Kevin Warsh announced the Fed’s decision to hold rates steady at his first FOMC meeting Wednesday and deliberately avoided forward guidance, leaving markets to price in a rate hike by year-end as Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) faces a fresh headwind.
Warsh Killed Forward Guidance and Nine Committee Members Want a Rate Hike
The FOMC statement under Warsh ran barely half a page compared to the page-and-a-half releases under Jerome Powell.
Warsh did not add his own position to the dot plot. Nine committee members already project a rate hike before year-end, and the CME FedWatch tool shows markets pricing only a 15% chance that rates stay flat through December.
Analyst Benjamin Cowen argued Wednesday that the pricing-in of a rate hike is itself the headwind, regardless of whether one actually happens.
