The fallout from the release by the Federal Reserve of the minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting held July 28–29 seems to be continuing to strengthen the dollar and pushing down the price of both gold and Bitcoin.
Around 18:00 UTC (i.e. 14:00 EDT) on Wednesday, the Fed released the minutes of the two-day FOMC meeting it held at the end of last month:
We have posted the minutes from the #FOMC meeting held July 28-29, 2020: https://t.co/HpgbO0BLwx
— Federal Reserve (@federalreserve) August 19, 2020
For the purpose of our discussion, we have highlighted below the most interesting part of the minutes:
“Participants observed that uncertainty surrounding the economic outlook remained very elevated, with the path of the economy highly dependent on the course of the virus and the public sector’s response to it…
“With regard to the outlook for monetary policy beyond this meeting, a number of participants noted that providing greater clarity regarding the likely path of the target range for the federal funds rate would be appropriate at some point…
“A majority of participants commented on yield caps and targets—approaches that cap or target interest rates along the yield curve—as a monetary policy tool.
“Of those participants who discussed this option, most judged that yield caps and targets would likely provide only modest benefits in the current environment, as the Committee’s forward guidance regarding the path of the federal funds rate already appeared highly credible and longer-term interest rates were already low.
“Many of these participants also pointed to potential costs associated with yield caps and targets. Among these costs, participants noted the possibility of an excessively rapid expansion of the balance sheet and difficulties in the design and communication of the conditions under which such a policy would be terminated, especially in conjunction with forward guidance regarding the policy rate.
“In light of these concerns, many participants judged that yield caps and targets were not warranted in the current environment but should remain an option that the Committee could reassess in the future if circumstances changed markedly.”
As you can see, the committee decided to hold off on implementing “yield caps and targets”, i.e. yield curve control (YCC).
At the time of writing, gold is trading around $1,935, down 0.65%, and Bitcoin is trading around $11,740, down -0.93%.
Popular crypto analyst/trader “Crypto Michaël” agrees that today’s decline in the prices of silver, gold, and Bitcoin are due to the strengthening of the U.S. dollar, which means that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, the current consolidation of the Bitcoin price is likely to last for some time:
The reason why $BTC, Gold, Silver are going down is the strengthening of the $DXY. Episode 2.
The 92.75 points level flipped support and space has opened for further momentum.
Which means -> more consolidation on $BTC coming period. pic.twitter.com/QbpJF8ThLX
— Crypto Michaël (@CryptoMichNL) August 21, 2020
