Red day for European stock markets. Ibex fell 1.7% and is struggling to stay above 8000 points. Other indices of the Old Continent behave similarly: DAX 30 falls by almost 2%, and the French CAC 40 – by 1.7%. Falls come as investors anticipate Jerome Powell’s interventionChairman of the Fed, in the US Congress.

Strong falls are also observed in other markets, such as oil. The European benchmark barrel of Brent crude is trading down 4% to $110.at least a month ago. The drop is also more than 4% for a West Texas barrel, the US benchmark, to $104.

Red has been established in the cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin drops over 4% and is struggling to stay above $20,000 ($20,392). For its part, Etherum fell 6.5% to $1,087.

These drops come amid volatility in the stock market due to concerns about the impact of an aggressive turn in monetary policy on the global economy. Investors will be watching Powell’s appearance to see if there is any hints of another possible rate hike of 75 basis points in July.

Economists polled by Reuters expect the same rise to occur next month, another half a percentage point in September, and a quarter point rise not until November.

Analysts at Renta 4 noted in a note that “it will be important to listen to the Fed president for any mention he makes about the pace of rate hikes and to what extent are they willing to put up with slower growth and rising unemployment to curb runaway inflation.

“As a reminder, you already demonstrated your ‘unconditional’ commitment to controlling inflation last week, which could lead to a sharp increase in short-term rates.”

“While the market is discounting that pressure on prices may ease in the summer, another tightening is expected in the fall at double-digit rates and even more than 11% year-end forecast by the Bank of England, keeping the pressure on keep going up guys,” Rent 4 said.

Back to CapricornArcerlorMittal This is the value that drops the most, more than 7%, after receiving a downgrade from JP Morgan. Acerinox It accompanies him at the bottom of the table, albeit with a less pronounced fall, by 4%. Only four values ​​trade positively: Rovi Laboratories (+1.67%); telephone (0.62%); Siemens Games (+0.07%); D bankinter (+0.11%).