USD/CHF turns sideways below 0.8100 as focus shifts to Jackson Hole Symposium

USD/CHF consolidates around 0.8080 as investors await Jackson Hole Symposium.
Traders are confident that the Fed will cut interest rates in September.
Investors await flash US S&P Global PMI for August, and Swiss Trade Balance data for July.

Sagar Dua FXStreet

The USD/CHF pair trades in a tight range marginally below 0.8100 during the late Asian trading session on Wednesday. The Swiss Franc pair has been trading sideways from a week as investors await Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair Jerome Powell’s speech at the Jackson Hole (JH) Symposium, which is scheduled on Friday.

Investors will pay close attention to Jerome Powell’s speech to get cues about whether the Fed will cut interest rates in the September monetary policy meeting.

According to the CME FedWatch tool, there is an almost 85% chance that the Fed will cut interest rates by 25 basis points (bps) to 4.00%-4.25% in the September meeting.

Contrary to market expectations, Fed Powell has been guiding a “wait and see” approach, citing that the United States (US) central bank is still unable to gauge the overall impact of tariffs on inflation and the economy.

During the press time, the US Dollar Index (DXY), which tracks the Greenback’s value against six major currencies, trades steadily near the weekly high around 98.00.

Going forward, investors will focus on the preliminary US S&P Global Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) data for August, which will be published on Thursday.

In Switzerland, investors will focus on Trade Balance data for July, which is scheduled to be released on Thursday.

Economic Indicator

Fed's Chair Powell speech

Jerome H. Powell took office as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System on May 25, 2012, to fill an unexpired term. On November 2, 2017, President Donald Trump nominated Powell to serve as the next Chairman of the Federal Reserve. Powell assumed office as Chair on February 5, 2018.

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