Overnight

It's Jackson Hole time again.

That's the annual central bank meeting in Wyoming begins Tuesday where where a bunch of bureaucratic blowhards gather to try to cover up their incompetence and toss the MSM a few economic data crumbs to digest about the future of the economy. It's the U.S. yearly late summer version of Davos.

Reuters reported that Asian shares were soft Monday as "the dollar pulled away from last week's lows on expectations that a signal might emerge from  a Federal Reserve gathering this week in Jackson Hole, Wyoming that the U.S. central bank is gearing up to hike interest rates.  Global central bankers will join the annual mountain retreat that opens on Thursday, with Fed Chair Janet Yellen due to speak the following day.'
 

"The DXY US dollar index already seemed to be looking ahead for some slightly more upbeat language on the U.S. economy coming out this week as it rallied 0.4 percent on Friday," he said.
The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was up 0.2 percent in early trade at 94.722 .DXY, pulling away from last week's low of 94.077, which was its lowest since June 24"

 The big news is Fed Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer's announcement Sunday that the Fed, take the ear plugs out of your ears, finally has its data to crank up interest rates, noting 'the job market was close to full strength and still improving."  Humorist Mark Twain noted there "are lies, damn lies and then there are statistics" You'll have to decide which applies to those Fischer is so charmed by.


"We are close to our targets," Fischer said, but did not directly address when the U.S. central bank should next raise interest rates.

Earlier in the week another Fed honcho, New York President William Dudley, as is the Fed's latest preference, set the stage for Fischer's comments " a rate hike would be possible at the Fed's next
policy meeting in September, though interest rate future contracts indicate the market is pricing in about 50/50 odds of an increase in December."

Asian shares were led down by the Korean Kospi as it was off 0.54%, the Nikkei 225 edged up slightly 0.16%, the Australian ASX 200 remained flat at 5,523.20. In currencies, one agency reported,
"the dollar traded up against a basket of currencies, with the dollar index at 94.750, compared with levels near 94.100 late last week. The Japanese yen traded comparatively weaker against the greenback, at levels near 100.7. U.S. crude futures were down 0.56 percent at $48.25 a barrel on Monday early morning, while global benchmark Brent was off 0.86 percent to $50.44"