Thanksgiving Market Rollercoaster
After an eventful Thanksgiving weekend with stocks, interest rates, oil, and crypto prices dropping notably Friday due to possible impact of the Omnicron Covid-19 variant, markets opened higher Monday as investors took time to assess the situation in South Africa. Investors are still waiting on more information regarding the latest variant’s transmissibility and efficacy of current vaccines. Fortunately, vaccine producers like Moderna and BioNTech have said work has started on Omnicron specific booster treatment, providing the positive sentiment needed for the rebound.
Bitcoin prices stabilized last week after a decline following an all time high earlier in the month. An average support level of $58k over the last ten days allowed some investors to cautiously enter the market again. Tech company, Microstrategy, announced a purchase of 7,002 Bitcoins at an average price of almost $60k per Bitcoin, increasing the company holdings to 121,044 units at a cost basis of $3.57 Billion and a current market value of $6.92 Billion.
Friday’s market drop could be seen as a quick reaction to the variant’s headlines sending prices lower to the $53.7k level, but Monday BTC prices hitting $58k again helped re-establish a support level that could see a higher trend looking ahead.
For reference, the latest drop in Bitcoin of almost 22% could be considered somewhat mild to recent corrections over the last five years. Earlier this year, price dropped 51% after Tesla stopped accepting Bitcoin as a form of payment. Most notable drop started in December 2017 after a hack at crypto exchange, Coincheck, caused an almost 84% drop over a year.
The Portfolio Management Team
Steven McClurg, CIO
Bill Cannon, Portfolio Manager
Wes Cowan, Portfolio Manager, Head of Defi
Sean Rooney, Head of Research, Trader
Will McDonough, Vice Chairman, Investment Committee
Leah Wald, CEO, Investment Committee
Shannon Smith, Head of Investor Relations