Trump’s Job Rating Drops, Key Policies Draw Majority Disapproval As He Nears 100 Days

On April 23, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced that U.S. and India are close to finalizing a tariff agreement.

This agreement is fueling optimism in financial markets, leading to notable gains in both equity and crypto sectors.

U.S.-India Tariff Deal: Market Implications

Janet Yellen, the U.S. Treasury Secretary, stated that the U.S. and India are close to finalizing a tariff agreement. This announcement aligns with her consistent efforts to streamline international trade policy and reduce global economic friction.

The progressing negotiations hint at a decrease in trade tension, positively influencing market sentiment. The potential agreement is expected to strengthen economic ties between the two nations, facilitating smoother trade transactions.

Bitcoin Hits $92,625 as Trade Talks Progress

Did you know? In previous U.S.-India trade discussions, positive outcomes typically spurred financial markets, reinforcing investor confidence and generally promoting risk-on trading behavior across sectors.

As of April 23, Bitcoin's price is $92,625.23, per CoinMarketCap data. The cryptocurrency's current market cap is $1.84 trillion, commanding a 63.34% dominance. BTC has gained 2.15% over the last 24 hours, with a seven-day increase of 9.1%.

Bitcoin(BTC), daily chart, screenshot on CoinMarketCap at 15:49 UTC on April 23, 2025.

Source: CoinMarketCap

Experts from the Coincu research team highlight the potential regulatory easing as U.S.-India trade discussions progress. Heightened international cooperation could provide insights into more adaptive policies, possibly benefiting regulatory clarity in cryptocurrency markets. As Janet Yellen put it, "tariff negotiations could never be a lengthy process" and emphasized that the U.S. and India are very close to reaching an agreement on a tariff deal.

Source: CryptoSlate

Over two months of market correction may finally be coming to an end as Bitcoin’s on-chain metrics begin to flash positive signals again.

According to a weekly report by the on-chain analytics platform CryptoQuant, the contraction in bitcoin (BTC) spot demand is gradually easing, while the decline in the asset’s apparent demand is slowing down, and crypto liquidity growth is expanding.

BTC Demand Signs Are Improving

In the last 30 days, Bitcoin’s apparent demand has declined by 146,000 BTC, a significant contrast from the 311,000 BTC plunge recorded on March 27. This shows that spot demand for the leading digital asset is still declining, but at a slower rate.

Unfortunately, the negative momentum in demand for BTC has intensified. The demand momentum, which compares BTC purchases by new investors to those by older investors, has fallen to 642,000 BTC, its lowest since October 2024.

Large investors are accumulating BTC at the slowest monthly pace since February, with their holdings declining slightly in the past week. The holdings of this cohort of market participants have plummeted by roughly 30,000 BTC, with their monthly accumulation rate slowing from 2.7% at the end of March to 0.4% currently.

Also, Bitcoin demand in the United States spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) market is relatively low, although the funds recorded over $912 million in positive flows on April 22. On average, flows into these funds have been oscillating between -5,000 and +3,000 daily, compared with inflows of more than 8,000 in November-December when BTC skyrocketed to $100,000.

Moreover, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs have net sold 10,000 BTC so far this year, compared to a net purchase of 208,000 BTC by this time in 2024. CryptoQuant insists that Bitcoin demand, demand momentum, and purchases from U.S. spot ETFs need to sustain positive growth for prices to surge.

Bears Are Still Dominant

Additionally, the market analytics platform noted that prices rally sustainably when the market cap of stablecoins, with Tether (USDT) as a proxy, expands by more than $5 billion, and the change hovers above its 30-day moving average. However, that is not the case now.

The market cap of USDT has grown by only $2.9 billion in the last sixty days, and this level of growth is insufficient to support the crypto market liquidity needed for a sustained rally.

Meanwhile, BTC was trading above $94,000 at the time of writing after jumping 6.5% within 24 hours. Regardless, the Bull Score Index remains below 40, indicating that bears are dominant.

