(Kitco News) - Friday’s action in the crypto market was more of the same, as the majority of tokens continued to trade sideways in the absence of any major developments while investors await next week's inflation and interest rate revelations.
Conditions in the traditional markets were slightly worse as stocks slid into the market close, which resulted in the S&P, Dow and Nasdaq all finishing the day in the red, down 0.7%, 0.9% and 0.7%, respectively. For the week, the S&P dropped 3.4%, the Dow fell 2.8%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 4%.
Data from TradingView shows that after holding above $17,250 throughout the morning trading session, Bitcoin (BTC) faced a wave of afternoon selling from bears who are attempting to push it back below major support at $17,000. At the time of writing, BTC is trading at $17,100, marking a 0.55% loss on the day but a 0.50% gain on the week.
BTC/USD 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView
According to Kitco senior technical analyst Jim Wyckoff, “Prices are still in a sideways and choppy grind” due to the fact that “bulls and bears are on a level overall near-term technical playing field.”
With precious few signals coming from the current charts to provide insight into what comes next for Bitcoin, Wyckoff suggested that “The direction in which BC prices break out of the present trading range will very likely be the direction of the next trending price move.”
A survey of Crypto Twitter shows that the majority of analysts share a similar view, with many waiting for a clear signal from the market before making their next move.
Overall, the consensus remains that Bitcoin is oversold and at a good spot for accumulation, which will continue to be the case until a meaningful breakout higher occurs.
#Bitcoin remains "oversold" based on the 18-month Williams%R oscillator, a signal that flashed in June 2022.
— Caleb Franzen (@CalebFranzen) December 8, 2022
This statistically indicates that #BTC is in a deep accumulation zone.
So long as we remain oversold, no bull market.
Patient DCA purchases & risk management is key. pic.twitter.com/fx0tNgYkH4
Altcoins track Bitcoin’s performance
The altcoin market largely followed Bitcoin’s trend lower on Friday aside from a few notable standouts that managed to post double-digit gains.
Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360
That includes Fetch AI (FET), which put on a gain of 25.91%, a 13.28% increase for Ampleforth (AMPL), and a 10.92% gain for Numeraire (NMR).
The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $853 billion, and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 38.6%.
