US President Trump has made no secret that he is unhappy with his central bank and has repeated his call for negative interest rates in the US. Jerome Powell, the US Fed Chief appointed by Trump has cut interest rates over the past three consecutive FOMC meetings but cautioned that more cuts should not be viewed as a guarantee. According to a Fed statement, the FOMC “Will set monetary policy, as required by law, to support maximum employment and stable prices and will make those decisions based solely on careful, objective and non-political analysis.”

The Jackson Hole Symposium will start on Friday and analysts expect that US Fed Chief Powell will use it to clarify the central bank’s monetary policy moving forward after cutting interest rates at the last meeting by 25 basis points. Powell will kick-off the gathering with a speech on the challenges of monetary policy.

As widely expected, the US Federal Reserve lowered its key interest rate by 25 basis points to a Lower Bound Rate of 2.00% and an Upper Bound Rate of 2.25%. The Interest Rate on Excess Reserves remained unchanged at 2.10%. Financial markets in the US saw a volatile move to the downside, closing off of their lows, as Fed Chief Powell struggled to signal a clear path ahead. He also struck a more hawkish tone than many anticipated in the wake of a global economic slowdown which resulted in disappointment across the board and criticism by US President Trump.

The dollar weakened on Thursday after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell paved the way for a rate cut later this month, promising to "act appropriately" so that the world's largest economy could sustain its ten-year growth. In his speech to Congress, Powell pointed to a “broad” global weakness that clouded the US economic outlook against the backdrop of uncertainty over the consequences of the Trump administration’s trade dispute with China and other countries.

After US Fed Chief Powell testified before the House Financial Services Panel yesterday, the question is not if the central bank will cut interest rates but by how much? Powell will give his testimony before the Senate Banking Committee today where he is expected to echo his dovish tone. While markets have priced in a 25 basis point interest rate cut during this month’s FOMC meeting, the extend of Powell’s worries warrant more to come after that. Some analysts argue that yesterday’s testimony opened the way for a 50 basis point reduction in interest rates.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday signaled that it could soon stop reducing the volume of assets on the balance sheet, however, representatives of the regulator's management still argue about how long the policy of “patience” they have adopted for raising interest rates will last. At the moment, the regulator sees a slight risk in postponing the issue of interest rates and taking time to analyze growing risks, including slowing global growth, revealed the minutes of the January Fed meeting, published on Wednesday.

The US Federal Reserve maintained its key rate in the range of 2.25-2.50 percent and announced that it will be patient with regard to its possible increase this year, pointing out the uncertainty of the forecast for the American economy. Although the regulator noted that the most likely scenario is the continued growth of the US economy and the labor market, phrases appearing there in December that the risks for the economic outlook are “generally balanced” and a further increase in rates would be appropriate in 2019 disappeared from the statement.

The US currency rate is falling on the first day of the new trading week in relation to most world currencies in anticipation of a meeting of the national regulator, as well as signals on the further monetary policy of the department, taking into account the slowdown in the global economy. As of the morning, the euro / dollar rate rose to 1.1418 dollars per EUR from the previous close of 1.1412 USD per euro. The dollar against the yen fell to 109.38 JPY per dollar from the previous close of 109.53 JPY per dollar. The dollar index fell by 0.08%, up to 95.72 points.

Over the past years, many ignored the US yield curve as the Federal Reserve kept interest rate near zero and supplied three rounds of quantitative easing. This was done in reaction to the 2008 global financial crisis and the U Great Recession which followed. The US central bank hoped to buy the economy enough time to heal and grow on its own. Since the Fed ended its QE purchases and started to increase interest rates, the yield curve started to slowly become more interesting.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the part of the US Federal Reserve which decides on interest rates, will meet for the final time today and announce their interest rates decision tomorrow. It is widely expected that the Fed will increase interest rates by 25 basis points and a few weeks ago this meeting would have been a non-event. The situation has drastically changed as the Fed has to pick between a rock and a hard place, no matter how they decide it is likely to have a negative impact on the US Dollar.

After a two day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee or FOMC, the division of the US Federal Reserve which decided on interest rates, a 25 basis point increase in interest rates was announced. This was widely expected by market participants and marked the third 25 basis point interest rate hike in 2018. This took US interest rates to a lower bound rate of 2.00% and an upper bound rate of 2.25%. The interest rate on excess reserves was increased by 5 basis points from 1.95% to 2.00%.

As developments around the trade war between the US and China are getting most of the media attention, a currency war is brewing underneath which could exacerbate the situation further. US President Trump insists that China and the EU are manipulating their respective currencies in order to maintain a trade advantage over the US. Reuters published an interview yesterday where Trump stated 'I think China’s manipulating their currency, absolutely.

Minutes from the last FOMC meeting which was held on May 2nd showed that the US Fed saw no reason to rush into increasing interest rates. A growing number of market participants questions if the US Fed will increase interest rates much further in 2018.

Wall Street looked set to open higher on Tuesday, as investors keep a close watch of the Federal Reserve's two-day meeting where it is widely expected to raise interest rates for the second time since the financial crisis.

The euro dropped on Friday for a second consecutive day in a continued reaction to the European Central Bank's extending its bond-buying program longer than many had anticipated, even as the bank cut the size of the monthly purchases.

The Federal Reserve thinks it will be appropriate to raise interest rates “relatively soon,” according to minutes of its most recent meeting released Wednesday. This release covered the meeting that was held November 1-2, a week before the US election.

As Wall Street grapples with the election of Donald Trump as the next US president, it appears the order of the day is uncertainty. Among the myriad uncertain consequences of Trump's election is the real possibility of a major shake-up at the Federal Reserve. Some economists say that in terms of possible problems for the economy going forward the main risk is monetary policy uncertainty.

This week, the greatest attention of the market will attract the statistics from the US due to the new, and probably positive, release of the Nonfarm Payrolls data, as well as due to speeches of US Fed members. Strong statistics and optimistic comments from the US regulator will strengthen expectations of rate increases, and vice versa.

This week will be very important for the US dollar. The speech by Fed chief Janet Yellen today and Nonfarm Payrolls data release on Friday can greatly affect the investors' expectations from the meeting of the Federal Reserve in June.

This Friday, the attention of traders will again be focused on the report on the number of people employed in non-agricultural sector of the US economy (Nonfarm payrolls).

The US Dollar sold off during yesterday’s trading session after the US Federal Reserve kept interest rates on hold as expected, but the press conference by US Fed Chief Janet Yellen was the driving force behind a much lower US Dollar. Forex traders should be careful as the sell-off which started yesterday may continue throughout the trading week as more economic data out o