By John Meyer, consultant in financial affairs – Eurasia Business News, August 21, 2025. Article no. 1731
The S&P 500 has slid for the fifth consecutive day ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s highly anticipated speech at the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium on Friday. The broad-based index is now about 1.5% below its record high. The slide reflects investors trimming bets on a September interest rate cut amidst concerns of persistent inflation and mixed economic data.
Walmart’s stock notably slipped after the company reported second-quarter earnings that missed analyst expectations on profit, despite raising its sales and profit outlook for the full year. This earnings miss weighed heavily on the market since Walmart is a major component of the index. The retailer’s strategy of low pricing continues to attract customers, but the earnings shortfall caused the stock to drop around 4.5%. The overall market sentiment was also dampened by rising jobless claims and cautious investor outlook on interest rate moves. Other tech stocks showed some stabilization but faced pressure in recent days tied to concerns over AI and profitability.
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Market participants are cautious ahead of Powell’s speech as they look for clues on the Fed’s next policy moves, especially given recent Fed meeting minutes that emphasized inflation risks over labor market weakness. S&P 500 futures also showed weakness extending the selloff into its fifth day. The Dow and Nasdaq were down similarly, with the Nasdaq more affected by tech stock volatility.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell speaks on Friday morning and is expected to update the Fed’s monetary policy framework. Powell’s speech will be the economic highlight of the week for the marketplace and could provide a new perspective on how much FOMC support there is to lower U.S. interest rates in September.
The latest FOMC minutes, out Wednesday afternoon, showed most Federal Reserve officials believe the risk to problematic inflation outweighs concerns over the U.S. labor market at their meeting last month, as trade tariffs fueled a growing divide within the Fed’s rate-setting committee.
The gold price was approximately $3,340.29 per ounce today, showing a slight increase of about 0.07% from the previous day. The price fluctuated around this level, with a reported range roughly between $3,336 and $3,344 per ounce during the day.
The silver price was around $38.14 per ounce, with a small gain of about 0.8% compared to the previous day’s close. The trading range for silver was from approximately $37.52 to $38.19 per ounce on August 21, 2025.
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