What appeared to be a downturn in crypto markets has turned positive after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he told his cabinet to start negotiations with Lebanon as soon as possible. This came after NBC News reported that President Trump had requested Netanyahu to scale back the bombing in Lebanon as it threatened Monday’s announced ceasefire.
Bitcoin quickly rallied around 3% when the news hit and is now trading at $72,300, up 2% over the past 24 hours. US stocks also reversed modest early losses, with the Nasdaq now ahead 0.65%. After rising to nearly $103 per barrel earlier in the day, WTI crude quickly retreated to $98.60.
Bitcoin is notably outperforming other crypto majors, with ether (ETH), solana (SOL) and XRP (XRP) all up by less than 1%.
Continued divergence with software stocks
Firmly linked at the hip in recent months, bitcoin and software stocks continued to diverge on Thursday. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software ETF ( IGV ) fell 4% and approached a key support level around $76, a level it has tested and bounced back from several times.
Over the past month, bitcoin is up 9%, while IGV is down 12%.
On a 20-day moving average basis, the correlation coefficient between Bitcoin and IGV has dropped to a relatively low 0.34, reinforcing the recent divergence in their price movements.
