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18 May 2026, 22:00

Gold steadies below $4,550 as hawkish Fed bets limit recovery from multi-month lows

BitcoinWorld Gold steadies below $4,550 as hawkish Fed bets limit recovery from multi-month lows Gold prices stabilized on Wednesday, trading just below the $4,550 mark, as renewed expectations of a hawkish stance from the Federal Reserve capped any meaningful intraday recovery from the multi-month lows touched earlier this week. The precious metal found some support from bargain buying and a slight pullback in the US dollar, but gains remained limited as traders recalibrated their rate cut expectations. Hawkish Fed bets weigh on gold The primary headwind for gold continues to be the shifting outlook for US monetary policy. Recent economic data, including stronger-than-expected employment figures and sticky inflation readings, have prompted several Fed officials to push back against the prospect of imminent rate cuts. Markets are now pricing in a higher probability of rates staying elevated for longer, which reduces the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets like gold. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, in a speech earlier this week, reiterated the central bank’s data-dependent approach, noting that the fight against inflation is not yet won. His comments reinforced the view that the first rate cut may not come until later in the year, if at all. This hawkish repricing has lifted real yields and the US dollar, both of which typically weigh on gold prices. Technical picture: Support and resistance levels From a technical perspective, gold’s failure to sustain a bounce above the $4,550 level suggests that selling pressure remains intact. The metal had dipped to a multi-month low near $4,480 earlier in the week, a level that now serves as immediate support. A decisive break below that could open the door for a test of the $4,400 region, a psychological level that has held in previous pullbacks. On the upside, resistance is seen at $4,580, followed by the $4,600 mark. A sustained move above $4,600 would be needed to suggest that the corrective phase is over and that bulls are regaining control. However, given the current fundamental backdrop, such a move appears unlikely without a significant shift in Fed rhetoric or a deterioration in risk sentiment. What this means for investors For investors holding gold as a portfolio hedge, the current environment presents a test of patience. The metal remains supported by strong central bank buying and geopolitical uncertainty, but these factors are being overshadowed by the hawkish Fed narrative in the near term. Traders should watch for any change in the tone of Fed communications or incoming economic data that could alter the rate path. The key takeaway is that gold is in a corrective phase within a broader uptrend. While the short-term outlook is cautious, the long-term case for gold—driven by de-dollarization trends, fiscal concerns, and central bank accumulation—remains intact. Investors may view dips as accumulation opportunities, provided they have a medium- to long-term horizon. Conclusion Gold’s inability to reclaim the $4,550 level highlights the dominance of hawkish Fed expectations in driving near-term price action. Until there is a clear shift in the monetary policy outlook, the metal is likely to remain under pressure, with downside risks toward the $4,400 support zone. However, the broader fundamental backdrop continues to offer support, and a decisive break above $4,600 would signal a resumption of the uptrend. FAQs Q1: Why is gold struggling to recover despite the pullback? Gold is facing headwinds from hawkish Federal Reserve expectations, which have boosted the US dollar and real yields. Until the outlook for rate cuts improves, the metal is likely to remain capped. Q2: What is the next key support level for gold? The immediate support is near the multi-month low around $4,480. A break below that could lead to a test of the $4,400 psychological level. Q3: Should investors buy gold at current levels? For long-term investors, current levels may offer a buying opportunity given the strong fundamental case for gold. However, short-term traders should be cautious as the metal could face further downside if the Fed remains hawkish. This post Gold steadies below $4,550 as hawkish Fed bets limit recovery from multi-month lows first appeared on BitcoinWorld .

