Powell's Speech at Jackson Hole Increases Likelihood of Federal Reserve Rate Hike

During his speech at the Jackson Hole symposium, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell emphasized that inflation remains too high and that the Fed must be confident that underlying inflation is moving toward the 2% target 'clearly and at a sufficient pace.' While he did not provide explicit guidance on interest rates, Powell indicated that the Fed has 'work to do.' Following his comments, market expectations for a rate increase in September rose from 35% to approximately 50%. In response, the yield on two-year U.S. Treasuries increased by 6.6 basis points to 4.29%, and the U.S. dollar index gained about 0.4%. Despite these shifts, Bitcoin's price remained relatively stable around $79,400.