Wall Street analyst spells out Fed’s next interest rate move

Anand Sinha

Tue, Jun 17, 2025, 10:02 AM 2 min read

Wall Street analyst spells out Fed’s next interest rate move originally appeared on TheStreet.

The Wall Street Journal's chief economics correspondent, Nick Timiraos, thinks there are good reasons to think the Federal Reserve would be preparing to cut interest rates this week due to recent improvements in inflation, if not for the risk tariffs pose to prices.

President Donald Trump's tariff policy, targeted in particular against China, shattered the crypto markets for the first few weeks. The total crypto market cap went down from $2.7 trillion on Apr. 2 — when Trump hiked tariffs — to $2.4 trillion on Apr. 9 — when he paused tariffs for all except China for 90 days.

The Fed is holding the FOMC meeting on June 17-18 to take a decision on rate cuts, but Timiraos wrote that the officials will continue to extend the wait-and-see policy.

Though the May CPI came in softer-than-expected at 2.4%, it is still much higher than the Fed's target of 2%. The central bank not only has to factor in the implications of Trump's tariff policy but also the latest escalations in the Middle East war.

In addition, the Fed Chair Jerome Powell also has to brave the aggressive posturing of President Trump, who has been warning Powell to slash rates.

The implication of the Fed opting for a potential rate cut is huge for the crypto market, as it is no longer as insulated from traditional markets as it once used to be. In fact, it is known to react sharply to the Fed's moves of late.

If the bank decides to slash interest rates at least once later this year, it is expected that the crypto market would witness a substantial fund inflow.

The total crypto market cap stood at $3.28 trillion at press time. As per Kraken, Bitcoin was trading at $105,550.20 at press time, down 1.28% a day.

Wall Street analyst spells out Fed’s next interest rate move first appeared on TheStreet on Jun 17, 2025

This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Jun 17, 2025, where it first appeared.