Powell speech: Economy strong without question

FXStreet Team FXStreet

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell participates in a discussion at the Macroeconomics and Monetary Policy Conference, in San Francisco.

Key quotes:

Latest core inflation numbers real progress.

We expect inflation to move to 2% on sometimes bumpy path.

If our base case doesn't happen, we would hold rates where they are for longer.

We don't know where rates are going to go back to when this whole thing is over.

The economy is not suffering from this level of rates.

Economy strong without question. Possibility of a recession is not elevated now.

If we see unexpected weakness in labor market, that could draw a policy response.

We won’t make decisions based on political calendars or anything like that.

Market reaction

The US Dollar gains modest upward traction with Powell’s hawkish words. Thinned market conditions do to the widespread Easter Holiday limit price action.

Author

FXStreet Team

FXStreet

EUR/USD remains bid, focus stays on 1.1900

EUR/USD has broken its two-day run of losses and is ticking modestly higher on Thursday, hovering around the 1.1880 area as the US Dollar struggles to find clear direction. Weekly Initial Jobless Claims rose more than expected, taking a bit of shine off the Greenback, but markets are largely in wait-and-see mode ahead of Friday’s US CPI release.

GBP/USD sticks to the bid bias, still below 1.3700

GBP/USD is trading with decent gains around 1.3650 on Thursday. Indeed, Cable is attempting to shake off the weakness seen earlier in the week amid another choppy session for the Greenback, while a run of disappointing UK data has so far failed to derail the pair’s tentative recovery.

Gold recedes slightly, trades below $5,100

Gold remains stuck in choppy trade on Thursday, deflating marginally just below the $5,100 mark per troy ounce as the US Dollar drifts without a clear trend. Softer US Treasury yields across the curve are offering some support, but with markets treading carefully ahead of Friday’s US CPI release, conviction remains limited and price action continues to look hesitant.