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Price analysis 10/2: BTC, ETH, XRP, BCH, BNB, DOT, LINK, CRO, BSV, LTC

Price analysis 10/2: BTC, ETH, XRP, BCH, BNB, DOT, LINK, CRO, BSV, LTC

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The bulls are buying the dips in Bitcoin and a few altcoins, suggesting that investor sentiment remains positive.

The shallow pullback in Bitcoin (BTC) following the news of the CFTC’s regulatory crackdown on BitMEX and the late announcement that U.S. President Donald Trump tested positive for coronavirus shows that the underlying sentiment is still bullish.

Generally, most damage during such periods of negative news flow is caused by the squaring up of leveraged positions. Data shows that Bitcoin futures volume and open interest has been dropping since hitting the peak in early September

This means that there were fewer long positions that had to be squared up in a hurry and it also may explain why a sharper crash was avoided.

Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360

Even though Bitcoin has largely been range-bound for the past few weeks, on-chain data shows a sharp inflow of new participants. Analysts view this user growth as positive because it suggests that new traders consider Bitcoin as a store of value.

Traders can look for the cryptocurrencies that bounce back quickly from the current weakness because that shows strong buying on dips. Let’s analyze the top-10 cryptocurrencies to spot the critical support and resistance levels. 

BTC/USD

Bitcoin once again reversed direction from close to $11,000 on Oct. 1, which shows that the bears are aggressively defending the zone between the 20-day exponential moving average ($10,704) and the 50-day simple moving average ($11,017).

BTC/USD daily chart. Source: TradingView

The price action of the past few days has formed a symmetrical triangle pattern, which shows indecision among the bulls and the bears about the next directional move. This uncertainty could resolve after the price breaks above or below the triangle.

The gradually downsloping moving averages and the relative strength index in the negative territory suggest that bears have a slight advantage.

If the BTC/USD pair breaks and closes (UTC time) below the triangle, it will suggest that the bears have overpowered the bulls. The sellers will then try to break the critical support at $9,835 and if they succeed, a drop to $9,000 could be on the cards.

However, the long tail on today’s candlestick shows that the bulls are accumulating on dips to the uptrend line. They will now try to push the price above the resistance line of the triangle. 

If they succeed, the pair may face minor resistance at $11,178 but if the bulls can push the price above this level, a rally to $12,460 is possible. 

It is difficult to predict the direction of the breakout with certainty, hence, it is better to wait for the breakout to happen before taking large bets.

ETH/USD

The bulls had pushed Ether (ETH) above the downtrend line on Oct. 1, but they could not sustain the higher levels. This may have attracted profit-booking by short-term traders that pulled down the price back below the 20-day EMA ($358).

ETH/USD daily chart. Source: TradingView

The gradually downsloping moving averages and the relative strength index in the negative zone suggests that sellers have the upper hand.

However, the previous two sharp bounces off the $308.392 support zone show that the bulls aggressively accumulate closer to this level. Hence, the buyers may again use the current dips to buy. 

A breakout of the 20-day EMA will be the first indication that the correction could be over. Conversely, a break below $308.392 may signal the start of a deeper correction to $240.

XRP/USD

XRP’s failure to rise above the 20-day EMA ($0.241) could have attracted profit-booking by the aggressive bulls and shorting by the bears. The downsloping moving averages and the RSI in the negative zone suggest that the sellers have the upper hand.

XRP/USD daily chart. Source: TradingView

If the bears sink the XRP/USD pair below the $0.2295–$0.219712 support zone, the downtrend could resume. The next support on the downside is at $0.19.

However, the bulls are likely to defend the support zone aggressively and make one more attempt to push the price above the 20-day EMA and the downtrend line. If they succeed, it could signal a possible change in trend. 

BCH/USD

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) turned down from just below the downtrend line on Oct. 1 and has continued its downward march towards the critical support at $200.

BCH/USD daily chart. Source: TradingView

The repeated retest of a support level within a short interval tends to weaken it. A breakdown and close (UTC time) below $200 could lead to panic selling and increase the possibility of a deeper fall to $140.

