EURUSD is hanging in the air while anticipating the results of the first day of the Jackson Hole symposium.
The major currency pair is looking rather neutral on Thursday – everyone is expecting something to happen in Jackson Hole. The current quote for the instrument is 1.1764.
Actually, monetary policymakers will mostly talk online due to the pandemic. Today, investors are completely focused on the speech to be delivered by Jerome Powell, the US Fed chairman. No one really knows what he might say but he is mostly expected to be quite “soft” and avoid talking about an early reduction of the regulator’s stimulus programs at the end of this year. The more signals in favour of an early decrease in the QE, the better for the USD. On the other hand, the softer and more blurred QE-related comments, the higher the probability the “greenback” falls.
Among the things that may support the American currency is the piece of news saying that the USA approved vaccines from Pfizer and BioNTech, which may significantly boost the anti-coronavirus vaccination campaign. In this case, the USA may take the pandemic under control early in 2022. It means that both businesses and consumers may become more active, at least in theory. All this is undoubtedly positive for the economy.
As for the statistics, today one should pay attention to the second estimate of the US GDP for the second quarter of 2021, which is expected to show 6.7% against the previous estimate. The stronger the data, the better for the USD.