Major US equity indices opened higher on Friday as investors look forward to the Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s highly anticipated speech at the closely watched Jackson Hole symposium.
Powell’s speech on Friday is unlikely to deviate much from the latest FOMC meeting minutes. However, against the backdrop of the US President Donald Trump’s critical comments on the Fed’s policy tightening earlier this week, his comments will be closely scrutinized for fresh clues over the central bank’s future monetary policy stance.
Meanwhile, investors already seemed to have digested the latest trade-related developments, wherein the world’s two largest economies moved ahead with 25% tariffs on $16 billion worth of goods on either side. Meanwhile, the low-level trade talks between the US and Chinese delegations ended without any major breakthroughs, albeit did little to dampen investors’ appetite for riskier assets – like equities.
At the time of writing this report, all the three major indices – Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite, were trading with gains of anywhere between 0.25% to 0.5% and remained on track to end the week on a positive note.
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