Last week’s consumer and producer price data “revived [the] stickiness of inflation debate, he says. While jobless claims were subdued, a nonfarm payrolls report at the start of August showed the 3-month average at its weakest since 2010 when unemployment was 9%, he adds.

Jerome Powell has the ideal platform Friday to deliver a clear signal the Federal Reserve is about to resume cutting interest rates. But the economy isn’t giving him an equally clear signal that now is the time.

Markets bet on a September Fed rate cut at Jackson Hole, but sticky inflation, Trump tariffs, and Powell’s framework review could derail expectations.