Bitcoin (BTC) headed toward an "interesting" liquidity area on May 18 as United States stock markets opened with a bearish bang.
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed BTC/USD as it broke through the $29,000 support after the Wall Street open.
U.S. markets saw a swift reversal of prior gains on the day, with the S&P 500 down 2% and the Nasdaq 100 down 2.3% within the first hour of trading.
The big surprise, however, came from grocery giants Walmart and Target, both of which saw the biggest intraday declines since the weeks prior to the 1987 "Black Monday" market crash.
At the time of writing, WMT was down over 15% in five trading days, while TGT was nearing 25%. Both came after reports of deteriorating earnings amid a squeeze on consumer spending from inflation.
"Bear market rallies can last weeks or just a few days. The combo Walmart/Target bombs indicate the U.S. consumer might not be as healthy as thought. The 3-day rally could be over," Fred Hickey, editor of The High-Tech Strategist, told Twitter followers on the day.
As standard, BTC declined with the indices to threaten a break below $29,000 toward an area of liquidity that represented the daily closes from last week's drop, which had seen spikes below $24,000.
"Looks like a clean breakdown to me. Price action has been choppy but we should at least sweep the lows," popular trader and analyst Nebraskan Gooner tweeted in his latest update.
"Lows break and we probably see $22K. Lows hold and we can break back above $30K."
Cointelegraph contributor Michaël van de Poppe agreed, descrbing the area at around $28,400 as "interesting."
Fellow longstanding social media trading presence Josh Rager hoped for a bounce at the key level to take Bitcoin higher once more.
"Many times these compressions break one way for a fakeout and then reverse," he tweeted regarding declining volatility now potentially resulting in a price move.
"Would love to see $BTC break down, get shorts off sides, and move up. Not certain this happens at all but would be a great set up."
A subsequent post confirmed that BTC/USD was moving according to plan.
Related: Aave price risks a 25% plunge as a classic bearish reversal pattern emerges
On altcoins, losses began to mount faster as Bitcoin abandoned any short-term bullish signals.
Out of the top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap, Cardano (ADA) and Solana (SOL) were the worst performers, with daily losses near 8%.
Ethereum (ETH) lost $2,000 support and headed toward its lowest levels since the May 12 cross-crypto capitulation.
"Altcoins have retraced a lot. But previous bear markets suggest they could go lower," trader and analyst Rekt Capital warned on the day.
"If BTC loses its Macro Range Low, that would confirm more downside in the Crypto market. Which could enable Altcoins to follow their standard Bear Market correction of over -90%."
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.
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