Hints of continuation of restrictive monetary policy and warnings against premature loosening of the same, that emerged from the Jackson Hole Symposium of the Federal Reserve last week spooked markets worldwide, rattling investor sentiment and eroding asset values.
Chairman Powell’s categorical statement that the Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) overarching focus right now is to bring inflation back down to the 2 percent goal and his promise that Fed would keep at it until they are confident the job is done has impacted market sentiment considerably.
The Wall Street Futures are trading almost a percent lower amidst the broad-based selling witnessed in the European and Asian bourses.
The unprecedented hawkishness in the Fed’s tone lifted the Dollar higher, and thereby the Dollar Index to a fresh 20-year high of 109.48. It has since retreated to 108.68.
Bond yields too hardened across regions and tenors, pricing in the higher interest rate expectations.
Amidst the dollar’s strength, Gold Futures for December settlement dropped as low as $1,731.40, but has since retraced to the $1,750 level.
Speculating at what is in store in the third week of September, when the Fed would announce its next interest rate decision, the crypto market declined in tandem, dropping to $939 billion of market cap, versus $1.02 trillion early on Friday.
Market leader Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $19,936.63, down 0.17 percent in the past 24 hours, 6.1 percent in the past week, 18.7 percent in the past month and 58 percent in the year 2022.
BTC price was also pressured by the impending dump of almost 137,000 BTC by Mt Gox to its creditors.
In the past 24 hours, BTC ranged between $20,139 and $19,600 which was also a monthly low for the top cryptocurrency.
BTC’s dominance however edged down to 39.6 percent, versus 39.7 percent early on Friday.
Rival Ethereum (ETH) is trading at $1,477.79. It has managed to rise 0.20 percent in the past 24 hours but is lower 5.6 percent in the past week, 14 percent in the past month and 60 percent in the year 2022. Ether’s dominance has however fallen steeply to 18.8 percent versus 19.5 percent early on Friday.
3rd ranked Tether (USDT), the top-ranked stablecoin, traded at $1 in the past 24 hours.
Stablecoin USD Coin (USDC), ranked 4th overall, traded between $1 and $0.9997 in the past 24 hours.
5th ranked BNB is trading at $278.59 edging up 0.05 percent.
Stablecoin Binance USD (BUSD) ranked 6th overall traded between $1.00 and $0.9995 in the past 24 hours.
7th ranked XRP (XRP) declined 2.6 percent overnight. 8th ranked Cardano (ADA) has also declined 0.40 percent to trade at $0.4413.
While 9th ranked Solana (SOL) declined 0.91 percent overnight, 10th ranked Dogecoin (DOGE) has declined 0.61 percent during the same period.
52nd ranked eCash (XEC) that declined 10 percent and 16th ranked Avalanche (AVAX) that lost 8 percent are the biggest losers. 41st ranked Chiliz (CHZ) also lost more than 6 percent.
The Fed’s guidance that it was moving the policy stance purposefully to a level that would be sufficiently restrictive to return inflation to 2 percent, portends a longer than expected period of tight money policy. What this would mean for risky assets in general and crypto assets in particular is what the crypto markets are currently speculating.
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