Contrary to this assumption, if the price turns up from the current levels or rebounds sharply from the $200 support, it will suggest that bulls are accumulating at lower levels. 

A breakout and close (UTC time) above the downtrend line will be the first sign of strength and a break above $242 will increase the possibility of a rally to $280.

BNB/USD

Binance Coin (BNB) turned down from just above the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement level of $29.0886 on Oct. 1. However, the positive sign is that the bulls have not allowed the price to sustain below the 20-day EMA ($26.37)

BNB/USD daily chart. Source: TradingView

The upsloping moving average and the RSI in the positive zone suggest that the advantage is with the bulls. If the buyers can push the BNB/USD pair above the downtrend line and the overhead resistance at $29.5646, the uptrend could resume.

Contrary to this assumption, if the bears sink the BNB/USD pair below the moving averages, it will increase the possibility of a deeper correction to $22.20.

DOT/USD

The bulls attempted to push Polkadot (DOT) above the 20-day EMA ($4.49) on Oct. 1 but failed. This has dragged the price down to the critical support zone of $3.90–$3.5321.

DOT/USD daily chart. Source: TradingView

The downsloping 20-day EMA and the RSI in the negative zone suggest that the path of least resistance is to the downside. 

If the bears can sink the DOT/USD pair below the support zone, a decline to $2.782 and below it to $2 is possible.

However, if the pair rebounds off the support zone, the bulls will make one more attempt to push the price above the 20-day EMA and the overhead resistance at $4.6112. If they succeed, it will open up the doors for a move to $5.5899.

LINK/USD

Chainlink (LINK) has broken below the $9.3771 support and if the bears can sustain the lower levels, a retest of $6.90 is possible. The downsloping moving averages and the RSI close to 40 suggests that the path of least resistance is to the downside.

LINK/USD daily chart. Source: TradingView

If the bears sink the price below $6.90, the downtrend could resume and the next support is at $5.70.

The bulls will have to break the lower high and lower low formation by pushing the price above $11.1990 to signal a possible change in trend. 

If they are able to achieve this, the LINK/USD pair may start a new uptrend above the downtrend line.

CRO/USD

The bears are attempting to sink and sustain Crypto.com Coin (CRO) below the critical support at $0.144743. If they succeed, it will complete a descending triangle pattern, which is a reversal setup.

CRO/USD daily chart. Source: TradingView

The down sloping 20-day EMA ($0.154) and the RSI below 40 suggest that the path of least resistance is to the downside. Below $0.144743, the CRO/USD pair may fall to $0.124129 and then to the pattern target of $0.10607.

This bearish view will be invalidated if the pair rebounds off $0.144743 and rises above the moving averages. The failure of a bearish setup is considered as a bullish sign, hence, above the 50-day SMA, a retest of the $0.183416–$0.191101 zone is likely.

BSV/USD

Bitcoin SV (BSV) climbed above the downtrend line on Sep. 30 and Oct. 1 but on both days, the bulls could not clear the 50-day SMA ($178), which suggests that the bears are defending this resistance.

BSV/USD daily chart. Source: TradingView

The failure to clear the hurdle at the 50-day SMA could have attracted profit booking by the short-term traders and shorting by the aggressive bears. 

As a result, the BSV/USD pair has again dipped back below the 20-day EMA. The bears will now once again try to challenge the $146.20–$135 support zone. 

If they are able to sink the price below this zone, the pair may decline to $100. This bearish view will be invalidated if the pair turns up and sustains above $180.

LTC/USD

Litecoin (LTC) broke above the 20-day EMA ($46.83) on Oct. 1 but could not rise above the downtrend line. This could have led to profit booking by the short-term traders and has pulled the price back below the 20-day EMA.

LTC/USD daily chart. Source: TradingView

However, the long tail on today’s candlestick suggests that the bulls are buying on dips. The buyers will once again try to push the price above the downtrend line. 

If they succeed, the LTC/USD pair could move up to the 50-day SMA ($52.51) and if this level is scaled, the rally may extend to $64.

