Bitcoin looks for direction as more upbeat econ data add to higher-for-longer rates risk

Bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) wobbled between gains and losses in Monday mid-afternoon trading as some of the economic data released earlier in the session continued to showcase resilience, prompting increased speculation of higher for longer interest rates. The token initially gained as much as 1.5% to $23.86K following mixed durable goods data in the morning, only to swing back to negative territory, down 1.9% to $23.19K, as of 3:11 p.m. ET. Ethereum ( ETH-USD ) also dipped 1.6% to $1.61K. Core durable goods orders rose 0.7% in January from a month earlier, more than economists had forecasted and up from the downwardly revised -0.4% reading in December. The topline number, though, slid 4.5%, surprising to the upside, from the revised +5.1% December print. Stock-market investors cheered the headline print after suffering the worst weekly loss so far in 2023. Pending home sales, meantime, unexpectedly surged M/M in January thanks to a retreat in mortgage rates at the time. Like equities, bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) changed hands on the heels of a nearly 7% loss for the week ended Feb. 24, as market participants steered clear of riskier assets in the midst of hotter-than-expected inflation data. Over the last day, the global crypto market cap slipped 1.1% to $1.07T at the time of writing, according to CoinMarketCap data . And with bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) struggling for direction, most crypto-exposed stocks, such as Silvergate Capital ( SI ) -2.7% , Hut 8 Mining ( HUT ) -1.2% and Coinbase Global ( COIN ) +0.9% , traded mixed with markedly less volatile price action than usual. Earlier, bitcoin funds reportedly logged outflows for the third consecutive week .