Major U.S. stock indexes fell sharply on Thursday after Federal Reserve officials said there might not be an immediate rate cut this year. The S&P 500, Nasdaq and Dow Jones all fell more than 1%, with the Dow falling 530 points, its worst day since March 2023.
In the bond market, the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell to 4.308% from 4.354% on Wednesday.
The cryptocurrency market has entered recovery mode, and the volatility of mainstream currencies has increased.
Bitcoin fell to $65,070 at the opening of the U.S. stock market, but has since reversed course and rebounded to a high of $69,370, up 6.62% on the day. At press time, BTC is trading at $67,820, up about 3% in the 24 hours.
Altcoin are back on the uptrend, with the vast majority of the top 200 tokens posting gains, while around 24 are in the red. Dogecoin ( DOGE ) is up 6%, Shiba Inu (SHIB) is up nearly 8%, while Dogwifhat (WIF), Pepe ( PEPE ) and Bonk Inu (BONK) are up an average of 4% on the day.
Rate cut still unclear
Federal Reserve officials in March reiterated their forecast for three rate cuts this year, but signs of continued strength in the U.S. economy have some investors concerned about the chances of that happening.
Neel Kashkari, president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank, said today that if inflation continues to move sideways, "it would make me question whether we need to cut rates."
Kashkari is one of the more hawkish Fed members this cycle, so his comments were not surprising, but stocks reacted to them nonetheless. His comments were also inconsistent with comments made yesterday by Fed Chairman Jerome Powell , who told an audience at Stanford University that he still expects a rate cut sometime this year.
Meanwhile, Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin said the "Fed would be wise to take its time" and that "no one wants inflation to return."
Investors are looking to the March employment report to be released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics tomorrow to get a better idea of the Fed's next move, as the report is seen as one of the key reference indicators for the Fed to adjust monetary policy. Analysts expect the unemployment rate to remain unchanged at 3.9%, well below the historical average of around 5.7%. Analysts say central bank officials will choose to "not land" if the economy appears to be accelerating too quickly, that is, to raise interest rates again.
“The big debate for the rest of the year is really going to be how many times we cut rates and how quickly inflation will come down if this continues,” said Michael Sheldon, executive director of RDM Financial Group.
PlanB : Bitcoin will not fall below $60,000 again
PlanB , the inventor of the stock-to-flow (S2F) model, believes that Bitcoin will not fall below $60,000 again as this has been a strong support level for five months .
He analyzed in his personal channel: "The five-month 'realized price', that is, the short-term holding price, is currently US$60,000. This will be an aggressive lower limit, because if we look at the previous bull market , you will find that the Bitcoin price will not be lower than the five-month realized price. So this is my personal offensive bottom line, and I don’t think we will fall below this bottom line again."
It is worth noting that CryptoQuant data shows that the current BTC futures funding rate (the fee paid to traders based on the difference between the perpetual contract market and the spot price) is close to its historical high . The team explained: "The funding rate represents traders' sentiment towards the perpetual swap market. The amount is proportional to the number of contracts. A positive funding rate indicates that long traders are dominant and are willing to pay funds to short traders. "
The last time the funding rate reached such a high level was in April 2021. Just three months later, Bitcoin plummeted from over $60,000 to below $30,000, suggesting that this correction may not be over yet.
Market analyst Bloodgood believes: "There are about 16 days left before the Bitcoin halving , so large fluctuations are expected and technical levels may not be important. The $68,000 level is the only way to continue to rise, so we expect bulls to continue to have the upper hand."
Author: BitpushNews Mary Liu
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