The Fed decided to leave the interest rate steady. The expectation was that interest rates would be kept constant.
Here is Bitcoin’s first reaction after the decision:
Now all eyes are on FED President Jerome Powell. Powell is expected to make a speech at 21:30 GMT after the FED’s third meeting of the year. You can follow all the details of this speech live on Bitcoinsistemi.com.
At the close of the two-day meeting that started on Tuesday, the FED was expected to keep the short-term interest rate unchanged between 5.25% and 5.5%, the highest level in 23 years. FED officials are not planned to update their March forecasts for the economy, inflation and interest rates. But Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell may offer clues about where he thinks interest rates are headed.
Interest rates have been trending sideways for months. Forecasters predicted that the first interest rate cut would be made in June and that there would be a total of three interest rate cuts by 2024. Now they are predicting only one discount in September.
Economic forecasters will be scrutinizing Jerome Powell’s words very carefully when he talks about where interest rates might go.
Economists at Goldman Sachs and Barclays expect Powell to reiterate his earlier comment today that “it will likely take longer than expected to achieve the greater confidence” needed to cut interest rates.
Barclays economist March Giannoni doesn’t expect Powell “to be very specific about the number of reductions.”
*This is not investment advice.
