Even though the S&P 500 reached an all-time high, Bitcoin stocks couldn’t reflect the optimistic trend. Bitcoin price continued to trade sideways and fell below $61,000 in early morning trading on July 3. According to Tradingview data, the price dropped by about 3% in the last 24 hours and was trading at $60,106 at the time of writing.
What’s Happening in Global Markets?
Despite all these developments, the largest cryptocurrency by market value managed to increase by 35% since the beginning of the year after seeing record high prices above $73,000 in mid-March. From a macro perspective, US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell recently stated that the central bank has made significant progress on inflation but needs more confidence before lowering interest rates.
On July 2, Powell and European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde discussed monetary policy at the ECB Central Banking Forum in Sintra. Speaking at the event in Portugal, Powell shared the following statements:
“The labor market is still strong, and there are signs that the downward trend in inflation will continue. We have made significant progress on inflation and are getting back on track to fight inflation.”
The Fed’s more dovish tones may have affected the stock markets. Futures rose after this week’s inflation announcement. In pre-market trading, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures increased by 0.073%, and S&P 500 futures increased by 0.018%.
Notable Details
Market participants are closely watching inflation data to predict when the US Federal Reserve might start cutting interest rates. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s dovish statements at the European Central Bank on July 2 increased market expectations for a rate cut in September, which was noticed by interest rate investors.
According to the CME Group FedWatch Tool, interest rate investors have now raised the likelihood of a rate cut at the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting in September from 59% to 67%.
The US Federal Reserve targets a 2% inflation rate and began raising interest rates in March 2022. The Fed last raised interest rates in July 2023 and has since kept the benchmark overnight borrowing level range at 5.25%-5.50%, approximately the highest level in recent years.
