH) negotiates early 2025 amid a period of confusing signals for the crypto market, it presents both major obstacles and interesting opportunities.

Ethereum Faces Record Wall Street Shorts Despite Layer-2 Surge: A Market at Crossroads
Ethereum price analysis

With daily transaction fees falling to a five-month low of $731,472 on February 8, the second-largest cryptocurrency has lately seen substantial technical pressure; this marks the lowest point since September 2024.

Institutional Sentiment and Market Positioning

With short positions exploding 500% since November 2024, hedge funds have shockingly shifted their pessimistic stance on Ethereum [[ETH/USD]]. This is the largest degree of Wall Street short positioning ever recorded for the bitcoin, which helps to explain current price swings. Despite significant ETF inflows—more than $2 billion in new funds—including a record-breaking weekly inflow of $854 million—the steep rise in institutional short holdings defies expectation.

Ethereum Ecosystem Development and Layer-2 Growth

Particularly in its Layer-2 (L2) solutions, Ethereum’s ecosystem keeps displaying amazing resilience and expansion in spite of market forces. Comprising L2s utilizing Optimism’s OP Stack, the Superchain has been rather popular and represents over 47% of all Ethereum L2 transactions in the past month. Joining this effort are significant participants Coinbase (Base), Worldcoin (World Chain), and Uniswap (Unichain), hence enhancing Ethereum’s scaling capacity.

Supply Dynamics and Network Metrics

Ethereum’s supply dynamics have clearly caused investors great anxiety. Against forecasts following the 2022 transition to proof-of-stake, the supply of the coin has above pre-Merge levels since April 2024. The fee-burning mechanism of the London hard fork’s deflationary effect has partially undone this supply boost.

ETH/USD Technical Analysis

[[ETH/USD-graph]]

 

Currently trading about $2,656, Ethereum is well below its all-time high of $4,878 from November 2021. At $2,700 the cryptocurrency encounters immediate technical opposition; hourly charts show a bearish trend line. Key support levels have set themselves at $2, 525; analysts advise that any possible upward movement depends on keeping this level. A breach below might see prices test lower supports around $2,440 or even $2,350.

Ethereum Price Forecast

Although institutional short positioning points to near-term bearishness, some analysts note the possibility for a major short squeeze that would boost prices toward $3,000 or above. Maintaining a hopeful long-term view, Steno Research suggests possible targets as high as $8,000 in 2025.