When I sat down to write this article, the most eye-catching event on the annual calendar of global monetary policy authorities was about to get under way. Analysts agreed the headline speaker at the US Federal Reserve conference in the mountain resort town of Jackson Hole, Wyoming — Fed chairman Jerome Powell — could set the tone for months to come.
Market participants were expecting Mr Powell to make the case for ploughing ahead with interest-rate increases to curb decades-high inflation, a stance that could take the wind out of the stock rally that took off in mid-June.