18 May 2026, 21:48

Tom Lee Links Ethereum Weakness to Rising Oil Prices

According to Bitmine Chairman Tom Lee, rising oil prices are the biggest reason Ethereum (ETH) has been struggling, and he says the inverse correlation between the two assets has hit the highest level ever recorded. His observation has come at a time when ETH is trading near $2,100, down roughly 3% in 24 hours and 12% over the past month. The Oil Connection Lee laid out his thinking in a post on X on May 18, saying that as oil prices climbed over the past six weeks, ETH fell in step. “Rising oil prices is the biggest headwind,” he wrote, noting that the ETH-oil inverse correlation was at its “highest ever.” According to him, the implication is straightforward. Should oil reverse lower, ETH is likely to recover. However, Lee was careful to frame this as short-term noise rather than a structural problem. The longer-term case, in his view, still rests on two things: tokenization of real-world assets and agentic AI. “These structural drivers are in place,” he wrote. “Thus, we expect ETH prices to be stronger as we move through 2026.” The timing of his comments matters. ETH has been grinding lower for weeks, and the drop accelerated on May 18 after fresh geopolitical pressure came from US President Donald Trump, who warned Iran that its “clock is ticking” in a Truth Social post. BTC slid to around $76,700 in response, its lowest level since early May, while over $660 million in leveraged positions were liquidated across the market, with ETH accounting for $256 million of that wipeout, according to data from CoinGlass. The sell-off on Binance and OKX was particularly aggressive , with figures shared by analyst Amr Taha showing that taker sell volume on Binance crossed $1.1 billion as ETH pushed toward $2,100. A Market Cleared of Longs What the liquidation data shows is a market that has been largely flushed of bullish leverage. According to market observer CW, only about $600 million in high-leverage ETH long positions remain , while short positions have reached $6.3 billion, more than ten times the size of the long side. They also noted that a new CME gap has formed around $2,200 and that three unfilled CME gaps now sit between the current price and $3,200, removing a layer of downside technical risk. Another trader, Crypto Ed, said both Bitcoin and Ethereum had entered what he described as “green box” support zones, though he still expected another leg lower before any sustained recovery. ETH hit a 10-month low against BTC over the weekend, with the ETH/BTC pair falling under 0.028, a level not seen since the middle of last year. The post Tom Lee Links Ethereum Weakness to Rising Oil Prices appeared first on CryptoPotato .

18 May 2026, 21:47

Bitcoin lost its hold on $80K, but three events may send it back sooner than markets expect

Bitcoin positions itself for a rally above $80,000 after Strategy's $2 billion BTC buy, crumbling investor confidence in the US Treasury and a potential US-Iran deal.

18 May 2026, 21:45

SandboxAQ brings its drug discovery models to Claude — no PhD in computing required

BitcoinWorld SandboxAQ brings its drug discovery models to Claude — no PhD in computing required Drug discovery remains one of the most expensive and failure-prone processes in modern industry. Finding a single viable molecule can take a decade and cost billions, and most candidates never reach the market. A wave of AI startups has promised to accelerate this pipeline, but many of their tools remain accessible only to researchers already comfortable with specialized computing infrastructure. SandboxAQ, a company spun out of Alphabet roughly five years ago, believes the real bottleneck isn’t the models themselves — it’s the interface. Bridging the gap between scientific models and researchers SandboxAQ has partnered with Anthropic to integrate its scientific AI models directly into Claude, the company’s conversational AI platform. The integration places powerful drug discovery and materials science tools behind a natural language interface, eliminating the need for users to set up their own computing environments. Nadia Harhen, SandboxAQ’s general manager of AI simulation, described the move as a first: a frontier quantitative model running on a frontier large language model accessible in plain language. The company, chaired by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, has raised more than $950 million from investors. Beyond drug discovery, SandboxAQ operates in cybersecurity and other quantitative fields. But its core differentiator lies in what it calls large quantitative models, or LQMs. These are physics-grounded models built on the rules of the physical world rather than patterns in text. They can run quantum chemistry calculations and simulate molecular dynamics and microkinetics — the step-by-step processes of chemical reactions at the molecular level. Why physics-grounded models matter Traditional AI models in drug discovery often rely on statistical correlations from existing data. SandboxAQ’s LQMs, by contrast, are trained on real-world lab data and scientific equations, allowing them to predict how candidate molecules will behave before any physical experiment begins. This approach can save pharmaceutical companies years of trial and error. SandboxAQ’s typical customers include computational scientists, research scientists, and experimentalists at large pharmaceutical or industrial companies searching for new materials that can become marketable products. Harhen noted that these customers often come to SandboxAQ after trying other software that failed to translate computational results into real-world outcomes. Implications for the broader AI economy SandboxAQ frames its work within what it calls the quantitative economy — a $50+ trillion sector spanning biopharma, financial services, energy, and advanced materials. The company’s bet is that making quantitative models accessible through conversational AI will unlock value far beyond the current user base of computational specialists. While competitors like Chai Discovery and Isomorphic Labs focus on improving the science of the models themselves, SandboxAQ is betting that usability will be the deciding factor in real-world adoption. Conclusion SandboxAQ’s integration with Claude represents a practical step toward democratizing advanced scientific simulation. By removing the infrastructure barrier, the company hopes to accelerate drug discovery and materials development for organizations that lack deep computational resources. Whether this approach yields faster breakthroughs than model-centric competitors will depend on how effectively researchers adopt and trust the conversational interface for high-stakes scientific work. FAQs Q1: What are large quantitative models (LQMs)? LQMs are AI models grounded in physics and real-world scientific data, designed to perform quantum chemistry calculations and simulate molecular dynamics. Unlike language models, they are built on the rules of the physical world. Q2: How does the SandboxAQ-Claude integration work? Users can interact with SandboxAQ’s LQMs through Anthropic’s Claude using natural language, without needing to set up their own computing infrastructure. The models run on Anthropic’s platform and respond to conversational queries. Q3: Who is the target user for this tool? Primarily computational scientists, research scientists, and experimentalists at pharmaceutical and industrial companies who need to simulate molecular behavior for drug discovery and materials development. This post SandboxAQ brings its drug discovery models to Claude — no PhD in computing required first appeared on BitcoinWorld .

