Key points:
- Major U.S. stock indexes green; Nasdaq up the most
- Cons Disc leads S&P sector gainers; energy down most
- Euro STOXX 600 index up ~0.1%
- Dollar, crude ~flat; bitcoin slips; gold gains
- U.S. 10-Year Treasury yield edges up to ~4.27%
ROUGH Q1 FOR CRYPTO BEARS AS BITCOIN RALLIES
Investors betting against crypto-linked stocks are struggling so far this quarter as bitcoin 
BTCUSD rallies past $70,000.
Crypto stock short sellers have incurred $1.9 billion in mark-to-market losses so far this year, according to a note by S3 Partners.
“Crypto stock short sellers have been selling into a rallying market – either looking for a pullback in the bitcoin rally or using the short positions as a hedge versus actual bitcoin holdings,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners, in the note.
Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, is up 67% year-to-date, boosted by a flood of cash into new spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as well as hopes that the Federal Reserve will soon cut interest rates.
Total short interest in crypto stocks increased by $4.5 billion to $10.7 billion in the last 30 days, the S3 note added. This was largely driven by mark-to-market increase in the share price of the stocks shorted and some additional short selling, particularly in Microstrategy 
MSTR.
“For the trades that are risk positions, there is a strong squeeze possibility in the more unprofitable shorts in the sector like MSTR, Coinbase 
COIN and CleanSpark 
CLSK,” Dusaniwsky said.
(Bansari Mayur Kamdar)
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FOR TUESDAY’S EARLIER LIVE MARKETS POSTS:
APPROACHING THE FIRST TURN, MOMENTUM’S THE FRONT RUNNER – CLICK HERE
TECH, INCOME AND RISK KEY THEMES FOR INVESTORS – CLICK HERE
EUROPEAN DEFENCE: THE $2 TRILLION “CATCH UP TRADE” – CLICK HERE
WHAT’S THE YEN’S INTERVENTION LEVEL? AT 152 OR 155? – CLICK HERE
MINERS WEIGH, BUT TRAVEL AND LEISURE OFFSET – CLICK HERE
STOXX EYES LACKLUSTRE OPEN – CLICK HERE
SLIDING YEN ROUSES SNOOZING YUAN – CLICK HERE
