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In a significant development, Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller has backed a potential interest rate cut at the upcoming September meeting. As it seems, the markets remain in a holding pattern, with investors anxiously awaiting the potential impact on digital assets.
According to CNBC, Fed Governor Christopher Waller on Friday backed an interest rate cut at the central bank's upcoming policy meeting in less than two weeks. Waller echoed Fed Chair Jerome Powell's statement from late August that the "time has come" for monetary policy adjustment, however, he did not specify the pace and magnitude of the cuts.
Fed Governor Waller backs interest rate cut at September meeting https://t.co/auMS7crxde
— CNBC (@CNBC) September 6, 2024
Other policymakers have recently urged for policy easing, but this is one of the clearest signals that it might occur at the Sept. 17-18 Federal Open Market Committee meeting.
Waller's statements come after a weaker-than-expected nonfarm payrolls report on Friday, which fueled speculation that the hiring pace is slowing. The Labor Department reported 142,000 job gains, up from July but still below the Dow Jones prediction of 161,000.
Crypto market awaits reaction
So far yet, the cryptocurrency market has had little reaction to Waller's comments. Cryptocurrencies witnessed mixed price action in early Saturday trade, with Bitcoin falling 3% in the last 24 hours to $54,360. Several cryptocurrencies also fell, with Ethereum, Dogecoin and Pepe reporting losses of more than 4% each. A few assets such as Algorand, BONK and Optimism traded in the green with gains up to 4%.
Stocks earlier fell as the markets appeared to take a "wait and see" stance, with investors weighing the larger implications of the top Fed official's remarks. Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies have been closely following global stocks in recent weeks.
A looser monetary policy is frequently considered beneficial for speculative assets. This is because lower interest rates may encourage investors to seek better returns in riskier assets such as cryptocurrencies, potentially driving up prices.