Whales Boost Bitcoin Confidence With Massive Buys

Source: Theguardian

“This offers a reference to compare one's price prediction with the market's.”

BTC price targets on Polymarket. Source: Ashwin/X

The modest expectations for BTC/USD mimic those elsewhere. On fellow prediction site Kalshi, one average BTC price target stands at $122,000 — just $11,500 beyond current all-time highs.

BTC price odds (screenshot). Source: Kalshi

“Extremely important for the price not to breach the year-long average,” he told X followers on March 26.

BTC/USD chart. Source: Aksel Kibar/X

Source: Cointelegraph

An anticipated slowdown in the world economy in 2025 sparked by uncertainty around the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff plans has taken away from the appeal of riskier assets like stocks, according to analysts at Barclays.

In a note to clients on Thursday, the brokerage said it now expects global growth to come in at just 2.9% this year, down from 3.3% in 2024.

"Global supply chains are about be upended, which means prices will rise, final demand will drop, and growth will slow," the analysts said.

A murky outlook around Trump’s proposals for sweeping tariffs on both friends and adversaries alike are seen denting the ability of businesses to plan for the future, the analysts said, adding that consumers are also likely to ratchet down spending to shield their finances from potential levy-induced headwinds.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has raised tariffs on China to up to 30% and placed a 25% duty on steel and aluminum. He has also threatened to roll out tariffs on a range of sectors and institute measures to match foreign tariffs on U.S. goods.

On Wednesday afternoon, Trump said he would place 25% tariffs on automotive imports into the U.S., making good on a pledge to penalize foreign manufacturers of cars and trucks. The action, along with what the White House has dubbed "reciprocal" tariffs, are set to take effect on April 3.

Trump has argued that the tariffs are necessary to offset lost revenues from proposed tax breaks and help bring industrial jobs back to the U.S.

"We do not expect all the tariff threats to come to fruition; the economic damage would be severe, including for the US, and there seem to be off-ramps in some cases," the Barclays analysts argued.

They said that although worldwide economic growth is projected to slow and is broadly "uninspiring," they do not expect it to slide into recession.

Against this backdrop, the strategists noted that that are "uneasy" about risk assets "for the first time in several quarters," adding that they now recommend core fixed income over equities.

"Just months into the new year, the world economy is staring down the barrel of the tariff gun –- and the results are unlikely to be pretty," the analysts wrote.

Source: Investing

(Bloomberg) -- US President Donald Trump’s trade war risks turning powerful influences that helped ease inflation over decades in the opposite direction.

“Some of the forces that helped the disinflation in the 1990s and the 1980s and the 2000s will be going into reverse,” Donald Kohn, a former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, said on Thursday.

The dollar and European stocks fell after Trump announced 25% tariffs on auto imports and pledged harsher punishment for the EU and Canada if they join forces against the US. Investors worry that higher prices as a result of the tariffs may limit Fed interest-rate cuts.

US inflation slowed dramatically from the early 1980s, thanks in large part to aggressive Fed action under then-Chair Paul Volcker. Economists have also cited increasing globalization as a factor in stabilizing prices in the years that followed.

“We see already adverse supply shocks, and the threats of adverse supply shocks, from the tariffs threatened by the Trump administration,” Kohn told a conference in Cape Town. “The tailwinds that helped with the disinflation earlier are turning potentially into headwinds and that’s going to present some difficult decisions for the Fed.”

Kohn, a 40-year veteran of the Fed who left in 2010 and is now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, was speaking at an event hosted by the South African central bank to discuss inflation targets.

The widespread adoption of a numeric-inflation goal is also credited with contributing to lasting low inflation – outside of the post-pandemic period, when forecast errors led to a significant overshoot – alongside central-bank independence to get the job done.

Kohn warned that the Fed faced fresh challenges amid high budget deficits and public calls from the president to cut rates.

“Donald Trump has said he’s not going to fire Jay Powell, but he’s already advocated for lower rates,” Kohn said, referring to the current Fed chair who Trump privately discussed replacing during his first term in office. “Political pressure on the Federal Reserve is not going to be reduced at all.”

Source: Yahoo Finance

Above: GBP/EUR has met and exceeded our Week Ahead Forecast target.

Source: Poundsterlinglive