Jerome Powell<\/strong> appeared before Congress on Wednesday and acknowledged the hardship inflation is causing.<\/p>\n\u201cWe are strongly committed to bringing inflation back down, and we are moving expeditiously to do so,\u201d said Powell.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Risk assets moved lower as markets grappled with recession fears. At press time, Bitcoin and Ethereum were seen teetering near psychologically important marks of $20,000 and $1,000 respectively. S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures declined 0.3% and 0.4%, respectively.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe stock market rally faded as\u00a0Powell acknowledged that they need to do their job and get inflation back down and that it is a possibility that they could send the economy into a recession,\u201d said Edward Moya, a senior market analyst with OANDA.\u00a0
\n\u201dBitcoin remains a shadow to U.S. stocks and pared losses after Fed Chair Powell pledged to be nimble, prompting traders to believe they might not be too aggressive with tightening once they believe the economy has significantly weakened,\u201d said Moya in a note, seen by Benzinga.<\/p>\n
Even so, selling is showing signs of \u201cexhaustion,\u201d according to Moya. The analyst pointed to the $500 million record one-day outflows seen in Purpose Bitcoin ETF\u00a0\u2014 North America\u2019s first Bitcoin ETF \u2014 and said it could be the \u201ccapitulation that is needed to form a short-term base for Bitcoin.\u201d<\/p>\n
Global inflationary pressures continue to mount. Canada\u2019s inflation rose at the fastest clip since 1983 with the annual inflation rate touching 7.7%, reported<\/a> Reuters. In the U.K.,\u00a0CPI growth touched<\/a> 9.1% year-over-year.<\/p>\nBitcoin could be headed to the $17,600 mark or even lower at $16,000 should it fail to hold on to the $19,800 mark, according to a tweet from cryptocurrency trader Justin Bennett.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n