Kansas City Fed president, Esther George, speaks to Fox Business
– It is time to start altering Fed accommodation
– Fed should begin decreasing bond purchases this year
This pretty much further diminishes any major announcement from the Jackson Hole symposium tomorrow, though the fact that it had gone virtual already did send a clear enough message on

Forex news from the European trading session – 26 August 2021
Headlines:
Markets:
– EUR leads, CHF lags on the day
– European equities lower; S&P 500 futures flat

ECB releases the account of its July monetary policy meeting – 26 August 2021

Kansas City Fed president, Esther George, will be speaking in a bit
She will be speaking on Fox Business and the hot topic may be what to expect going into Jackson Hole tomorrow. Her Fed branch is of course the host of the event, so keep your eyes and ears peeled just in case.

Dollar steady and little changed for the most part
A quick summary of price action today is that we’re seeing a breather from all that has taken place in the opening half of the week.

Latest data from the Mortgage Bankers Association for the week ending 20 August 2021
–  -3.9%
– Market index 737.1 vs 725.4 prior
– Purchase index 257.5 vs 249.9 prior
A modest increase in mortgage activity, helped by both a rise in purchases and refinancing in the past week. There are still concerns about high valuations in the property

Dollar inches a little higher again, US futures dip a little into negative territory
S&P 500 futures are now down 3 points or about 0.1% and the dollar is picking up slight gains again as seen at the start of the morning, but once again the moves aren’t anything to shout about as they are keeping

It is a quiet one with little notable moves in the market
European indices are sitting a bit more mixed but little changed on the session so far, while US futures are holding very mild gains with S&P 500 futures up 2.5 points or 0.06% as the market lacks any firm direction today.

The fresh measures will go into effect from Friday through to 12 September
The expansion will now cover Hokkaido, Miyagi, Gifu, Aichi, Mie, Shiga, Okayama and Hiroshima, all of which have already been under a pseudo-state of emergency. In total, that puts 21 prefectures under a state of emergency across the country.

de Guindos says they could so so in the next few days
– Third quarter indicators are positive
That’s some confidence given the threat posed by supply disruptions, rising cost pressures, and the delta variant. The latter may not be too concerning for Europe given the high vaccination rates but it does compound the problems on the