Wall Street awaits the speech by Jerome Powell, president of the Fed, which will finally be delivered today, Friday, August 27, at the Jackson Jole symposium.
Futures on the Dow Jones rise by about 0.22%, those on the Nasdaq by 0.29%, those on the S&P 500 are + 0.26% pending the publication of the core PCE index, an important inflation thermometer that will be published just today, at 2.30 pm Italian time.
The euro-dollar slightly moved up by 0.08% to $ 1.1761. US 10-year Treasury rates flat at 1.344%.
Powell is called by the markets to tone down the decidedly hawkish tones that have come from some members of the Fed, in favor of the tapering of Quantitative easing.
Interviewed by Yahoo Finance, Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan said he was convinced of the resilience of the US economy against the Delta variant. In his opinion, he therefore stressed, a US rate hike in 2022 would be so appropriate.
Regarding the tapering of QE, Kaplan pointed out that the purchases of the assets that Jerome Powell’s Federal Reserve is carrying out with its QE program, worth $ 120 billion per month, have done their homework and are now not they are better suited to the situation.
Hawkish comments also from Esther George, president of the Kansas Fed who, in an interview with Cnbc, said that, “given the progress we have seen”, the reduction of the purchasing program “is appropriate”.
However, no clarification has come about when tapering should start. But, “looking at the job growth that happened last month and the inflation levels right now, I think the economy doesn’t need that much (monetary) stimulus – George pointed out – I’d rather speak of tapering more before than after “.
The hawks’ statements depressed sentiment yesterday, along with the news of the suicide attack at Kabul airport, which took place yesterday.
“The markets do not like uncertainty and uncertainty in Afghanistan is high and the impression is that it is increasing”, Bob Doll, chief investment officer of Crossmark Global Investments, commented to Cnbc. ‘Isis.
However, anxiety about the Delta variant and the consequences it could have on the US economy is growing.
The numbers pitted in the last few hours on the new infections from Covid-19 in the United States are the following, based on data from the New York Times reported by the Marketwatch.com website.
In the last week that ended yesterday, Thursday 26 August, the daily average of new Covid-19 cases in the US rose to 156,296 units, up 24% compared to two weeks ago.
The daily average of deaths increased to 1,233, a 100% jump in two weeks, and over 1000 for the first time since March.
The daily average for hospitalizations rose to 96,586, up 29% in the past two weeks.
From the data of the federal agency Centers for Disease Control and Prevention it emerges that the number of people who have been fully vaccinated in the United States stands at 172.2 million, 51.9% of the total population of the States.