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In a signal for the markets, Federal Reserve officials agreed to cut interest rates at their September meeting but were unsure how aggressive to be, ultimately deciding on a half-percentage point move to balance inflationary expectations with labor market concerns.
According to minutes released Wednesday, "a substantial majority of participants" preferred a half-point reduction, while some expressed reservations about going that far.
The meeting summary highlighted why policymakers chose to approve a jumbo rate drop of 50 basis points for the first time in more than four years, and it also revealed members' disagreements over the economic outlook.
Tomiwabold OlajideFed Chair Jerome Powell and other Fed officials have recently supported the expected 50 basis point reduction by the end of 2024, as indicated by the "dot plot" unofficial forecast released following the September meeting.
Crypto market reacts
Markets moved little following the release, with the cryptocurrency market still reeling after a sell-off earlier in the week.
Bitcoin (BTC), the largest cryptocurrency by market value, traded at $60,793, somewhat higher than yesterday's low of $60,255, but still down more than 2.07% in 24 hours. Ethereum (ETH) traded 2.31% down at $2,381. Other major cryptocurrencies, BNB and SOL, fell 2.71%, while XRP fell 0.73%, according to CoinMarketCap data.
Shiba Inu (SHIB), Dogecoin (DOGE), Aptos, Worldcoin (WLD), Floki and Dogwifhat (WIF) all saw losses ranging between 3% and 12%. Meanwhile, Uniswap and Chiliz traded higher, up to 9%.
While investors continued to digest Federal Reserve meeting minutes, fresh inflation data is expected, with the market looking forward to fresh consumer price index data to gain a handle on the present inflation trend. A higher-than-expected inflation number would undercut the case for Fed rate decreases.
Alex Dovbnya
Vladislav Sopov
Dan Burgin
U.Today Editorial Team