In This Article:
On Monday, April 21, U.S. stocks fell hard, with the S&P 500 down more than 3% and the Dow Jones removing more than 1,000 points after a volatile session of trade amid rising tensions between President Donald Trump and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
The selling seems to have been prompted largely by Trump's repeated attacks on Powell for his failure to cut rates and broader concerns over the direction of U.S. trade policy.
In a social media post, Trump said inflation was "virtually gone," immediately ordering a 1.00% cut. He also referred to Powell as "Mr. Too Late," stating that Powell had only lowered rates now to help support his political rivals. This, including China's assertions not to cooperate with the U.S, undoubtedly undermined investor sentiment and accelerated the decline in price throughout the morning.
The S&P 500 traded below 5,120, while the Nasdaq and Dow were down substantially. High-beta names in crypto collateral bore the brunt of this selling.
MSTR fell 2.32%, Coinbase fell 1.81%, Marathon Digital fell 3.54%, and Robinhood fell 4.69%. Mining firms such as Hut8 and Riot also saw severe losses.
Contrary to the general risk-off sentiment across markets, Bitcoin was up more than 3% and is currently trading at $86,790, per Kraken's price feeds. However, the asset briefly touched $88,000.
Analyst weighs in on market turmoil
In a message to TheStreet, crypto analyst Maartun explained that the recent Bitcoin jump was also in part due to futures action that accounted for over $2 billion of new positions in the past 24 hours.
“These are likely traders and investors reacting to the news that Trump wants to replace Powell (the Fed chair). At the same time, the US dollar dropped by 2%, while gold rose by 3.4%," hinting how macroeconomics can impact markets and political events advertised with price movements in all markets, as well as crypto.