Today, all investors’ attention is focused on the Jerome Powel’s speech on the results of the symposium in Jackson Hole

The number of initial jobless claims in the US slightly increased to 353,000 from 349,000 last week. But these figures are still at pre-crisis levels, indicating a stable labor market situation. US GDP year-on-year increased to 6.6% (previous 6.5%), although this is below economists’ expectations of 6.7%. The head of the Fed, Jerome Powell, will give a speech today following the symposium in Jackson Hole. This verbal intervention may increase the volatility in the financial markets. If nothing will be mentioned about the reduction of the QE program or if Mr. Powell will indicate that it is too early to speak about it and better labor market numbers are needed, the dollar index will rally down, and stock indices will jump. And vice versa, if Mr. Powell says that the QE program reduction is scheduled to start this year, in this case, the dollar index will jump sharply, while the stock indices will go down. Analysts believe that the central bank will seek to begin reducing monthly bond purchases this year to avoid having to catch up with the market later and risk more aggressive steps to curb inflation.

Thursday’s US military losses were the first in Afghanistan since February 2020 and represented the deadliest day for US troops in a decade. Some critics blamed Joe Biden for the hasty evacuation that threatened the lives of Americans in Afghanistan providing security at the Kabul airport.

Oil rising in price and finishing the week with a steady increase. The Chinese authorities were able to contain the wave of delta strain, and analysts at Goldman Sachs and UBS still expect oil prices to rise until the end of 2021, as the supply on the market will be insufficient.

Gold added 0.15% yesterday, hitting $1,793.60 per troy ounce. Gold and silver price dynamics are highly dependent on the dynamics of the dollar index and US Treasury bond yields. If the Fed keeps its soft monetary policy, gold prices will continue to rise. On the contrary, if the Fed announces cuts to its QE program this year, gold could see large sales.

Retail sales in Australia fell in July due to the spread of the delta strain. The New Zealand dollar slightly decreased after the country’s prime minister announced a quarantine in Auckland, the country’s largest city, which is likely to remain in place for another two weeks.