The US Dollar continues to hold positive momentum against most of its peer after the Federal Reserve announcement at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium. Jerome Powell, Chairman of the Fed, said that an aggressive strategy would be put into place with the intent of increasing US employment and pushing inflation higher. Analysts are doubtful of the Fed's capability to meet the new target which seeks to reach an average inflation rate of 2% over time. One analyst pointed out that the the Fed's inflation target hasn't been hit since 2012, despite the efforts of several Fed Chairs under various administrations.
In Tokyo trading, as of 9:24 am, the USD/JPY was trading higher at 106.7240 Yen, a gain of 0.19% and off the earlier peak of 106.797 Yen. The EUR/USD was down, trading at $1.1822, a loss of 0.0135%; the pair has ranged from a low of $1.18109 to a peak of $1.18254. The GBP/USD pair was also lower at $1.3195, down 0.0508% and off the session low of $1.31857.
US Labor Data Worse than Expected
In the US, Labor data was unexpectedly worse than market players had expected. According to the US Labor Department, claims for unemployment benefits for the week ended August 21st was worse in both the initial claims and continuing claims categories. New claims came in at 1.006 million against an expected 1.0 million, while continuing claims hit 14.535 million and a forecast of 14.45 million. The US Bureau of Economic Analysis also reported that annualized GDP was slightly better than predicted at -31.7%, with analysts expecting a decline to -32.5% (from -32.9%). On a quarterly basis, preliminary GDP was worse at -2.3%, with analysts expecting to see a reading of -2.0% (from -2.1%).