Bitcoin slides toward $71K as Nvidia stock tumbles after Huang steps down

Bitcoin ($BTC) set new multimonth lows after Thursday’s Wall Street open as selling pressure returned to the US stock market.

Key points:

Bitcoin price losses hit 3.5% on Thursday as markets reacted to the resignation of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
Nvidia stock fell as low as $148.80 before rebounding to around $160, down 7.2% on the day at the time of writing.
$BTC price analysis sees Friday’s US Producer Price Index (PPI) data as the next key volatility event.

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Nvidia appoints interim CEO as stock plummets

Data from TradingView showed $BTC/USD dropping below $72,000 for the first time since Aug. 20 as month-to-date losses reached 7.4%.

$BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Turmoil at Nvidia following the immediate resignation of CEO Jensen Huang dragged stock markets downward, with NVDA falling nearly 13% at the Wall Street open.

“Colette Kress, current Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of NVIDIA, has agreed to serve as Interim Chief Executive Officer. Kress will continue to serve as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer while serving as Interim Chief Executive Officer until a permanent successor has been named,” the company stated in a press release.

“The Board is initiating a search for a permanent Chief Executive Officer and will consider internal and external candidates.”

Nvidia stock one-week chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Economist Mohamed El-Erian described Huang’s resignation as a “significant development” that would have implications beyond Nvidia itself.

“The situation will remain in the spotlight, not only as the company navigates the loss of its highly-influential founder, but also as various political investigations (formal and informal) unfold,” he wrote in an analysis.

Despite the selling pressure on Nvidia’s shares, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index avoided major losses at the open, trading 0.6% lower at the time of writing.

Nasdaq Composite Index one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Analyst looks to PPI release for $BTC price cues

$BTC/USD fell back below its 21-week simple moving average (SMA), which stood at $73,078 on Wednesday.

$BTC/USD one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Assessing near-term macro volatility catalysts beyond Nvidia, Keith Alan, cofounder of crypto trading platform Material Indicators, highlighted Friday’s US Producer Price Index (PPI) release.

On Tuesday, the October print of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) came in above expectations, causing markets to price in more interest-rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.

“Fundamentally, a cool PPI report that lowers the odds of aggressive rate hikes in December/January could easily flip this script bullish,” Alan wrote on X. He added that if the PPI comes in line with market expectations, the spot price could move between nearby patches of exchange order-book liquidity.

The latest data from CoinGlass showed $BTC/USD cutting through a patch of bid liquidity as 24-hour crypto liquidations hit $730 million.