According to CNBC, the Fed’s freshly released minutes may indicate a “likely” rate cut in September. At their July meeting, Federal Reserve officials drew closer to a long-awaited interest rate cut but stopped short, indicating that a September cut was becoming more likely, according to minutes released Wednesday.
“The vast majority of participants at the July 30-31 meeting observed that, if the data continued to come in about as expected, it would likely be appropriate to ease policy at the next meeting,” according to the summary.
While the Federal Open Market Committee decided to keep benchmark rates unchanged, an undisclosed number of officials expressed a desire to begin easing at the July meeting rather than waiting until September.
Investors will be watching Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s comments in the coming days. Powell is expected to speak at the annual Jackson Hole summit on Friday. His comments follow the release of minutes from the central bank’s July policy meeting.
Cryptocurrencies react
Bitcoin climbed to a high of $61,849 in Tuesday’s trading session, spurred by the recent release of U.S. jobs data, which lifted the BTC price.
The most recent signal from the Fed indicates that market players are firmly pricing in an interest rate decrease at the U.S. central bank’s next meeting, which is considered favorable for cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin was still up 2.86% in the last 24 hours to $60,882, having reached intraday highs of $61,237 in today’s trading session.
Several other cryptocurrencies were posting gains, including Shiba Inu, BNB and BONK, which were up 5% in the last 24 hours. Cardano, Polygon, Worldcoin, Fantom and Floki posted gains ranging from 7% to 14%.
On the statistics front, the most recent report of weekly initial jobless claims will be released around 8:30 a.m. ET on Thursday.
