Original Author: Pzai, Foresight News
On April 17, Federal Reserve Chairman Powell reiterated at the Chicago Economic Club that the Fed will remain cautious about rate cuts and consider rate cuts only when the situation becomes clearer, warning of the Fed's challenging dilemma of conflicting inflation and economic goals. Powell also denied a Fed Put rescue and emphasized market orderliness and expected operation.
Influenced by Powell's views, cryptocurrencies experienced slight fluctuations. Bitcoin's latest quote was $83,921, reaching a daily high of $85,511, with a 24-hour increase of 0.19%. The weekly high was $86,512, the low was $83,150, with a weekly increase of 0.27%.
For mainstream assets, ETH, BNB, SOL and other assets showed flat reactions. Solana increased by 2.6% in a single day, approaching the $130 mark; ETH slightly dropped 0.7%, falling to around $1,580; BNB slightly decreased 0.7% to $581. For ETFs, Bitcoin spot ETF had a daily net outflow of $200 with a, total net asset value of $93.61 billion. Ethereum spot ETF had a daily net outflow of $7.74 million, with a net asset value of $value of $3 billion.
According to derivative data from Coinglass, over 134,000 liquidations occurred recorded in the past 24 hours, totaling $275 million, with long position liquidations reaching $161 million.
Influenced by related factors, the three major US stock indexes accelerated downward, hitting daily lows at market close. The Dow;Jones over 970 points, over 2%;%; S&&&P over over 3%;%; Nasdaq fell over 4%.
The "Tech Seven Giants" showed a general downward trend. Nvidia hit a daily low in the afternoon, dropping about 10.5%, ultimately closing down nearly 6.9%. Tesla closed down nearly 5%, Apple fell nearly 3.9%, Microsoft and Meta both fell down around 3.7%, Amazon dropped over 2%, and Alphabet fell 2%.
After Trump's government delayed tariff implementation implementation,, market expectations for Fed rate cuts in the second half of 2025 briefly warmed up. However, Fed analysts pointed out that even with tariff suspension and reduced inflation impact, rate cuts still face extremely high barriers. What happened before and after Powell's speech?
Rate Cuts "Cannot Rescue Immediate Fires"
Powell further elaborated on the complex economic landscape: Q1 2025 growth slowed from last year's steady pace. Despite strong car sales, overall consumer spending momentum is insufficient. Businesses' concentrated imports before potential tariffs are expected to pressure GDP growth. Labor growth stagnation and government layoffs also impact the job market. He said: the US becomes a jurisdiction with higher structural risks, this ourict."p Market analysis generally believes that if tariff suspension effectively alleviates imported inflation pressure, might they might delay rate cuts mid-to-long term; conversely, if global trade friction continues or escalates, short--term assets will be under pressure,,, and monetary policy will face more tricky trade-offs - finding balance between curbing inflation and avoiding excessive economic contraction. Powell candidly admitted: "The pulse we're feeling is higher unemployment and higher inflation rates, and our tools can only do one of these two things at a time, so it's a difficult situation for central banks."
Bloomberg economist Chris G. Collins believes: "These remarks indicate the Fed willizing inflation in their dual mandate, as they more information on how government policies will affect the economy."
In crypto stocks, top crypto US stocks mostly fell, averaging around 2% decline decline while MSTR slightly rose 0.3%. Powell's clear "rate cut wait-and and warning about inflation and economic goal conflicts undundoubtlybtified market uncertainty about policy direction.Current market faces multiple contradictions: tech stock high valuation and performance realization pressure, safe-haven demand and US dollar resilience contest, tariff policy uncertainty and Fed monetary policy divergence. IUR Capital Managing Director Gareth Ryan stated: "US risk asset sentiment shows long-term scarscarred signs.. If no major progress is made in trade negotiations with major US trading partners within partners in the next 90 days, the stock market might face a challenging summer."
In the crypto market, Coinbase's latest report indicates that due to global tariff implementation and potential further escalation, extremeiments emerged Meanwhile, although regulatory slowdown led to a Q1 2025 crypto venture capital increase compared to the previous quarter, it remains 50%-60% lower than the -2022peak, significantly limiting new capital entry into the crypto ecosystem, especially in the Altcoin realm, potentially causing long-term market liquidity expectation decline. In the medium-, attention should focus on the Fed's economic data interpretation, global supply chain recovery progress, and the and the crypto policy roundtable conference on April 25.