Source: CryptoSlate

Nvidia (NVDA 4.44%) stock is jumping in Wednesday's trading. The artificial intelligence (AI) hardware leader's share price was up 4.6% as of 10:45 a.m. ET. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite were up 2.8% and 3.5%, respectively, at the same point in the day's trading.

Nvidia's valuation is rapidly moving higher today thanks to indications that the Trump administration is adopting a softer trade-war stance that could help lower tariffs and ease tensions with China. Investors are also getting some good news about adoption for the company's AI Enterprise software platform.

Nvidia stock surges as White House signals trade-war pivot

President Donald Trump said yesterday that tariffs on China will "come down substantially" from their current levels. Along with comments from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Trump's recent statements appear to signal a significant shift in the administration's approach to trade-war dynamics. Investors are seeing a potential resolution to a huge source of uncertainty, and it's powering strong bullish momentum for Nvidia stock and the broader market.

What's next for Nvidia?

Outside of macroeconomic and geopolitical developments, sales performance for AI processors will continue to be the biggest performance driver for Nvidia stock for the foreseeable future. But the company is continuing to make progress on software initiatives that extend beyond the CUDA AI software development platform that is currently strengthening its hardware ecosystem.

Along those lines, Cerence announced today that it had partnered with MediaTek to develop the next generation of its in-vehicle AI platform and that they will be using Nvidia's AI Enterprise software platform. Nvidia has positioned itself as an early leader in agentic AI services, and these technologies have the potential to have powerfully accretive impacts on the company's top-and-bottom-line results over the long term. In addition to offering AI processing as a service, the company appears to be making some smart moves that could help it reduce exposure to cyclical hardware demand trends.

Source: The Motley Fool

The S&P 500 was 2.6% higher in midday trading, coming off a big gain Tuesday that more than made up for its steep loss on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 848 points, or 2.2%, as of 11:20 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 3.6% higher.

Wall Street’s gains followed strong moves higher for stocks across much of Europe and Asia. They also continue a dizzying, up-and-down run for financial markets as investors struggle with how to react to so much uncertainty about what Trump will do with his economic policies. The S&P 500 remains 11.7% below its record set earlier this year after briefly dropping roughly 20% below the mark.

The market’s latest move is up in part because Trump said late Tuesday that he has “no intention” to fire the head of the Federal Reserve. Trump had been angry with Jerome Powell, whom Trump had called “a major loser,” because of the Fed’s hesitance to cut interest rates.

While cutting rates could give the economy a boost, it could also put upward pressure on inflation. Economists say Trump’s tariffs are likely both to slow the economy and to raise inflation, at least briefly.

Trump’s tough talk had frightened investors because the Fed is supposed to act independently, without pressure from politicians, so that it can make decisions that may be painful in the short term but are best for the long term.

Trump may have recognized the market’s fear about a move against Powell. He may also be looking to keep someone around whom Trump could blame later if the economy does fall into a recession, according to Thierry Wizman, a strategist at Macquarie.

“Indeed, if the Fed cuts its policy interest rates aggressively, Trump would have little excuse for a recession apart from the pugnacity of his tariff policies,” Wizman said.

Markets also rose after Trump said late Tuesday that U.S. tariffs on imports coming from China could come down “substantially” from the current 145%. “It won’t be that high, not going to be that high,” Trump said.

The hope along Wall Street has been that Trump may lower his tariffs after negotiating trade deals with other countries, and Trump said Tuesday he would be “very nice” to the world’s second-largest economy and not play hardball with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“There is an opportunity for a big deal here,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a Wednesday morning speech.

If Trumps brings his tariffs down by enough and quickly enough, investors believe a recession could be averted.

U.S. businesses say they’re already feeling the effects of the trade war. A preliminary reading of U.S. business activity fell to a 16-month low, as the threat of tariffs helped push up prices charged for goods and services at the sharpest rate for just over a year, according to S&P Global’s latest survey released Wednesday.

That’s why one of the few predictions many along Wall Street are willing to make is only that sharp swings for financial markets will continue for a while. The market will “more likely than not continue to be dictated by Trump’s latest whims regarding tariffs and trade,” said Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade.

