Fed confirms interest rate cut, Bitcoin price nears $65,000
Financial markets are reacting positively to the latest announcement from the Fed, including crypto.
The information that the US stock market is most interested in in the past hours is the latest statement from the Chairman of the US Federal Reserve (Fed) Jerome Powell, who finally made a long-awaited statement by investors about adjusting interest rates.
Accordingly, in an interview with the press at the Jackson Hole financial conference, Mr. Powell said:
“It is time to start cutting interest rates. The direction of the upcoming adjustment is clear, but the timing and extent of the reduction will depend on actual data, upcoming prospects and the balance of risks.”
Financial analysts predict that there is a 67.5% chance that the Fed will cut interest rates by 0.25% at the FOMC meeting on September 19, while the odds of a 0.5% cut are 32.5%.
The interest rate set by the Fed is currently 5.5%, the highest level in the past two decades and has been kept unchanged since July 2023. This is the Fed's response to the context of US inflation rising out of control in the period 2020 - 2021, when the country had to pump a huge amount of money to support businesses and people in the context of the COVID pandemic disrupting the world's largest economy.
US inflation in July 2024 was 2.9%, although it has not yet returned to the 2% target set by the Fed at the time of raising interest rates, but it has decreased significantly compared to the 9.1% mark in mid-2022, the highest level in 40 years.
Major US stock market indexes in the session on August 23 increased by 1-1.8%, showing the excitement of investors before the end of the high interest rate period.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin price recorded a significant increase from 60,800 USD to 64,955 USD, returning to the price range of the first days of August, before the terrible dump to 49,000 USD.
Altcoins in the top 100 also increased clearly thanks to the above news, with many coins having a 24-hour increase of 5 to 20%.
Liquidations in the crypto market in the past 12 hours reached over $150 million, with shorts accounting for 79%.
Notably, an investor was liquidated on an ETH short order worth $11.5 million on Binance when Ethereum price increased by more than 4.5% in the morning of August 24.
