Stocks, Bitcoin, and gold within striking distance of ATHs, bullish breakout brewing?

The global digital assets market saw a marginal surge on Sunday morning to stand $3.31 trillion cap. This comes after witnessing a week of fluctuations. The rise in Bitcoin’s dominance, in a way, pressured altcoins to perform as retail investors are still absent. However, the stock markets and crypto remained nearly correlated. 

The ongoing 90-day tariff pause between the US and China has markets within striking distance of their all-time highs.

Meanwhile, Moody’s delivered a shock downgrade to the US credit rating from Aaa to Aa1. It cited soaring deficits and a mounting debt burden.

S&P, BTC, gold near ATHs

As per the data, S&P 500 is trading at a current price of $5,958 after setting its all-time high of $6,147 on February 19, 2025. It is only 3.27% away from its ATH.

Gold is also trading around $3,200 per ounce, after posting its ATH of $3,509 on April 22, 2025. The precious metal is just 9% out from hitting its fresh ATH.

A Goldman Sachs report stated that investors have been increasing their holdings of gold since March. It was driven by economic uncertainty, geopolitical risk, and a surprising surge in demand from central banks. But not all moves have made sense to investors.

The recent 5% drop in gold prices, which mirrors a fall in equities, confused some investors. The analyst suggests that gold’s status as a haven asset hasn’t gone anywhere. As stocks sank, investors sold gold to raise cash for collateral, not because they lost faith in it.

On the traditional market side, a bullish sentiment is spreading among investors. Almost 36% of individual investors have indicated a bullish stock market sentiment over the next 6 months in the latest AAII survey. That is the highest level of confidence since the last week of January.

Bullish market sentiment is surging:

35.9% of individual investors expressed a bullish stock market sentiment over the next 6 months in the latest AAII survey, the highest share since the last week of January.

Over the last 2 weeks, this percentage has risen by 15.0 points, the… pic.twitter.com/RvmYHWqswU

— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) May 17, 2025

The Kobeissi Letter in a post mentioned that this percentage has risen by 15.0 points over the last 2 weeks. It is the second-largest 2-week jump since November 2023.

Meanwhile, the group of retail investors suggesting a bearish sentiment has declined 15% to stand at 44.4%. It is the lowest since mid-February. This has eventually marked the end of the record streak of 11 consecutive weeks with over 50% bearishness.

Bitcoin hovers near $104K

Soft US inflation data and Federal Reserve rate cuts have managed to keep the crypto market up and going. Coinbase’s inclusion in the S&P 500 index also improved market sentiment. Bitcoin price hovered around $103k-$104k over the past week.

BTC is trading at an average price of $103,894 as of press time, inching closer to its ATH of $109,026, recorded on January 20, 2025. The biggest crypto is just 5% away from hitting its fresh high. Its surging dominance (62.5%) in the market hints that a rally might be 0n.

In the meantime, the biggest altcoins like Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL) have managed to cover some ground. ETH price jumped by more than 57% over the last 30 days. This surge came in due to the successful Pectra upgrade. ETH is trading at an average price of $2,501 as of press time.

Solana has seen impressive DeFi activity, boosted its value to $184.77, but profit-taking pulled it back to $170. As per the DefiLlama, its TVL spiked by over 28% in the past month. SOL is up by 2% in the last 24 hours and is trading at an average price of $170.73 as of press time.

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