There are several highlights on the economic calendar on Tuesday, February 23. The most interesting one is arguably the beginning of Jerome Powell’s testimony before the United States Congress. The Chair of the Federal Reserve will brief the government on monetary policy today and tomorrow.
Though investors are looking forward to the testimony, it is highly unlikely that Powell will say anything surprising. The Fed has maintained that it will stick to its dovish monetary policy approach until there is a significant recovery on the labor market and inflation remains consistently above 2%. Despite recent upswings in inflation, which have been extremely encouraging to traders, the United States is still not completely out of the coronavirus crisis and the economy will take time to recover.
Other events on the calendar today include the publication of employment data in the United Kingdom. The November employment change was worse than forecasted, though the delay in the report might somewhat invalidate its significance, considering the UK has been making great strides to recover from the pandemic and is even talking about opening up again.
Next came inflation rate reports from the eurozone. The results met the forecasts perfectly, so they would not reflect on the euro much.
Later today we expect the consumer confidence index for February out of the United States.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden is meeting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today. This will be the US President’s first high-profile meeting with another country leader since taking office, though it will still be a virtual one due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Trudeau and Biden are expected to discuss the Keystone XL pipeline, which starts in Canada and runs through the United States. Biden issued an executive order to block the pipeline on his very first day as President. His decision is motivated by environmental concerns. Canada supports the pipeline, even though the country generally has a good track record when it comes to climate change.
