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Stocks sold-off on Monday as markets weighed spikes in COVID cases, stimulus gridlock in Congress, and a tightening race one-week ahead of the U.S. Elections. Equities booked their worst day since September as the Dow fell 650 points, the S&P fell by 1.9% and the Nasdaq Composite closed down 1.6%.
Last week financial markets witnessed a historic announcement on the future of monetary policy in the United States. We want to emphasize in this alert the significance of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech on Thursday, August 27 at the annual Jackson Hole Symposium.
As a follow-up to Friday’s Market Commentary Alert, Reuters reported later in the evening that this weekend’s anticipated virtual meeting between US and Chinese trade officials was postponed. The meeting was cancelled due to scheduling conflicts allowing China more time to make purchases of US goods.
The evolving saga of “Cold War 2.0" will add another chapter this weekend as US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He are reportedly set to meet around August 15. This will be the second meeting of the summer where senior officials from both countries will meet to discuss the progress of the phase-one trade deal signed earlier this year.
The Federal Reverse’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the central bank’s main body for monetary policy, decided to leave the federal funds rate unchanged at 0.00%-0.25% on Wednesday, June 10. The members of the FOMC expect the rate will remain unchanged until 2022.
A timeline of actions taken by the Federal Reserve and Federal Government in addressing the economic impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19).
