The post Pound Sterling steadies as Fed Powell acknowledges risks to US labor market strength appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

The Pound Sterling exhibits strength against the US Dollar as Fed’s Powell sees softness in the US labor market strength. The Fed chief did not guide any specific rate-cut path. UK GDP for May and US Inflation for June have come under the spotlight. The Pound Sterling (GBP) edges higher against the US Dollar (USD) in Wednesday’s early London session after a mild correction from almost a four-week high of 1.2850 this week. The broader appeal of the GBP/USD pair remains firm amid strong speculation that the Federal Reserve (Fed) will start reducing interest rates during the September meeting.  The odds for the Fed pivoting to policy normalization remain firm even though Fed Chair Jerome Powell reiterated in his semi-annual Congressional testimony on Tuesday, refrained from providing any specific rate-cut path for this year. Powell argued in favor of maintaining interest rates at their current levels for long until they get evidence that inflation will return to the desired rate of 2%. What was unexpected from Fed Powell’s commentary before Congress is his acknowledgement that the United States (US) economy is no longer overheated, with cooling job market conditions. Powell said that the labor market has moderated to where it was before pandemic-era. Now that risks have become two-sided, a rate-cut move by the Fed in September appears to be a done deal. For more clarity, investors will focus on the US Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for June, which will be published on Thursday. The report is expected to show that the core inflation, which strips off volatile food and energy items, grew steadily by 0.2% and 3.4% on a monthly and annual basis, respectively. Annual headline inflation is estimated to have decelerated to 3.1% from May’s reading of 3.3%, while the monthly figure is expected to have barely…

---

Filed under: News - @ July 10, 2024 6:22 am