Finance

Cryptocurrencies staged an aggressive breakout with Bitcoin jumping past the $78,000 threshold to notch its most successful weekly performance in over two years. The massive digital asset rally triggered a severe short squeeze, liquidating billions of dollars in bearish positions while drawing momentum from institutional ETF inflows and positive crypto-policy indications from Washington.

Government bond yields fluctuated near their highest points in over a decade even after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent doubled down on long-end debt buybacks to manage borrowing costs. Market participants remain highly sensitive to a widening federal deficit that has officially pushed total U.S. national debt beyond the $40 trillion threshold.

Retail heavyweights faced a sharp divergence in sentiment after Walmart posted disappointing domestic comparable sales growth and issued cautious forward guidance. The unexpected miss disrupted broader assumptions regarding consumer trade-down resilience, sending its stock down over 9% and putting major downward pressure on the retail sector.