Major US stock indices are higher ahead of the Fed Powell speech at Jackson Hole at 10 AM ET. There is uncertainty from his speech especially since the tilt one way or the other is the most likely scenario. It is many Fed members and former Fed members have said, the risks are more balanced, the economy remains solid, but the employment data was a concern.
Powell will be speaking, but Pres. Trump will be listening closely.
The market has priced in around a 70% chance of a cut in September.
The S&P is working on snapping a five-day losing streak (its longest since early January). The NASDAQ index has been down for of the last 5 trading days.
A snapshot of the market currently shows:
- Dow industrial average up 348 points or 0.77% at 45134.25
- S&P index of 36.67 points or 0.58% at 6407.07
- NASDAQ index up 91 points or 0.43% at 21192.
- The small-cap Russell 2000 is up 16.73 points or 0.74% at 2290.85.
Looking at the US debt market, yields are lower with a flatter yield curve:
- 2-year yield 3.75%, -0.7 basis points
- 10 year yield 4.308%, -2.4 basis points
- 30 year yield 4.897%, -2.6 basis points.
In the forex, the US dollar is mixed:
- EUR +0.03% at 1.1600
- JPY +0.10% at 148154
- GBP -0.12% at 134.27
- CHF unchanged at 0.8086
- CAD +0.05% at 1.3917
- AUD -0.12% at 0.6429
- NZD +0.03% at 0.5814
Below is a link to watch the chairs speech live:
