The US economy lost 23,000 jobs in July, against a consensus forecast of roughly 80,000 gained — one of the widest misses of the year. Unemployment ticked down to 4.1% even as payrolls shrank, a combination that reads as workers leaving the labor force rather than genuine strength. Bitcoin opened the session 0.5% below Thursday's close and reversed within the first hour, trading up to $65,143 by mid-morning; Ethereum followed the same shape. The mechanism is familiar: a weak jobs print raises the odds markets assign to Fed rate cuts, and lower expected rates typically support risk assets, crypto included. The open question is whether this holds through the next data point or fades the way the mid-July Iran de-escalation did.
Yahoo Finance · Bureau of Labor Statistics