Weekly Market Commentary: Powell’s Jackson Hole Speech Boosts Equities

Sunflower Bank Weekly Market Commentary: August 25, 2025

Each week, our Wealth Management team analyzes the U.S. stock market and bond market activity and news of the previous week, summarizing their findings into a weekly market update report. The key points of this week's commentary, "Powell’s Jackson Hole Speech Boosts Equities," include:

• Equity markets were little changed over the last week despite some intra-week volatility. The S&P 500 declined every day leading up to Friday’s +1.5% rally which pushed the Index into slightly positive territory for the week.
• The highlight of last week was Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s keynote speech at the economic symposium in Jackson Hole. Powell characterized the current economic situation as unique, with many moving parts.
• In summary, Powell noted that risks to both sides of the Federal Open Market Committee’s mandate of maximum employment and stable prices have increased since the beginning of the year, with the balance of risks slightly tilted towards the labor market. Equity markets were boosted by the speech, most notably the Russell 2000 which rose nearly +4% the following day.

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