Good morning, fellas.
It looks like the boring period is over as investors are eyeing some really high impact economic events from the United States and the United Kingdom. The Fed Chair Powell’s testimony tops the list. Here’s what to expect from Powell today.

Watchlist – Key Economic Events Today

Great Britain Pound – GBP
Inflation Report Hearings – At 10:00, the Governor and the MPC (Monitory Policy Committee) are gonna testify on the inflation report before the Parliament. The hearings are a few hours in length and can create market volatility for the duration. Especially noted are the direct comments made about the currency markets.

Let us recall, the UK’s inflation rate is still in the range. All we need is to see what they are expecting in the future. Hawkish remarks are gonna give a boost to the pound.

US Dollar – USD

Fed Chair Powell Testifies – At 13:30 (GMT), the US Fed Chair Powell due to testify on the Semiannual Monetary Policy Report before the Senate Banking Committee in Washington DC. As head of the central bank, which controls short term interest rates, the remarks from the Fed Chair are always of high importance. His structured remarks and the unstructured Q&A sessions especially move markets.

What to expect from Powell?
Lately, the Fed has sounded dovish with respect to interest rate hikes in 2019 over the global economic slowdown. Fed has also showed concerns to initiate ending the balance sheet reduction program early.

In today’s testimony, investors will be looking for further clues on these two factors. Besides, any comments on the Inflation rate and upcoming Advance GDP on Thursday will be worth trading.

Fed’s optimization over Inflation rate and GDP can trigger buying in the buck as traders will start pricing in the hawkish policy sentiment.

Financial markets around the globe are trading calmly ahead of Powell’s testimony and I think it’s rational to avoid taking positions before this news to avoid anti-trend trade.

CB Consumer Confidence – The Conference Board Inc. will release the consumer confidence figures at 15:00 (GMT). It measures the financial confidence of investors for a majority of overall economic activity. Consumer confidence is expected to surge from 120.2 to 124.8 points today. I must say, it’s the second most important event after Fed Chair testimony and may offer us nice trade opportunities today during the New York session.

Good luck!