The Federal Reserve on Wednesday stepped up its aggressive fight against high inflation by agreeing to the third straight super-sized increase in interest rates and signaling more big hikes before the...
Tag: Money/Currency Markets
Dollar Hits 20-Year High After Russia Mobilizes More Troops
Text size Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the West of nuclear blackmail against Russia. Alexei Druzhinin/SPUTNIK/AFP/Getty Images The U.S. dollar rose to 20-year highs early Wednesday after R...
4 things to watch when the Fed delivers its rate-hike decision
The Federal Reserve is raising rates on Wednesday. That much is certain. Beyond that, there are weighty questions about whether the central bank’s efforts to bring down inflation can succeed without c...
Bitcoin Slumps to Lowest Since Late 2020, Ether Tumbles on Fed Jitters
Text size Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, has declined nearly 60% this year. Dreamstime Bitcoin fell Monday and other cryptocurrencies followed it lower ahead of what’s expected to ...
Crypto poses threat to ‘financial stability’ of everyday Americans, feds warn
President Joe Biden’s administration expressed concern over recent developments in cryptocurrency markets and their impact on average Americans’ financial health as it introduced a series of reports F...
U.S. Treasury recommends exploring creation of a digital dollar
The Biden administration is moving one step closer to developing a central bank digital currency, known as the digital dollar, saying it would help reinforce the U.S. role as a leader in the world fin...
A further 27% drop in the S&P 500 could be coming if inflation hawks are right, Goldman Sachs team warns
Not exactly TGIF this Friday. What the sellside is slowly realizing is not just that the Fed is going to be aggressive in September after the latest shocking inflation figure, but that the central ban...
Cash Is No Longer Trash. T-Bill Yields Near 4%.
Text size After years of yielding near zero, cash is suddenly a better investment. Eva Hambach/AFP via Getty Images Cash is no longer trash. For the first time in 15 years, investors can get nearly 4%...
Any doubt Fed will raise rates by 75 basis points next week is gone after hot U.S. inflation data
Any doubt that the Federal Reserve will raise its its benchmark interest rate by 0.75 percentage point next week is gone, economists said, following the hot U.S. consumer price inflation data for Augu...
Ethereum’s ‘Merge’ Is Disrupting Crypto Trading and Lending
Text size Ethereum’s “Merge” is a hotly anticipated and long-awaited upgrade. Dreamstime Crypto markets linked to Ether are facing disruption as the blockchain network behind the wor...
Europe’s Unfolding Crises Could Impact U.S. Stocks. Here’s How.
U.S. investors are watching the Federal Reserve but the European Central Bank is likely to keep hiking rates to pull down prices, and those moves deserve more attention. Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg Text si...
Why the ECB’s jumbo rate hike isn’t helping the beaten-down euro
The European Central Bank went big on Thursday, delivering a historically outsize 75 basis-point interest rate increase in its effort to get a grip on record inflation. Yet the euro, after a brief bou...
Bitcoin Prices Are Falling. Why Analysts Say a ‘Massive Capitulation’ Is Coming.
Text size Bitcoin continues to trade at less than one-third its all-time high from November 2021. Ozan Kose/AFP via Getty Images Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were under pressure on Monday. While...
British Pound Falls to Lowest Level Since 1985 as U.K. Economic Pain Mounts
Updated Sept. 4, 2022 5:41 pm ET Listen to article (2 minutes) The British pound slid to its lowest level against the U.S. dollar since 1985, a reflection of the U.K. economy’s dire economic situation...
Forget Bitcoin. Interest in Ether Is Booming Ahead of ‘The Merge.’
Investors have flocked into Ether trades as a critical upgrade to one of crypto’s most crucial networks looms large this month, setting the stage for volatility in the days and weeks to come. Set to b...
The Other Doomsday Scenario Looming Over Markets
By James Mackintosh Sept. 3, 2022 10:00 am ET Listen to article (2 minutes) Think inflation is the biggest threat to your investments? Perhaps not: One fund manager that successfully navigated the pas...
Bitcoin Has Stumbled. That’s Not a Good Sign for Stocks.
Text size Bitcoin’s drop isn’t much of a surprise. Interest rates have risen in the past few weeks as markets worry that the Federal Reserve would keep lifting rates to combat high inflation. Risk ass...
Shrinking the Fed’s balance sheet sheet is not likely to be a benign process, new Jackson Hole study warns
“If the past repeats, the shrinking of the central bank’s balance sheet is not likely to be an entirely benign process and will require careful monitoring of the banking sector’s on-and off-balance sh...
The Fed isn’t pivoting. Why were stock investors the last to know?
After Friday’s brutal session for stocks, it appears equities were the last asset class to accept the notion that the Federal Reserve likely won’t be pivoting to a less aggressive monetary policy stan...
Disappointing U.S. data has traders considering possibility of a half-point Fed rate hike in September
In the blink of an eye on Tuesday, the U.S. bond market’s focus shifted back toward fears of an unexpectedly sharp economic slowdown and away from persistently high inflation over the bulk of the trad...
The Euro Hit Parity With the Dollar Again. This Time, the Weakness Might Last.
Text size The euro is at parity with the dollar. Photo by INA FASSBENDER/AFP via Getty Images The euro fell enough to achieve parity with the dollar again. Don’t be surprised to see more weakness in t...
‘There’s no reason to treat the crypto market differently from the rest of the capital markets just because it uses a different technology’: SEC chief Gary Gensler
“‘We can dispense with the idea that crypto lending isn’t subject to regulation. On the contrary, the rules have been around for decades. The platforms aren’t following them.’” — Gary Gensler, Securit...
Why Did Bitcoin Fall? Is It Because Stocks Slumped Too?
Text size How strong is the link between stocks and Bitcoin? AFP via Getty Images Bitcoin sank Friday and stocks did too. The world’s largest crypto posted losses for the week, as did equities. Could ...
This Is a Good Time to Buy Short-Term Bonds
Until recently, short-term bonds were a yield wasteland: A two-year Treasury note yielded 0.21% a year ago and just 1% in January. Today, the yield is over 3.8% and could soon touch 4%, thanks in good...