Trump’s comments also had a big effect on the bond market, where Treasury yields eased. It’s a turnaround from earlier this month, when spiking Treasury yields raised fears that Trump’s actions were scaring investors away from U.S. investments and weakening the U.S. bond market’s reputation as one of the safest places to keep cash.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.33% from 4.41% late Tuesday. That’s a notable move for the bond market, which measures things in hundredths of percentage points.

On Wall Street, Big Tech helped lead a widespread rally where most U.S. stocks climbed.

Nvidia rose 5% to claw back more of the sharp losses it took last week, when it said U.S. restrictions on exports of its H20 chips to China could hurt its first-quarter results by $5.5 billion. The chip company’s stock was the strongest single force lifting the S&P 500.

Other stocks in the artificial-intelligence technology ecosystem also helped lead the way. Vertiv Holdings, which traces its roots to the industry’s first manufacturer of computer room air conditioning, jumped 12% after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It said it’s continuing to see accelerated demand from AI data centers.

Super Micro Computer, a company that makes servers used in AI, leaped 10.6% for the biggest gain in the S&P 500. Palantir Technologies, which offers an AI platform for customers, climbed 8.5%.

Tesla revved 7.9% higher after CEO Elon Musk said he’ll spend less time in Washington and more time running his electric vehicle company. Tesla on late Tuesday reported a big drop in profits. It’s been struggling because of backlash against Musk’s efforts to lead cost-cutting efforts by the U.S. government.

In stock markets abroad, indexes jumped 2.4% in France, 2.4% in Hong Kong and 1.9% in Japan. Stocks in Shanghai were an exception, where they dipped 0.1%.

Source: BNN BIoomberg

Gold Technical Analysis

Gold markets have dropped again during the trading session on Wednesday as it looks like we are giving up some of the momentum that has been such a major driver of where things go here. That being said, it’s not necessarily that we are going to see the trend change suddenly. It’s just that things got way too out of hand. In fact, it would not surprise me at all to see gold go lower from here. And quite frankly, I would welcome it. I would prefer to buy gold on a pullback. I think the $3,200 level would be an excellent place to start buying. But there’s the question as to whether or not we ever get down there.

Because of this, I have to watch it on a day by day basis. And it does look to me like we could possibly go sideways here as well. Remember, there are two ways to work off excess froth in the market. The first one is the most obvious and that is a pullback and then a bounce to continue. But the other one involves just simply going sideways and the market readjusting getting comfortable with the idea of the new price.

I’m not sure which one we are doing here. But the fact that we have bounced off the lows of the day suggests that we may just go sideways. Again, I would prefer to buy gold at a lower price, perhaps the $3,200 level or even better, the $3,000 level. But I don’t know if we get that. Either way, I will not get short of this market. It is just far too strong.

Source: Kitco

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday called on the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to refocus on their core missions of macroeconomic stability and development, arguing that they have strayed too far into vanity projects such as climate change that have reduced their effectiveness.

Bessent, in remarks outlining his vision for U.S. engagement with the IMF and World Bank on the sidelines of the institutions' spring meetings, said that they serve critical roles in the international financial system.

"And the Trump administration is eager to work with them - so long as they can stay true to their missions," Bessent said in prepared remarks to the Institute of International Finance.

"The IMF and World Bank have enduring value. But mission creep has knocked these institutions off course. We must enact key reforms to ensure the Bretton Woods institutions are serving their stakeholders - not the other way around," he said, calling on U.S. allies to join the effort. "America First does not mean America alone."

Bessent said the IMF needed to focus on its key mandate and adhere to strong standards in its lending.

"The IMF was once unwavering in its mission of promoting global monetary cooperation and financial stability. Now it devotes disproportionate time and resources to work on climate change, gender, and social issues. These issues are not the IMF's mission."

"And sometimes, the IMF needs to say 'No.' The organization has no obligation to lend to countries that fail to implement reforms."

Bessent added that the World Bank must be "tech-neutral and prioritize affordability in energy investment. In most cases, this means investing in gas and other fossil fuel-based energy production." He added that it could also finance renewable energy projects along with systems to manage energy latency in wind and solar.

Source: TradingView