4 Stocks in Focus as Bitcoin Attempts to Make a Solid Rebound

The cryptocurrency market, which has been struggling to recover, took a major hit earlier this week. Bitcoin (BTC), which was heading toward the $70,000 level, fell sharply on Aug. 5 amid a broader market sell-off.

Recession fears reignited after the latest jobs report showed weaker-than-expected job gains in July, prompting a major sell-off. All three major indexes fell more than 3% on Aug. 5, and the Nasdaq entered correction territory.

Panic has spread to the cryptocurrency market, with the price of Bitcoin falling below $55,000 to a six-month low.

Markets have since recouped some of their losses, with Bitcoin trading above $57,250 on Aug. 8, but it is still down more than 15% from last week.

But Bitcoin has been bullish for most of this year after a solid 2023. The cryptocurrency reached a new all-time high of $73,750 on March 14.

This year’s rally accelerated after the Securities and Exchange Commission approved 11 spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in January. The significant development will make it easier for both individual investors and large institutions to invest in Bitcoin through a regulated and accessible platform.

However, the rally stalled in April, and even the halving event failed to boost Bitcoin’s price. The Bitcoin halving event aims to cap the total supply of Bitcoins at 21 million by halving the reward for mining new blocks. This reduction in the rate at which new Bitcoins are created usually increases demand, which usually pushes their price higher.

Despite this, Bitcoin experienced a serious decline, with prices dropping below $59,000.

The recovery that began in late July when Bitcoin once again surpassed $68,400 hit a snag earlier this week. However, Bitcoin still has a lot of potential. The cryptocurrency is up 157% in 2023 and is up 35.5% since the beginning of the year.

Additionally, the Federal Reserve is set to lower interest rates after raising them to a record 23-year high in an effort to combat skyrocketing inflation. The move is positive for Bitcoin, as lower interest rates typically benefit growth-oriented assets like tech stocks, consumer discretionary, and cryptocurrencies.

Stocks in Focus

We narrowed down our search to four crypto-focused stocks with strong potential for 2024. Each of our picks carries a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy), or 3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. IBKR is a global automated electronic broker. IBKR executes, processes and trades cryptocurrencies. IBKR’s commodity futures trading desk also offers clients the opportunity to trade cryptocurrency futures.

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Interactive Brokers Group’s expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 18.4%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current year earnings has improved by 4.9% in the past 60 days. IBKR is currently holding a Zacks Rank #1.

NVIDIA Corporation NVDA is a global leader in visual computing technologies and the inventor of the graphics processing unit, or GPU. Over the years, NVDA’s focus has evolved from PC graphics to AI-based solutions that now support high-performance computing, gaming, and virtual reality platforms.

NVIDIA’s expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 106.9%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved by 0.4% in the past 60 days. NVDA currently has a Zacks Rank of #3.

Block Inc. SQ is an online digital and mobile payments platform for consumers and merchants and is the parent company of Square and Cash App. Cash App users can buy, sell, send and receive Bitcoin. Additionally, SQ’s decentralized tbd platform allows developers to create decentralized finance applications that run on programmable blockchains. SQ is also one of the largest investors in Bitcoin.

Block’s expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 72.9%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved by 0.6% in the past 60 days. SQ currently has a Zacks Rank #3.

Robinhood Markets, Inc. HOOD operates a financial services platform in the United States. Its platform allows users to invest in stocks, exchange-traded funds, options, gold, and cryptocurrencies. HOOD buys and sells Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, and other cryptocurrencies using the Robinhood Crypto platform.

Robinhood Markets’ current-year expected earnings growth rate is above 100%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved by 3.6% in the past 90 days. Robinhood Markets currently has a Zacks Rank of #3.

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Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (IBKR): Free Stock Analysis Report

NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA): Free Stock Analysis Report

Block, Inc. (SQ): Free Stock Analysis Report

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