Risk appetite was strong this week as S&P 500 finally surged to close at new record high of 1992.37. The Dow also reclaimed 17000 handle and closed at 17039.49. Asian equities, though, are mixed as Nikkei 225 pared back earlier gains and is trading in red at the time of writing. In the currency markets, dollar is consolidating this week's FOMC minutes inspired gains for the moment and is staying firm against other major currencies. Investors are awaiting Fed chairman Yellen's speech in the annual Jackson Hole symposium today. Traders are looking for some additional bullets from Yellen to boost the greenback further higher.
A key focus on Yellen's speech will be on her assessment on the health of the labor market as the topic of this year's symposium is "Re-Evaluating Labor Market Dynamics". The more hawkish than expected FOMC minutes released earlier this week boosted the greenback higher. They unveiled that policymakers had detailed discussion of the exit strategy and would probably release the detail sin September. The FOMC members acknowledged the improvement in the job market. And staff lowered the unemployment rate forecast in response to the faster decline in the unemployment rate. Eyes will be on whether Yellen's comments today would reinforce the current dollar sentiments, or rather, cool it down.
Talking about Fed, Kansas Fed George said when the economy was getting closer to full employment and stable inflation, the time has come for rate hike. And she didn't want Fed to be "behind the curve" in normalization of interest rates. She noted that data were "stronger than expected" and "some of the policy benchmarks that we looked at and have been looking at for some time are already signaling that we should be above zero interest rates." San Francisco Fed Williams, on the other hand, said that "a rate hike some time in the middle of 2015 seems reasonable" based on current economic outlook.
Elsewhere, the economic calendar is rather light today with focus mainly on Canadian data, including consumer inflation and retail sales.