This bullish view will be invalidated if the pair turns down and breaks below the $41.6298–$39 support zone. Such a move could start a new downtrend.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Market data is provided by HitBTC exchange.

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Spread & Containment

The Coming Of The Police State In America

The Coming Of The Police State In America

Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times,

The National Guard and the State Police are now…

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The Coming Of The Police State In America

Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times,

The National Guard and the State Police are now patrolling the New York City subway system in an attempt to do something about the explosion of crime. As part of this, there are bag checks and new surveillance of all passengers. No legislation, no debate, just an edict from the mayor.

Many citizens who rely on this system for transportation might welcome this. It’s a city of strict gun control, and no one knows for sure if they have the right to defend themselves. Merchants have been harassed and even arrested for trying to stop looting and pillaging in their own shops.

The message has been sent: Only the police can do this job. Whether they do it or not is another matter.

Things on the subway system have gotten crazy. If you know it well, you can manage to travel safely, but visitors to the city who take the wrong train at the wrong time are taking grave risks.

In actual fact, it’s guaranteed that this will only end in confiscating knives and other things that people carry in order to protect themselves while leaving the actual criminals even more free to prey on citizens.

The law-abiding will suffer and the criminals will grow more numerous. It will not end well.

When you step back from the details, what we have is the dawning of a genuine police state in the United States. It only starts in New York City. Where is the Guard going to be deployed next? Anywhere is possible.

If the crime is bad enough, citizens will welcome it. It must have been this way in most times and places that when the police state arrives, the people cheer.

We will all have our own stories of how this came to be. Some might begin with the passage of the Patriot Act and the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security in 2001. Some will focus on gun control and the taking away of citizens’ rights to defend themselves.

My own version of events is closer in time. It began four years ago this month with lockdowns. That’s what shattered the capacity of civil society to function in the United States. Everything that has happened since follows like one domino tumbling after another.

It goes like this:

1) lockdown,

2) loss of moral compass and spreading of loneliness and nihilism,

3) rioting resulting from citizen frustration, 4) police absent because of ideological hectoring,

5) a rise in uncontrolled immigration/refugees,

6) an epidemic of ill health from substance abuse and otherwise,

7) businesses flee the city

8) cities fall into decay, and that results in

9) more surveillance and police state.

The 10th stage is the sacking of liberty and civilization itself.

It doesn’t fall out this way at every point in history, but this seems like a solid outline of what happened in this case. Four years is a very short period of time to see all of this unfold. But it is a fact that New York City was more-or-less civilized only four years ago. No one could have predicted that it would come to this so quickly.

But once the lockdowns happened, all bets were off. Here we had a policy that most directly trampled on all freedoms that we had taken for granted. Schools, businesses, and churches were slammed shut, with various levels of enforcement. The entire workforce was divided between essential and nonessential, and there was widespread confusion about who precisely was in charge of designating and enforcing this.

It felt like martial law at the time, as if all normal civilian law had been displaced by something else. That something had to do with public health, but there was clearly more going on, because suddenly our social media posts were censored and we were being asked to do things that made no sense, such as mask up for a virus that evaded mask protection and walk in only one direction in grocery aisles.

Vast amounts of the white-collar workforce stayed home—and their kids, too—until it became too much to bear. The city became a ghost town. Most U.S. cities were the same.

As the months of disaster rolled on, the captives were let out of their houses for the summer in order to protest racism but no other reason. As a way of excusing this, the same public health authorities said that racism was a virus as bad as COVID-19, so therefore it was permitted.

The protests had turned to riots in many cities, and the police were being defunded and discouraged to do anything about the problem. Citizens watched in horror as downtowns burned and drug-crazed freaks took over whole sections of cities. It was like every standard of decency had been zapped out of an entire swath of the population.

Meanwhile, large checks were arriving in people’s bank accounts, defying every normal economic expectation. How could people not be working and get their bank accounts more flush with cash than ever? There was a new law that didn’t even require that people pay rent. How weird was that? Even student loans didn’t need to be paid.

