Range-bound trading prevailing so far in the session
The major currencies bloc snapshot is very much similar to what we had three hours ago as yet another dud of a morning is taking place in European trading today. The aussie remains the leader following an earlier spike following the Scott Morrison's takeover as Australia prime minister from Malcolm Turnbull. Meanwhile, the yen lags behind as stocks remain resilient - Nikkei posted solid gains - and USD/JPY continues to threaten further upside moves.
The focus of markets now are on Powell's speech in Jackson Hole but if you ask me, I'd say don't get your hopes up. Powell will be speaking on "Monetary policy in a changing economy" at 1400 GMT. I don't expect him to touch on key Fed policies and as the event will pertain to monetary policy in general. In short, I don't expect anything substantial.
If anything, I'd expect him to lean more towards addressing the framework of monetary policy and the technicalities of it rather than the specifics. But his line of thinking may well be interpreted as the Fed's approach so that may be something to look out for - he may even throw in a few examples I reckon.
Other than that, I'd be watching for any views on emerging markets. Stress faced by emerging market economies is one of the key things that could derail the Fed's rate hike cycle - if they choose to embrace it - so it'll be interesting to see if Powell or any other Fed members feel that emerging markets are a problem or will be a problem in the future.
And the last thing is of course whether or not Powell will lay down the gauntlet and push back against Trump. We've already seen Kaplan and George defend the Fed's independence over the last two days so let's see if Powell will flaunt the same language when the time comes.
For the full agenda and speakers, you can refer to Eamonn's post earlier in the day here - which also has a bunch of previews of the Jackson Hole symposium!
