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Gelonghui, February 17th | Tony Pasquariello, Global Head of Hedge Fund Coverage at Goldman Sachs, stated that Seoul’s Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose 8% last week, marking its best weekly performance in five years. Since the end of 2024, the index has more than doubled. The KOSPI has risen 31% so far this year. It is not difficult to see what the main driving force behind this rally is. The two companies with the largest market capitalization in the index are Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. Against the backdrop of surging demand related to artificial intelligence, the share prices of these two chip manufacturers have soared by 51% and 35% respectively so far this year. Pasquariello said that given such a large increase, many investors have been asking whether they should reduce their positions in Korea. “We believe it is still too early to reduce positions,” he said. “We maintain an overweight rating and have raised our target for the Korea Composite Index to 6,400 points, which means there is still more than 20% upside.” In Japan, the Nikkei Index has risen 12.9% so far this year. Pasquariello said he is optimistic about the Japanese market for two reasons. First, Goldman Sachs analysts believe that positioning is not excessive. Pasquariello pointed out that foreign investors’ positions have not yet returned to the levels before the sharp market volatility caused by the Bank of Japan’s rate hike in July 2024. He said the second issue is that “the correlation pattern has shifted.” The general trend in recent years has been that relatively low Japanese interest rates have led to a weaker yen, which in turn has supported the stock market. But the recent pattern is that Japanese interest rates are relatively higher, causing the yen to strengthen slightly, yet the stock market has still been pushed higher.

BlockBeats News, February 17, according to Cointelegraph, amid light trading during the global holiday period, Bitcoin briefly surged to $70,000 before quickly pulling back, with the price repeatedly fluctuating within a narrow range, causing both long and short positions to be "liquidated" in a squeeze. Data shows that order book depth decreased during the holiday, making it easier for large funds to influence short-term price movements. In the past 4 hours, total liquidations across the network reached $120 million. The order book saw multiple buy and sell walls swept away and quickly rebuilt, while increased selling pressure above the price intensified short-term downward pressure. Material Indicators described the current trend as "a mix of breakout and shakeout." On the technical side, Bitcoin's weekly Relative Strength Index (RSI) dropped to 27.8, the lowest level since June 2022, falling below the "oversold" threshold of 30. Analysis points out that historically, in 2015 and 2018, when the weekly RSI reached this range, it formed cyclical bottoms; in 2022, after bottoming out, it experienced about five months of sideways consolidation before finally establishing a macro bottom. Although the current trend may not fully replicate historical patterns, the weekly RSI once again approaching the "cycle-level low" range is seen as an important reference signal for the current market phase.

BlockBeats News, February 17, according to Decrypt, if Bitcoin closes lower in February, it will record its fifth consecutive monthly decline, marking the longest losing streak since the 2018 bear market. Currently, Bitcoin has dropped 13.98% in February. Since retreating from its all-time high in October 2025, Bitcoin has accumulated a decline of 52.44%, just 3.82 percentage points away from the maximum drawdown of 56.26% during the 2018 bear market, taking only 123 days. The total market capitalization of the overall crypto market stands at $2.33 trillion, down 1.33% in the past 24 hours. Although the Fear and Greed Index has risen from 8 to 12, it still remains in the "Extreme Fear" range. On the prediction market Myriad, traders currently bet there is a 60% probability that Bitcoin will reach $55,000 before $84,000. From a technical perspective, Bitcoin's price remains below the 200-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA200), and the EMA200 is below the EMA50, indicating that bearish momentum dominates. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) is at 34.7, in the bearish range; the Average Directional Index (ADX) reaches 56.4, showing a strong current downtrend. Analysis points out that to reverse the trend, Bitcoin needs to reclaim the $100,000 level or form a structural reversal pattern with consistently higher lows. For now, the market remains in a historically prolonged downward phase.