Financial Focus
August 28, 2026 

     GOOD MORNING!     Treasuries were trapped in a horizontal trading range waiting on Fed Chief Warsh until Thursday afternoon.  They popped a little higher as oil bumped up on a report that President Trump said the US has o interest in returning to the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding it had signed with Iran back in June.    In sum, no quick fix to the standoff.  Treasuries had been under a little pressure as two known hawkish Fed officials, Kansas City Fed President Jeff Schmid and Cleveland Fed’s president Beth Hammack, in interviews in Jackson Hole, opined that rates were not restrictive and it was appropriate for the central bank to add some restraint to help bring inflation down.  Hammack is currently a voter on the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) and was of 3 to dissent at July meeting in favor of raising rates.  Boston Fed President Susan Collins, currently a non-voter, supported holding rates steady at that meeting but wrote that should “evidence of sustained inflation progress not materialize,” she believes it would be appropriate to tighten policy soon.  In stocks, it was all about AI which had the NASDAQ leading the various equity indexes higher.  The little bit of economic data didn’t offer anything new to the markets.    
     The markets are interested in hearing what Fed Chairman Warsh thinks and believe.  Hopefully that happens when he makes the keynote address in Jackson Hole this morning and reduce some of the uncertainty currently in the markets.  Don’t bet on it.  The markets, in early trading, are betting on it as they are in wait-and-see mode.  In addition to Warsh, the markets will take in the final August University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index and the first estimate of  annual benchmark payrolls.  This will cover the period from April 2025 through March 2026.  Last year’s revision was a downward 911,000.  The will likely be a post-Warsh market reaction and then positioning for the weekend and early positioning/re-balancing for month-end.