The Federal Reserve’s Jackson Hole Economic Symposium kicks off Thursday, but all eyes are on Chair Jerome Powell‘s speech Friday at 10 a.m. ET. Markets are hoping for clues on interest rate cuts, but Powell is unlikely to commit just yet.
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The theme of this year’s event, “Labor Markets in Transition,” couldn’t be more timely, as the Fed grapples with a cooling jobs market and inflation that continues to run above target.
Powell is set to speak on the “Economic Outlook and Framework Review,” a topic that may offer insight into how the Fed is weighing risks ahead of its September 17 rate decision.
What The Fed Minutes Told Us
According to the Fed’s July meeting minutes, the majority of officials judged that “upside risk to inflation was the greater of the two risks”, compared to unemployment.
They also noted that tariff effects were becoming “more apparent in the data,” particularly in goods price inflation.
Participants cautioned that the inflationary impact of tariffs remains hard to quantify, but many observed that “domestic businesses …