Bitcoin Treats PCE Data Like a Screenshot of Someone Else's Win—$80K Still on the Menu

Bitcoin loitered around the $71,000 neighborhood at Thursday's Wall Street open, treating US inflation data like a screenshot of someone else's Lambo—it got a polite "nice" and nothing more.

The Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index, the Federal Reserve's so-called "favorite" inflation gauge, showed core PCE at 3% year-over-year for February, with a monthly reading of 0.4%, per the US Bureau of Economic Analysis. Spoiler: nobody brought popcorn for this episode.

Bitcoin's reaction? A collective shrug that would've made a sloth look decisive. Volatility cooled after BTC touched local highs near $73,000 the prior day, with no significant moves in either direction—because apparently, boring is the new bull run.

Traders noted the US-Iran war's economic fallout hasn't yet filtered into PCE numbers. "This marks the final pre-Iran War PCE inflation datapoint," The Kobeissi Letter observed on X. The calm before the storm, or just another Tuesday in macro trading.

Meanwhile, expectations for Fed rate cuts remain buried deep in 2026, per CME Group's FedWatch Tool. At this point, a Fed rate cut before 2026 would be like getting a text back from your situationship—shocking and probably not actually happening.

Economist Mohamed El-Erian argued Friday's Consumer Price Index (CPI) release will matter more—it'll be the first reading to reflect the US-Iran conflict's impact. The real show, apparently, is next week's episode.

"While PCE covers February and not March," El-Erian noted. Thanks for the calendar lesson, Mohamed.

On the price action front, pseudonymous trader LP pointed to liquidity clusters: "On the HTF, some upside low-leverage liquidation clusters have been cleared, but sizeable liquidity still remains around 73K and above the