NEW YORK, Aug 24 — US stocks, which have been choppy so far this week, started trading today flat on weak data, although the focus remains firmly fixed on the US central bank chief’s speech in Wyoming this week.
But amid the Federal Reserve’s aggressive campaign to cool the highest inflation in four decades with steep interest rate hikes, Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s speech on Friday in Jackson Hole is the week’s main event. Briefing.com analyst Patrick J O’Hare said there is a “mountain of expectations building” for the speech, which Powell is due to deliver at the annual central banking symposium.
Markets have largely tuned out repeated comments from Fed officials saying rate hikes are not done, but O’Hare said, “Frankly, though, the only view that really matters this week is the one Fed Chair Powell expresses.”