Fed Chair Yellen Boosts Dollar with Jackson Hole Labor

Fed Chair Janet Yellen kicked off the Kansas City Federal Reserve’s Jackson Hole Economic Symposium with an opening speech today. Her talk was entitled, “Labor Market Dynamics and Monetary Policy” and it highlighted the Fed’s considerable uncertainty about the U.S. labor market.

In her speech, Yellen said that, “As the recovery progresses, assessments of the degree of remaining slack in the labor market need to become more nuanced because of considerable uncertainty about the level of employment consistent with the Federal Reserve’s dual mandate.”

She went on to observe that the FOMC’s 2012 statement regarding its long term goals and monetary policy strategy “explicitly recognized that factors determining maximum employment ‘may change over time and may not be directly measurable,’ and that assessments of the level of maximum employment ‘are necessarily uncertain and subject to revision.’”

The U.S. Dollar traded with increased volatility against the other major currencies during her speech, with the Greenback eventually strengthening significantly once it ended. The Dollar Index (DXY) was trading up 0.32% to 82.4150 shortly after her speech concluded.

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