Around 07:25 UTC on Tuesday (October 20), the Bitcoin price broke $11,850 for the first time in nearly seven weeks as COVID-19 fiscal stimulus talks in Washington show more progress.
According to data from CryptoCompare, the Bitcoin price went just above the $11,850 level around 07:25 UTC; currently (as of 08:30 UTC), Bitcoin is trading at $11,734, up 2.3% in the past 24-hour period.
The last time that Bitcoin was trading above $11,850 was on September 2.
The best reason to be optimistic about the status of the negotiations between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (who represents the House Democrats) and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin (who represents the Trump administration) was the following pair of tweets sent out by Drew Hammill (Pelosi’s Deputy Chief of Staff) at 20:15 UTC (16:15 Eastern Time), in which he referred to the 48-hour deadline that Pelosi had set over the past weekend:
On Sunday (October 18), Pelosi’s office released a copy of the letter Pelosi had sent out that day to her Democratic colleagues to give them an update on her stimulus talks with Mnuchin. Here is an extract:
“Coronavirus relief negotiations proceeded over the weekend, with Secretary Mnuchin sending awaited language on testing. While there was some encouraging news, much work remains…
“I am optimistic that we can reach agreement before the election. To that end, we are writing language as we negotiate the priorities, so that we are fully prepared to move forward once we reach agreement.
“Updates will be ongoing as our Chairs continue to review language for Liability and OSHA, small business, health care providers, and elections.”
Then, yesterday, Pelosi’s office released a transcript of her Interview on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut with Joy Reid”, where she provided a further update on her talks with the Trump adminstration:
“So, now, at last, finally, they have come to the table and we’re going to try to get something done. And I’ve tried to make a tomorrow a time where we would exchange all of our differences of opinion, so that we can – and numbers and paper – so that we can see. Let’s make a judgment. We may not like this or we may not like that, but let’s see, on balance, if we can go forward.”
Reid then asked Pelosi if she trusted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to pass in the Senate any kind of stimulus bill that Pelosi and Mnuchin manage to agree on.
Pelosi replied:
“Well, what he said on Saturday – they say different things. But what he said Saturday was if in fact the Senate, excuse me Secretary Mnuchin and the House Democrats come to agreement, that they would put it on the Floor. He said that – or consider putting it on the Floor. The President said yesterday – I don’t know if you saw his statement. He said, ‘I want to do more than Nancy. And If she agrees with my number, I’m sure I can convince the Republicans in the Senate.'”
The reason that Reid was that Pelosi about McConnell is that MConnel and the majority of the Senate Republicans do not seem too interested in approving the kind of comprehensive relief package that both the Democrats and President Trump are aiming for; in fact, according to CNBC, McConnell said last Saturday that the Senate is voting this Wednesday on a $500 billion GOP COVID-19 stimulus bill (which the House Democrats will mostly certainly reject).
However, if Pelosi and Mnuchin manage to iron out their differences later today, it is hard to imagine McConnell not feeling huge pressure to go along with it (both from President Trump and the American public).
It looks like the U.S. stock market is sensing that we are getting close to a fiscal stimulus deal. According to premarket trading data, futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq 100 are all trading in green territory, up 0.50%, 0.58%, and 0.56% respectively (as of 09:33 UTC).
Earlier today, popular crypto analyst Lark Davis tweeted that he found it very bullish that Bitcoin was staying strong despite all the FUD that is going around at the moment:
Featured Image by “SnapLaunch” via Pixabay.com
The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.
