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12 Apr 2021
3 min read

Bitcoin Tops $60,000, US and EU Stocks Post a Record-Setting Week

Bitcoin Tops $60,000, US and EU Stocks Post a Record-Setting Week

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Key Takeaways

  • Global stocks rally throughout the week, boosted by strong recovery expectations
  • Bitcoin trades above $60,000 as Elon Musk makes another cryptic tweet

Strong performance across asset classes marked the past week. Underpinned by various positive developments and upbeat economic outlook, traders and investors in stocks and cryptocurrencies expressed their optimism by betting heavily on their weekly picks.

US and European stock markets posted solid gains last week, continuing their rally so far in April. Both markets ended the week in green territory, propelled by strong demand by investors who expect the global recovery to be swift and powerful. The S&P500 recorded a third consecutive week of gains and signed off on Friday at a record high. The broad-based index advanced 0.77%, to end at 4,128.80. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also notched a record high, climbing 0.89%, to a close of 33,800.60. And the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite ticked higher by 0.51% to end the session at 13,900.19.

In support of the cheerful stock market performance, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell delivered an encouraging message on CBS’s 60 Minutes program, aired on Sunday. The Fed Chairman highlighted that the US economy is now at an “inflection point” and ready to start growing “much more quickly and job creation coming in much more quickly”. He also made sure to comment that Fed’s position towards the economy remains unchanged as the central bank “will do everything to support the economy for as long as it takes to complete the recovery.”

Amped Up Vaccination Roll-Outs in Europe

Overseas, the region-wide Stoxx Europe 600 index closed the week in the green, marking an all-time high. On Friday, European indexes were fairly muted, with the FTSE100 dipping 0.38%, but still 2.7% higher on the week. The German DAX and the French CAC40 sealed Friday with gains of 0.21% and 0.06%, respectively.

Adding to the positive outlook in Europe is the recent acceleration in the Covid-19 vaccination drive. European member states including France, Germany, and Italy are stepping up their efforts to administer the vaccine as they struggle to curb a third wave of the coronavirus. France announced on Sunday it will allow the AstraZeneca jab to people over 55 and it will also roll out the first batches of the new Johnson & Johnson single-shot vaccine this week.

Germany registered an uptick in the number of people who have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine. The rate of one-shot administered jumped by more than 25% last week to reach 12.7mn. In Italy, the daily average weekly remains above 200,000 new doses per day since March 26. The Italian government, led by Mario Draghi, remains optimistic that the imposed restrictions could be relaxed if the pace of first jab administrations continues to climb.

Heading to the crypto space, bitcoin pushed higher on Saturday after a week-long consolidation in the upper $50,000 range. Over the weekend, the world’s largest digital asset climbed above $60,000 and neared its all-time high of $61,800 reached in mid-March. On Saturday, bitcoin climbed to a three-week high, topping $61,200.

Arguably, a tweet by the billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk boosted bitcoin’s price. The man behind the EV maker Tesla tweeted “…going to the moon very soon,” perhaps about the crypto slang “to the moon”, meaning sending the price of a crypto asset as high as the moon.

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