The minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting released on Wednesday, July 5, showed a unanimous decision to keep interest rates stable. This decision was in line with market participants' expectations and set off a chain of events that affected many markets.

Analyzing the Stable Rate Decision

According to the minutes of the June meeting, most participants expected no change in interest rates at this meeting, thus remaining consistent with the decision taken. The median path of the survey did not expect a rate hike until early 2024, but there were different views, with some suggesting that further tightening of monetary policy could be possible in subsequent deliberations.

The committee made this decision in order to provide more time to measure the economy's progress toward its key goals of maximizing employment and ensuring price stability. FOMC members expressed caution due to a variety of factors.

They argued that the pause would give the committee a window to observe the impact of rate hikes, which totaled 5 percentage points, the largest since the early 1980s.

Impact on gold and stocks

Gold prices faced downward pressure after the release of the minutes. This was due to rising U.S. Treasury yields, a stronger currency and the hawkish tone of the minutes. The August gold futures contract fell $6.80 in the latest trading day to close at $1,922.70.

Elsewhere, Wall Street's main indexes fell slightly on Wednesday as investors braced for important economic data due in the coming days while studying the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest meeting.

Cryptocurrency markets weather the storm

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market has shown resilience and is showing a positive trend. Bitcoin has climbed sharply, breaking through the $31,000 mark, Ethereum is close to $1,950, and XRP has surpassed the $0.48 level. Even BNB is hovering around $243. As of now, the total cryptocurrency market value is $1.22 trillion, up 1.36% in the past 24 hours. Despite this, Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) are still facing decoupling issues.