Jackson Hole preview: US Fed’s Warsh to deliver keynote amid bond markets fears

In the wake of the recent Treasury intervention to bring long-term yields down and with another wave of inflation likely on the way, all eyes are on the new Fed chief Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh is due to deliver the keynote address at this year’s Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium on Friday.

It will give markets their first chance to hear from the new Fed chief at the central bank’s annual gathering in Wyoming.

It comes at a fraught time.

A recent Treasury market intervention announced by Secretary Scott Bessent with the aim of pushing long-term Treasury yields lower raised eyebrows on Wall Street, to put it mildly.

It was a move that seems to be at cross-purposes with the Fed’s messaging.

The Jackson Hole gathering is normally a chance for the Fed to lay out its views on the economy and its interest-rate strategy.

How much Warsh will divulge is unclear.

He has tended to play things close to the vest so far.

One thing is clear, though: The market is hardly convinced by what it has seen coming out of Washington.

RT breaks down the latest developments in the world’s most important market and what the Fed chair might have to say on Friday.

Bessent’s ill-fated move to tame yields A little over a week ago, Bessent announced that the Treasury would at least double its buyback operations of long-dated Treasuries.

It was, as many such things are, framed as a mere liquidity operation.

It was hard not to notice that the operation involves buying long-dated bonds at a moment when the Treasury very much wants long-dated yields to come down.

Read more US debt tops $40 trillion months earlier than expected With the US operating with a $40 trillion debt anvil around its neck, any rise in yields entails a sharp increase in borrowing expenses.