The pessimists believed they were right all week.
Until Friday...
The signal everyone was waiting for
Last Sunday, I told you I was still optimistic about the bull run, even though the PPI figures weren’t great.
What I hadn’t mentioned was that Fed chair Jerome Powell would be speaking at Jackson Hole on Friday 22 August.
Since 1982, this annual gathering has brought central bankers together to discuss major economic issues.
So his speech was eagerly awaited.
You only had to look at the markets to see that investors were betting on a bearish outcome, in both stocks and crypto.
What did Jerome Powell say?
He acknowledged that inflation is slowing, some data is moving in the right direction, and a rate cut could come as early as September... if the next figures support it.
He also stressed that tariff tensions remain a concern and that the Fed won’t be swayed by politics.
He didn’t explicitly say, "We’re going to cut rates," but he clearly left the door open.
And sometimes, a little hope is all it takes to get markets moving again.
That’s exactly what happened: euphoria, with everything rising.
Everything except the dollar, which fell. Lower rates make the currency less attractive to investors.
The bears lost their bet, and the bulls won theirs.
Trump, Europe and the war in Ukraine
This week, Donald Trump hosted several European leaders in Washington, including Zelensky and Macron.
There were no threats or trade tensions, contrary to what some had expected.
The aim was to discuss support for Ukraine and explore a diplomatic way out of the conflict.
Trump even mentioned a possible three-way summit with Zelensky and Putin.
So far, there’s been no concrete progress.
If you ask me, Trump is mostly trying to get his Nobel Peace Prize...
Kanye launched a memecoin
Kanye West released a token called YZY.
As always with this kind of project, the ingredients are familiar:
- The creator or their team keeps a huge share of the tokens, over 80% in this case
- The coin lands on exchanges and draws in the curious, along with anyone hoping for quick money
- The price shoots up
- Then insiders sell, and it all collapses
No surprise there.
We’ve seen it before. But because it’s Kanye and there’s plenty of hype, some people can’t resist.
Nobody asked for my opinion, but here it is anyway: if the creator holds 80% of a memecoin, that’s already a terrible start.