The US labor market added more jobs than expected in January, leaving analysts and investors doubting that an interest rate cut will come in March. by Casey Wagner /. February 2, 2024 03:17 pm. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell | Paul Morigi/”Jerome H. Powell, governor of the Federal Reserve Board, and Donald Kohn, senior fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution” (CC license). Stocks and cryptocurrencies were mixed Friday as investors grappled with new earnings and economic data.. Friday’s jobs report showed unemployment is unexpectedly low at 3.7% and 353,000 jobs were added in January. Weekly initial jobless claims have ticked higher though, keeping in line with recent reports of layoffs in the tech and media industries. Still, initial claims are averaging lower than they did over the summer, according to economic data from the Federal Reserve.. While a healthy labor market generally would be positive news, Friday’s unexpectedly strong report could mean investors need to reevaluate their expectations for when the Fed might start lowering interest rates.. Read more: Polygon Labs to cut 19% of staff. Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday noted that a weakening labor market would cause central bankers to cut rates sooner, while “stickier or higher” inflation numbers would delay the timeline. The report pushed expectations of a March rate cut from 40% to 20%, according to data from CME group.. Still, equities trended higher Friday following the release of the latest labor numbers. Ahead of the close, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indexes gained 1% and 1.6%, respectively, largely driven by a rally in big tech following positive earnings from Amazon and Meta Platforms.. Cryptocurrencies, on the other hand, slipped Friday, with bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) each losing around 0.5% at the time of publication. Both were able to sustain modest gains over the week, but are still in the red year-to-date. Some analysts maintain that bitcoin’s recent headwinds might be letting up soon.. Read more: No bull: Bitcoin has been in a kangaroo market for nearly a whole year. “Many technical factors pressuring bitcoin specifically (and crypto more broadly) are starting to be exhausted, in our view,” Coinbase analysts wrote in a note Friday. “This is evidenced by the liquidations at FTX (disposing of their Grayscale Bitcoin Trust or GBTC shares, for example) as well as the emergence of some large defunct entities from bankruptcy.”. Don’t miss the next big story – join our free daily newsletter.. Tags. BTC. Federal Reserve. Jerome Powell. Jobs. Newsletter. Blockworks Daily. Upcoming Events. Digital Asset Summit 2024. Hilton Metropole | 225 Edgware Rd, London. Mon – Wed, March 18 – 20, 2024. Crypto’s premier institutional conference returns to London in March 2024. The DAS: London Experience: Attend expert-led panel discussions and fireside chats Hear the latest developments regarding the crypto and digital asset regulatory environment directly from policymakers and experts.. buy ticketslearn more. Permissionless III. Salt Lake City, UT. WED – FRI, OCTOBER 9 – 11, 2024. Pack your bags, anon — we’re heading west! Join us in the beautiful Salt Lake City for the third installment of Permissionless. Come for the alpha, stay for the fresh air. Permissionless III promises unforgettable panels, killer networking opportunities, and mountains . . learn more. recent research. Research. As Ethereum has chosen to scale its execution layer through rollups (Ethereum Layer-2 scaling solutions), data availability has become increasingly important as rollups need to publish their data for visibility and disputing. The importance of data availability is critical: if it is withheld, a rollup may not be able to continue its state (i.e. carry out its state transition function) if the sequencer was to drop out, which would lead to the freezing of users funds.. by Boccaccio. more from news. Select a tab. Reality Labs notched over $1 billion in revenue during Q4 last year, up from $727 million in 2022’s Q4. by Katherine Ross /. February 1, 2024. As BlackRock’s fund approaches $3 billion of net inflows, Grayscale’s product has bled more than $5.6 billion in assets since converting to an ETF. by Ben Strack /. February 1, 2024. Europe-focused investment firm to offer fund clients a 1.25% annual staking reward after slashing ETP product fee to zero. by Ben Strack /. February 1, 2024. In hashing out the next hard fork after Dencun, developers commit to being noncommittal. by Macauley Peterson /. February 1, 2024. Users are concerned that Jupiter is using this open market opportunity to raise funds without users being “completely aware” this was the case. by Bessie Liu /. February 1, 2024. Despite missing the first wave of spot bitcoin ETF launches, the planned fund would address investors’ environmental concerns, 7RCC CEO says. by Ben Strack /. February 1, 2024