📊 Mixed moods ahead of Jackson Hole

USD pulls back slightly, gold gains while US futures are trading nowhere - this is the state of the market ahead of the first fully-virtual economic symposium in Jackson Hole. Esther George, president of Kansas City Fed, will deliver opening remarks at 3:00 pm BST with Fed Chair Powell expected to deliver his speech shortly afterwards. Base case scenario is that Powell will refrain from making any major announcements. However, given recent hawkish comments from George, Bullard and Kaplan, a hawkish surprise cannot be entirely ruled out.

We can see that the US bond market (TNOTE) launched today's trading with a big bearish gap, meaning that yields increased. It suggests that market may be in fact positioning for a potential taper announcement. On the other hand, gold has barely reacted to today's pick-up in yields and has been trading higher throughout the day.

Gold trades higher on the day but the past few hours have been mixed. Precious metal continues to struggle near $1,800 mark. On the other hand, TNOTE continues to trade lower following a big bearish price gap at launch of today's trading. Source: xStation5