18 May 2026, 21:43

AVAX drops 2.3 percent to $9 as sell pressure grows

🚨 AVAX price dropped 2.3 percent in 24 hours to $9.05. The majority of recent Avalanche transactions cost less than 0.0001 $AVAX. Continue Reading: AVAX drops 2.3 percent to $9 as sell pressure grows The post AVAX drops 2.3 percent to $9 as sell pressure grows appeared first on COINTURK NEWS .

18 May 2026, 21:35

China’s Trade Support Measures Counterbalance Weak Domestic Demand, Says DBS

BitcoinWorld China’s Trade Support Measures Counterbalance Weak Domestic Demand, Says DBS China’s trade support policies are effectively offsetting persistent weakness in domestic demand, according to a new analysis from DBS Group Research. The assessment provides a nuanced view of the world’s second-largest economy, which continues to navigate headwinds from a sluggish property sector and cautious consumer spending. Trade as a Stabilizing Force DBS economists note that while domestic consumption and investment remain subdued, export-oriented industries have benefited from targeted government measures. These include streamlined customs procedures, tax rebates for exporters, and financial support for trade financing. The analysis suggests that such policies have helped maintain a positive trade balance, even as global demand shows signs of softening. The report highlights that China’s trade surplus has remained resilient, providing a crucial buffer against the drag from domestic sectors. This dynamic is particularly evident in manufacturing hubs along the eastern coast, where factory activity has held up better than in regions more reliant on domestic real estate and services. Implications for Economic Outlook The DBS analysis arrives amid a broader debate about the trajectory of China’s economic recovery. While some indicators point to a stabilization, others—such as retail sales and industrial profits—continue to reflect cautious sentiment among households and businesses. “Trade support is acting as a shock absorber, but it cannot fully replace a recovery in domestic demand,” the report cautions. Policymakers in Beijing are likely to maintain a dual approach: propping up exports while gradually rolling out measures to stimulate consumption and investment at home. What This Means for Markets and Investors For global investors, the DBS assessment underscores the importance of monitoring China’s trade data as a leading indicator of economic health. A sustained trade surplus could support the renminbi and provide the government with more fiscal space. However, over-reliance on external demand leaves the economy vulnerable to geopolitical tensions and shifts in global trade policy. The report also notes that sectors tied to exports—such as electronics, machinery, and green technology—may continue to outperform domestically oriented industries in the near term. Conclusion China’s trade support measures are providing a meaningful offset to weak domestic demand, according to DBS. While the strategy helps stabilize the economy in the short term, a durable recovery will likely require stronger consumption and investment from within. The balance between export-led growth and domestic revitalization remains a key focus for policymakers and market observers alike. FAQs Q1: What trade support measures has China implemented? China has introduced tax rebates for exporters, simplified customs procedures, and expanded trade financing to help businesses maintain export volumes despite weak global demand. Q2: Why is weak domestic demand a concern for China? Weak domestic demand, driven by a sluggish property market and cautious consumer spending, limits the economy’s ability to grow from within. It makes China more reliant on exports, which can be affected by global trade conditions. Q3: How does DBS’s analysis affect investor outlook on China? DBS’s analysis suggests that trade support is providing a short-term buffer, but investors should watch for sustained improvement in domestic consumption and investment as signals of a more durable recovery. This post China’s Trade Support Measures Counterbalance Weak Domestic Demand, Says DBS first appeared on BitcoinWorld .