(Kitco News) - Global financial markets got a boost from Fed Chair Powell on Wednesday after the central bank chief set the stage for a 50-basis point rate hike at the Fed’s December policy meeting – citing the need to “moderate” the pace of rate increases.
The dovish tone helped spark a rally across financial markets that sent the Dow, S&P and Nasdaq soaring after a stagnant morning of trading, with the major indices closing the day up 3.09%, 2.18% and 4.41%, respectively.
Data from TradingView shows that Bitcoin (BTC) also benefited from the dovish comments from Powell which helped bulls lift the top crypto from a daily low of $16,696 to an intraday high of $17,158, a turnaround of 2.69%.
The bullish outlook for BTC was spotted early in the day by Kitco senior technical analyst Jim Wyckoff, who noted that the Bitcoin-U.S. dollar price “hit a three-week high in early U.S. trading on Wednesday.”
“The BC bulls have stabilized prices and even gained some momentum with Wednesday’s gains,” Wyckoff said, but warned that “BC bears still have the slight overall near-term technical advantage.” The landscape is shifting though, and “the recent sideways price action on the daily chart favors the bulls, to begin to suggest that a near-term market bottom is in place,” he concluded.
Many on crypto Twitter remain unconvinced that the bottom is in, however, and recommend extreme caution moving forward.
BTC needs to reclaim $19,000 to confirm a bullish rally
Additional insight into the state of the market following the speech from Powell was offered by Hunain Naseer, the head of content at COIN360.
Naseer noted that both the crypto and traditional markets “responded favorably to Powell’s speech” despite many anticipating a larger pivot following an improvement in the Consumer Price Index print earlier in November.
“While the much-anticipated ‘pivot’ didn't quite materialize, the Fed chair hinted toward a more cautious approach to ensure that the labor market remains healthy,” Naseer said. “It also appears that future rate hikes may be smaller, but drawn out over a longer time period, aiming to achieve a ‘soft landing.’”
Naseer went on to highlight that following the speech, BTC surged above $17,000 while Ether tested resistance at $1,300 and the SPX climbed over 4,000, but offered a word of warning to overeager traders looking to dive back into the markets.
“Market participants may want to wait for mid-December to see how Senate and House hearings on the FTX collapse turn out and whether the Fed stays true to the shift announced today come FOMC time,” he warned.
“From a technical perspective, Bitcoin will need to reclaim June lows and trade above $19,000 before the market can start hoping for a bullish rally," he concluded.
Altcoins trend higher
The bullish move in Bitcoin was largely mirrored in the altcoin market with most tokens in the top 200 posting positive gains for the day.
The biggest gainers on the day include a 22.75% increase for Icon (ICX), an 18.53% gain for Kyber Network Crystal v2 (KNC), and a 15.75 gain for Fantom (FTM).
The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $861 billion, and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 38.1%.