By the fall, recess from lockdown was over and everyone was told to go home again. But this time they had a job to do: They were supposed to vote. Not at the polling places, because going there would only spread germs, or so the media said. When the voting results finally came in, it was the absentee ballots that swung the election in favor of the opposition party that actually wanted more lockdowns and eventually pushed vaccine mandates on the whole population.

The new party in control took note of the large population movements out of cities and states that they controlled. This would have a large effect on voting patterns in the future. But they had a plan. They would open the borders to millions of people in the guise of caring for refugees. These new warm bodies would become voters in time and certainly count on the census when it came time to reapportion political power.

Meanwhile, the native population had begun to swim in ill health from substance abuse, widespread depression, and demoralization, plus vaccine injury. This increased dependency on the very institutions that had caused the problem in the first place: the medical/scientific establishment.

The rise of crime drove the small businesses out of the city. They had barely survived the lockdowns, but they certainly could not survive the crime epidemic. This undermined the tax base of the city and allowed the criminals to take further control.

The same cities became sanctuaries for the waves of migrants sacking the country, and partisan mayors actually used tax dollars to house these invaders in high-end hotels in the name of having compassion for the stranger. Citizens were pushed out to make way for rampaging migrant hordes, as incredible as this seems.

But with that, of course, crime rose ever further, inciting citizen anger and providing a pretext to bring in the police state in the form of the National Guard, now tasked with cracking down on crime in the transportation system.

What’s the next step? It’s probably already here: mass surveillance and censorship, plus ever-expanding police power. This will be accompanied by further population movements, as those with the means to do so flee the city and even the country and leave it for everyone else to suffer.

As I tell the story, all of this seems inevitable. It is not. It could have been stopped at any point. A wise and prudent political leadership could have admitted the error from the beginning and called on the country to rediscover freedom, decency, and the difference between right and wrong. But ego and pride stopped that from happening, and we are left with the consequences.

The government grows ever bigger and civil society ever less capable of managing itself in large urban centers. Disaster is unfolding in real time, mitigated only by a rising stock market and a financial system that has yet to fall apart completely.

Are we at the middle stages of total collapse, or at the point where the population and people in leadership positions wise up and decide to put an end to the downward slide? It’s hard to know. But this much we do know: There is a growing pocket of resistance out there that is fed up and refuses to sit by and watch this great country be sacked and taken over by everything it was set up to prevent.

Tyler Durden Sat, 03/09/2024 - 16:20

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Government

Low Iron Levels In Blood Could Trigger Long COVID: Study

Low Iron Levels In Blood Could Trigger Long COVID: Study

Authored by Amie Dahnke via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

People with inadequate…

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Low Iron Levels In Blood Could Trigger Long COVID: Study

Authored by Amie Dahnke via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

People with inadequate iron levels in their blood due to a COVID-19 infection could be at greater risk of long COVID.

(Shutterstock)

A new study indicates that problems with iron levels in the bloodstream likely trigger chronic inflammation and other conditions associated with the post-COVID phenomenon. The findings, published on March 1 in Nature Immunology, could offer new ways to treat or prevent the condition.

Long COVID Patients Have Low Iron Levels

Researchers at the University of Cambridge pinpointed low iron as a potential link to long-COVID symptoms thanks to a study they initiated shortly after the start of the pandemic. They recruited people who tested positive for the virus to provide blood samples for analysis over a year, which allowed the researchers to look for post-infection changes in the blood. The researchers looked at 214 samples and found that 45 percent of patients reported symptoms of long COVID that lasted between three and 10 months.

In analyzing the blood samples, the research team noticed that people experiencing long COVID had low iron levels, contributing to anemia and low red blood cell production, just two weeks after they were diagnosed with COVID-19. This was true for patients regardless of age, sex, or the initial severity of their infection.

According to one of the study co-authors, the removal of iron from the bloodstream is a natural process and defense mechanism of the body.

But it can jeopardize a person’s recovery.

