On Aug. 27, U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that the central bank will start tapering its $120 billion monthly bond purchases by the end of the year, but the interest rate hikes would have to wait until the job market and inflation pass a more stringent test.
In response to the speech, the U.S. dollar index (DXY) fell, the S&P 500 index rose to a new all-time high, and Bitcoin (BTC) surged about $1,500 in under an hour. This showed that market participants viewed the speech as “dovish.”