Bitcoin Pulls Back With Markets Nervous Ahead of Fed Meeting Results

The Nasdaq and S&P 500 were both lower by more than 1% about an hour before the close.

Updated Mar 18, 2025, 6:58 p.m. UTCPublished Mar 18, 2025, 6:57 p.m. UTC

After a couple of sessions of good vibes, risk markets headed back into retreat on Tuesday, one day ahead of the results of this week's U.S. Federal Reserve policy meeting.

Bitcoin was trading at $81,300 at press time, lower by 3.5% over the past 24 hours. Solana (SOL), ether (ETH) and XRP were posting modestly higher losses.

A bit more than an hour before the close of trade, the Nasdaq was down 1.7% and S&P 500 1.1%.

The Federal Open Market Committee began its two-day policy meeting today, with results and Chairman Jerome Powell's post-meeting press conference set for Wednesday afternoon U.S. hours.

While no one is expecting a change in interest rates, traders will be looking for signs that the Fed is perhaps turning a hair more dovish given recent market turbulence and a slowdown in inflation.

The market action on Tuesday, however, suggests nervousness the Fed may not yet be ready to ease policy further. After all, the downturn in inflation seen in February wasn't that large and it was just one report. And the dip in markets — though painful for many — has also been pretty modest given the impressive run higher in recent years.

According to CME FedWatch, rate traders today see no chance the Fed cuts rates tomorrow and only a 20% chance the central bank eases at its next meeting in May. For June, though, there's a 66% chance that the Fed will cut rates.