When the body has an infection, it responds by removing iron from the bloodstream. This protects us from potentially lethal bacteria that capture the iron in the bloodstream and grow rapidly. It’s an evolutionary response that redistributes iron in the body, and the blood plasma becomes an iron desert,” University of Oxford professor Hal Drakesmith said in a press release. “However, if this goes on for a long time, there is less iron for red blood cells, so oxygen is transported less efficiently affecting metabolism and energy production, and for white blood cells, which need iron to work properly. The protective mechanism ends up becoming a problem.”

The research team believes that consistently low iron levels could explain why individuals with long COVID continue to experience fatigue and difficulty exercising. As such, the researchers suggested iron supplementation to help regulate and prevent the often debilitating symptoms associated with long COVID.

It isn’t necessarily the case that individuals don’t have enough iron in their body, it’s just that it’s trapped in the wrong place,” Aimee Hanson, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge who worked on the study, said in the press release. “What we need is a way to remobilize the iron and pull it back into the bloodstream, where it becomes more useful to the red blood cells.”

The research team pointed out that iron supplementation isn’t always straightforward. Achieving the right level of iron varies from person to person. Too much iron can cause stomach issues, ranging from constipation, nausea, and abdominal pain to gastritis and gastric lesions.

1 in 5 Still Affected by Long COVID

COVID-19 has affected nearly 40 percent of Americans, with one in five of those still suffering from symptoms of long COVID, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Long COVID is marked by health issues that continue at least four weeks after an individual was initially diagnosed with COVID-19. Symptoms can last for days, weeks, months, or years and may include fatigue, cough or chest pain, headache, brain fog, depression or anxiety, digestive issues, and joint or muscle pain.

Tyler Durden Sat, 03/09/2024 - 12:50

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Uncategorized

February Employment Situation

By Paul Gomme and Peter Rupert The establishment data from the BLS showed a 275,000 increase in payroll employment for February, outpacing the 230,000…

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By Paul Gomme and Peter Rupert

The establishment data from the BLS showed a 275,000 increase in payroll employment for February, outpacing the 230,000 average over the previous 12 months. The payroll data for January and December were revised down by a total of 167,000. The private sector added 223,000 new jobs, the largest gain since May of last year.

Temporary help services employment continues a steep decline after a sharp post-pandemic rise.

Average hours of work increased from 34.2 to 34.3. The increase, along with the 223,000 private employment increase led to a hefty increase in total hours of 5.6% at an annualized rate, also the largest increase since May of last year.

The establishment report, once again, beat “expectations;” the WSJ survey of economists was 198,000. Other than the downward revisions, mentioned above, another bit of negative news was a smallish increase in wage growth, from $34.52 to $34.57.

The household survey shows that the labor force increased 150,000, a drop in employment of 184,000 and an increase in the number of unemployed persons of 334,000. The labor force participation rate held steady at 62.5, the employment to population ratio decreased from 60.2 to 60.1 and the unemployment rate increased from 3.66 to 3.86. Remember that the unemployment rate is the number of unemployed relative to the labor force (the number employed plus the number unemployed). Consequently, the unemployment rate can go up if the number of unemployed rises holding fixed the labor force, or if the labor force shrinks holding the number unemployed unchanged. An increase in the unemployment rate is not necessarily a bad thing: it may reflect a strong labor market drawing “marginally attached” individuals from outside the labor force. Indeed, there was a 96,000 decline in those workers.

Earlier in the week, the BLS announced JOLTS (Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey) data for January. There isn’t much to report here as the job openings changed little at 8.9 million, the number of hires and total separations were little changed at 5.7 million and 5.3 million, respectively.

As has been the case for the last couple of years, the number of job openings remains higher than the number of unemployed persons.

Also earlier in the week the BLS announced that productivity increased 3.2% in the 4th quarter with output rising 3.5% and hours of work rising 0.3%.

The bottom line is that the labor market continues its surprisingly (to some) strong performance, once again proving stronger than many had expected. This strength makes it difficult to justify any interest rate cuts soon, particularly given the recent inflation spike.

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