Bitcoin back under $70K, Ether drops to $1,900 as the Dow opens with 3rd ATH in a row

Stocks climbed on Tuesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average hitting a fresh all-time high after rising 200 points, or 0.4%.

That’s the third intraday record in a row for the 30-stock index, which broke above 50,000 last week for the first time ever. The rally was driven by financial names like Goldman Sachs and American Express, which kept their winning streaks going.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.1%, and the Nasdaq dropped 0.3%, showing clear rotation out of tech and into value. Wall Street is coming off two straight days of gains, but Tuesday’s session saw clear signs of traders getting more defensive ahead of economic data.

A new retail sales report showed that consumer spending was flat in December, missing expectations for a 0.4% monthly gain. That followed a 0.6% rise in November, raising fresh concerns about momentum heading into the new year.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin fell as much as 2.4% to $68,666 early Tuesday, staying below $70K after slipping under that level Monday. Ether dropped harder, sliding 6% to $1,994 before recovering slightly to around $2,014 by 6:25 a.m. New York time.

Since the sharp October crash, Ether has underperformed Bitcoin, and both are still bleeding outflows. Bitcoin ETFs have lost $7.9 billion, with $1.8 billion pulled just this year. Ether ETFs have seen $3.2 billion in outflows, including $462 million this year alone.

Derivatives data still shows bearish pressure on crypto. Bitcoin perpetual futures funding rates are stuck below zero, which means traders are still betting against a rebound.