Market News
Dollar gains before key Powell speech at Jackson Hole on Friday - RETUERS
Summary
- All eyes on Fed chair's address at Jackson Hole
- Odds of Fed rate cut next month at 74>#/li###
- Jobless claims rise by most in three months
- US business activity picked up pace in August
NEW YORK, Aug 21 (Reuters) - The dollar gained on Thursday before a highly anticipated speech by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Friday will be evaluated for any new clues on whether the U.S. central bank is likely to cut interest rates next month.
Traders ramped up bets on a cut at the Fed’s September 16-17 meeting after an unexpectedly weak jobs report for July. The risk of higher inflation as President Donald Trump's administration enacts new trade tariffs, however, remains a wild card that is making some policymakers hesitant to ease.
The Fed’s Jackson Hole theme this year is “Labor Markets in Transition,” and “I guess it depends on how much (Powell) wants to lean on cracks in the labor market,” said Eric Theoret, FX strategist at Scotiabank in Toronto.
“Whether it's the payrolls and the revisions, or whether it's the claims that continue to climb higher, there is a narrative there that he can definitely push on,” Theoret said.
The dollar briefly pared gains on Thursday after data showed that the number of Americans filing new applications for jobless benefits rose by the most in about three months last week.
