FOMC Minutes, Stocks yo-yo and FED's Cook-ed – Market wrap for the North American session - August 20

[Ben Graham]

Log in to today's North American session Market wrap for August 20

Today's trading was a bit hectic, between a huge selloff in the Stocks that got met with some mean-reversion dip-buying (break-retest on the Nasdaq?), a dovish cut from the RBNZ sending the Kiwi slumping and some more turmoil at the Federal Reserve, Markets got some action.

FED's Cook, one of the last reminder of Biden's appointee is being accused of Mortgage fraud, with US President Trump "gently" asking her to resign and is rumoured to be fired soon.

Nasdaq 2H Chart, August 20, 2025 – Source: TradingView

A break-retest from the longer-term upward channel could be into play, despite the Index closing above the psychological 23,000 level – We shall see tomorrow.

Palantir is one of the biggest victims of this ongoing correction in tech stocks, down around 20% from peak to trough (but has rebounded a bit since to only down 15.40% in 5 days).

Market participants seem to be cleaning their books in the anticipation of the Jackson Hole Symposium beginning tomorrow evening – The full agenda will be available here at 20:00 ET.

For the FOMC Minutes, nothing new happened except for another mention of the FED's division – FED's Schmid pushed back against Bowman's "inflation ex-tariff's measure". You can access WSJ's amazing report on the (non-)event right here.
He is always a person to follow when it comes to FED communication.

Read More: Diplomatic advances fail to prevent Stocks correction— North American Mid-Week Market Update

Cross-Assets Daily Performance

Cross-Asset Daily Performance, August 20, 2025 – Source: TradingView

The timing for my morning Nasdaq/Tech drop article couldn't have been worse – (I did mention some oversold levels at least)

A very interesting rebound happened in Ethereum which spreaded to the Nasdaq shortly after around 11:00 A.M.

The outlook is still a bit mixed, with most commodities finishing the session higher.

Interesting trading as markets brace for the upcoming Jackson Hole Symposium.

A picture of today's performance for major currencies

Currency Performance, August 20 – Source: OANDA Labs

The NZD was really the outperformer (to the downside) in today's session.

The CHF on the other hand held pretty strong – It seems that there is some work happening with the Swiss Tariffs but the story has to be confirmed.

A look at Economic data releasing in tonight and tomorrow's sessions

For all market-moving economic releases and events, see the MarketPulse Economic Calendar.

This evening and tomorrow's session begin the huge number of PMI releases – Get ready!

NZD traders should also brace for this evening's New Zealand Trade Balance at 6:45 P.M.


Safe Trades!

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