Yahoo Finance Market Snapshot – Traders Tread Cautiously on Hawkish Fed
Stocks Move Lower
The stock markets have been trading in a cautious manner over the last few days as the Fed has been more hawkish than what many would have expected it to be. The focus over the last 24 hours has been on the FOMC meeting minutes that were released yesterday. After some initial confusion over how it needed to be interpreted, the traders realised that the Fed meant business and that it could be possibly even 4 rate hikes during the course of the year depending on how the incoming data from the US pans out. This kind of hawkish language was not something that was expected at this stage from the Fed and this has led the dollar higher and put the pressure on the stock markets. The increase in interest rates could make taking loans a costly affair in the US and hence this is likely to affect the stock markets in the medium term. This is one of the reasons why the stocks are under pressure and the traders are trading carefully with the next bearish leg just around the corner.
Cryptos Hit by Losses
In the crypto world, we are seeing some all round losses with the BTC moving below the $10,000 region after scything through the strong support at the $10,400 region which had been holding up the prices till yesterday. The ETH prices have also dropped below the $800 region as of this writing and it can be said that these losses can be seen all around the markets. There have been no specific reasons that can be attributed to the drop but as the markets begin to mature, we have to try and see how the different markets and instruments operate in co-relation with each other in the short and medium term. The last couple of days has seen some solid strength in the dollar and the prospect of quick rate hikes in the US and this could be affecting the demand of the cryptocurrencies. The traders need to wait and see if there is a pattern emerging out of this.
This article was originally posted on FX Empire
