Investing.com – Here’s a preview of the top 3 things that could rock markets tomorrow
Markets gear up for action in Jackson Hole
The annual central banking symposium gets underway on Thursday, as central bankers, finance ministers and academics meet in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
The main event, however, comes a day later on Friday, as traders looked ahead to speeches by both European Central Bank president Mario Draghi and Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen.
Draghi, however, is expected to offer little in the way of insight into the central bank’s thinking on future monetary policy to avert a bullish reaction in the euro.
EUR/USD struggled to hold onto gains on Wednesday, easing from highs to trade flat at $1.1808.
US macro data on tap
Market participants look ahead to the release of a duo of economic reports on Thursday, which may offer further guidance on the strength of U.S. economy and fresh direction for the dollar against its rivals.
Existing Home Sales is expected to rise 0.9% in July to 5.57m while economists’ forecast a 6,000 increase to 238,000 in the number of individuals who filed for unemployment insurance for the week ended Aug 19.
Gold on $1,300 watchlist
Despite trading in a narrow range so far this week, gold futures continued to edge towards the key $1,300 level amid continued US political uncertainty and a fall in investor expectations of a third rate hike later this year, following the Federal reserve’s July meeting minutes released last week.
According to investing.com’s fed rate monitor tool just 32% of traders expect the Federal Reserve to hike rates in June, compared to nearly 50% traders in the previous week.
The minutes showed Fed members were divided on the outlook of monetary policy tightening and suggested that the central bank could afford to wait on further rate hikes until the trend of slow inflation appeared transitory.