KEY POINTS
- Bitcoin fell as low as about $71,670 on Thursday, its weakest level since mid-August, according to Bitcoin Magazine Pro data.
- Nvidia shares fell about 13% at the open after CEO Jensen Huang resigned, and Strategy dropped about 7% after MSCI confirmed its index exit.
- Spot bitcoin ETFs recorded a fifth straight day of net outflows, totaling about $1.44 billion over the period.
Bitcoin fell below $72,000 on Thursday, reaching its lowest level since mid-August, as a leadership change at Nvidia and an index decision on Strategy weighed on risk appetite. Bitcoin Magazine reported the figures using its Bitcoin Magazine Pro data.
The decline started after Wednesday's U.S. market close, when bitcoin slid from about $74,700 to roughly $73,400 and then moved sideways overnight. A second drop came on Thursday morning, with the price touching about $72,200 before sliding to a low near $71,670. That broke the earlier low of about $72,700 set after Tuesday's hotter-than-expected inflation report, and bitcoin now sits about $31,200 below its level a year ago.
Nvidia said Huang resigned as president, chief executive and board member, effective immediately. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress becomes interim CEO while keeping her finance role, and Harvey C. Jones was named the company's first board chair. The board is looking at internal and external candidates for a permanent chief executive, and Nvidia still plans to report fiscal third-quarter results on Nov. 17. The report said the resignation followed media reports about Huang's personal conduct, and that Sen. Kevin Cramer had publicly called for him to step down.
Nvidia shares fell about 13% at the open. Nasdaq 100 futures lost around 1.4% and S&P 500 futures about 0.7%, while Dow futures were nearly unchanged. Intel, Marvell and Micron fell between roughly 5% and 7.5%, and CoreWeave dropped about 16%, erasing most of Wednesday's 24.7% jump. Data center companies IREN, Applied Digital and Core Scientific also traded lower. Bitcoin has tracked technology stocks for most of the month.
Strategy, the largest corporate bitcoin holder, fell about 7% at the open after MSCI confirmed it will drop the stock from its indexes. The company is removed from the MSCI USA Index, which also takes it out of the MSCI World and ACWI indexes at the close on Nov. 30. Japan's Metaplanet is also set for removal. Index funds will have to sell the shares rather than bitcoin, and no rule forces Strategy to sell its coins. A weaker share price could still make it harder to raise capital for further purchases, Bitcoin Magazine noted, at a time when miners such as MARA are selling bitcoin.
Demand through funds remained soft. U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs saw $299.8 million in net outflows on Wednesday, the fifth consecutive day of withdrawals and about $1.44 billion over that span. BlackRock's IBIT made up $269.7 million of the latest total, its ninth straight session of outflows.
Macro data offered little relief. Initial jobless claims rose to 200,000 last week, above the 195,000 economists expected, according to the Labor Department. CME FedWatch shows traders treating a December Fed rate hike as certain, with about a 10% chance of a half-point increase. Higher rates make non-yielding assets like bitcoin less attractive to hold.
Attention now turns to earnings from Cisco and Applied Materials after Thursday's close, and to Friday's Producer Price Index, which will give another view of inflation after this week's stronger consumer price reading.
