London (CNN Business)Every August, investors turn their attention to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, as the world’s top central bankers gather for an exclusive meeting on the state of the economy.
This year, during a pandemic and in the face of unprecedented central bank stimulus, the stakes for the conference — which, in true 2020 fashion, will be held virtually — are even higher.What’s happening: Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell kicks off the symposium with a speech on Thursday morning.
Powell is expected to indicate that the Fed could keep interest rates lower for longer. Any dovish rhetoric would be welcomed by investors, who view easy money from the Fed as a key justification for the recent run-up in markets.The chairman is also poised to discuss the results of a comprehensive review of the Fed’s strategy, which before the Covid-19 crisis failed to consistently push inflation close to the central bank’s 2% target — a major part of its mandate.Read MoreWall Street expects the Fed to relax its 2% inflation target, giving it more flexibility as it keeps interest rates close to zero.Elephant in the room: Michael Darda, chief economist and market strategist at MKM Partners, said he does not expect Powell to “take the bait” on concerns that Fed policy is contributing to a bubble in asset prices.The Fed can’t pursue easing to boost employment and inflation on one hand and tightening to recalibrate the stock market on the other, Darda said in a recent note to clients.”The Fed would likely only succeed in materially knocking down equity valuations if it tightened enough to actually upend the business cycle,” Darda said. “In other words, save the patient by killing it.”Societe Generale strategist Kit Juckes thinks there’s little Powell can say at this point that would shake investors’ rock-solid confidence. After all, the Fed has already added trillions of dollars in assets to its balance sheet while launching lending programs for needy companies, making very clear it will do whatever it takes to boost the economy.”Playing with the inflation target or promising to keep rates lower for even longer are small beer from here,” Juckes said in a research note.Watch this space: The meeting will be livestreamed to the public for the first time. That means anyone with internet access can tune in.
TikTok CEO quits following Trump’s sale push
TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer has quit as the Chinese-owned video sharing app comes under enormous pressure from President Donald Trump, who is pushing for its sale, my CNN Business colleagues Donie O’Sullivan and Sherisse Pham report.
TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer quits following Trump's threat to ban the app “In recent weeks, as the political environment has sharply changed, I have done significant reflection on what the corporate structural changes will require, and what it means for the global role I signed up for,” Mayer said in a memo to employees that was obtained by CNN Business.He continued: “Against this backdrop, and as we expect to reach a resolution very soon, it is with a heavy heart that I wanted to let you all know that I have decided to leave the company.”TikTok hired Mayer, a former top Disney executive, less than four months ago to run the app, which is the first owned by a Chinese company to gain significant traction in Western countries. Mayer also became chief operating officer of ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company.Mayer’s departure is a “huge setback for the company,” said Edith Yeung, a partner with Race Capital who spent years investing in Chinese companies.”[A] leader cannot jump ship in the most critical time for a company.”The backdrop: TikTok has 100 million users in the United States. The company is weighing the sale of its US business, which industry experts say is worth between $40 billion and $50 billion, to Microsoft and reportedly to Oracle as well.Vanessa Pappas, the former YouTube executive who joined TikTok last year to become general manager of North America, Australia and New Zealand, will serve as interim head for TikTok globally, according to Mayer’s memo.
The rich just keep getting richer
The net worth of the world’s richest men keeps climbing.The latest: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos — already top of the list — saw his wealth reach an estimated $202 billion on Wednesday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.Shares of the e-commerce giant he built closed at an all-time high of $3,441.85. They’re up 86% this year as the company manages to cash in during the pandemic despite higher delivery costs.Tesla CEO Elon Musk, meanwhile, saw his net worth climb to $101 billion as Tesla’s stock notched another record at $2,153.17 per share. Shares have skyrocketed 415% year-to-date. The company is about to execute a five-to-one stock split, but that won’t change the value of Musk’s holdings.Bezos and Musk’s rapid accumulation of wealth is sign of the rabid enthusiasm surrounding certain stocks as the economy attempts a comeback from a historic recession.Easy money from central banks has opened the door for a flood of dollars into risky assets — and those who hold shares are cashing in. Bezos owns 11% of Amazon, according to Bloomberg, while Musk owns about 20% of Tesla.
Up next
Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF), Coty (COTY), Dollar General (DG) and Dollar Tree (DLTR) report results before US markets open. Dell (DELL), Gap (GPS) and Ulta (ULTA) follow after the close.Also today:
- Initial unemployment claims for the week ending August 22 are expected to fall back to 1 million after rising to 1.1 million the previous week.
- Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s virtual Jackson Hole speech will start at 9:10 a.m. ET.
Coming tomorrow: US personal income and spending data for July arrives.
Source: edition.cnn.com