Good evening and welcome to Markets Desk, your end-of-week wrap from the floor.
Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh used his Jackson Hole debut Friday to deliver a pointed message to markets — inflation remains too high, and rate hikes are back on the table. The S&P five hundred closed down a quarter percent, the Nasdaq fell nearly seven tenths, as traders repriced the rate path sharply higher on his remarks.
Warsh's hawkish turn lands against an already complicated macro backdrop, and now a major geopolitical wildcard enters the picture. President Trump claims the United States has secured majority control of over sixty-five billion barrels of Venezuelan oil reserves. The White House has not released the agreement or named the private companies involved, leaving energy markets to weigh a supply story that is large in scale but thin on verifiable detail.
Meanwhile, natural gas prices slipped Friday as traders looked ahead to Energy Transfer's Hugh Brinson pipeline in Texas, set to begin service September first. That added supply corridor moving gas across the state pushed prices down nearly nine tenths of a percent on the Nymex settle.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
