Bitcoin (BTC) managed to put in a modest rally early in the U.S. trading session on Friday, but the move was quickly snuffed out. Are bulls lightening up positions ahead of the weekend?

They could be forgiven for doing so.

In his Friday note, Standard Chartered's Geoff Kendrick said bitcoin's price has now declined for five consecutive weekends (measured from 5 pm ET Friday to the same time on Sunday).

Among the scares during that timeframe were the DeepSeek AI news and Trump tariff threats.

"This is not normal," reminded Kendrick, noting that weekend price action for all of 2024 tended to be rather muted, with Mondays and Fridays instead being the time to pay attention for big moves.

Turning to the action early Friday, bitcoin managed to rally about 1.5% to $97,600 in very short order following the release of U.S. retail sales data for January. The number missed economist estimates by a mile, giving hope that rate cuts for the Federal Reserve might be back on the table in the first half of the year.

The price has since returned to roughly where it was ahead of the print at $96,400.

An extra thought for those fearful about the coming weekend: It's three days in the U.S., which has Monday off for Presidents' Day.

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