A strong week for bitcoin miners further strengthened on Thursday, with several stocks registering double-digit percentage gains again after bitcoin (BTC) climbed more than 2% to $30,500.
Marathon Digital (MARA) was up, up 14.6% for the session and up nearly 50% this week. Hut 8 Mining (HUT) is up 15.9% on Thursday and 37% higher this week. Other Thursday moves include Stronghold Digital (SDIG), up 26%. Iris Energy (IREN) rose 15%. and Bit Digital (BTBT) rose 18%.
Miner’s recent rally looks flashy, but these stocks have fallen back to last year’s levels as companies grapple with a combination of rising energy prices and Bitcoin’s price, which remains more than 50% below all-time highs. remains a significant drop from For example, Marathon Digital and Hut 8 are each down about 50% year-over-year, while Stronghold Digital is down about 80%.
Fueling the bullish outlook for Bitcoin miners is the idea that both inflation and the job market are cooling. That could create room for the US Federal Reserve (Fed) to pause or reverse his year-plus long-running rate hikes. Early Thursday morning, the Producer Price Index (PPI) for March fell to 2.7% year-on-year against his 4.9% in February, an unexpected drop of 3%. Core PPI, which excludes food and energy costs, fell from 4.5% to he 3.4%.
In addition to that news, the number of initial unemployment claims for the week ending April 8 rose by 11,000 from the previous week to 239,000. This is his highest level since January 2022, suggesting that the previously very hot job market has started to slow down.
Short-term interest rate markets are currently pricing in a roughly 60% chance of a 25 basis point rate hike by the Fed at its next meeting on May 2-3.
