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Wyoming Symposium, US Stock Markets are lower, Total Solar Eclipse

August 21, 2017

Traders and investors are looking ahead to this week’s big event in the Kansas City Fed-sponsored Jackson Hole, Wyoming Symposium beginning on Thursday and ending Saturday. The Symposium takes on important economic issues facing the U.S. and world economies. Symposium participants include prominent central bankers, finance ministers, academics, and financial market participants from around the world. The participants convene to discuss the economic issues, implications and policy options pertaining to the symposium topic. This year’s topic: Fostering a Dynamic Global Economy.

U.S. Stock markets are lower to begin the week and the closely watched S&P 500 Index closed lower on Friday for the second straight week of declines. Stocks have been moving lower due in part to ongoing headlines out of Washington D.C. and the tensions between North Korea and the U.S. The S&P 500 is down a little over 2% since its all-time closing record high on August 8 of 2,474.92. In addition, with the S&P, Dow and NASDAQ near record highs, investors are taking the opportunity to secure some profits.

And this from NASA on today’s “Total Solar Eclipse”: Today, August 21, 2017, all of North America will be treated to an eclipse of the sun. Anyone within the path of totality can see one of nature’s most awe-inspiring sights – a total solar eclipse. This path, where the moon will completely cover the sun and the sun’s tenuous atmosphere, the corona, can be seen, will stretch from Salem, Oregon to Charleston, South Carolina. Observers outside this path will still see a partial solar eclipse where the moon covers part of the sun’s disk.