Muted moves but stable sentiment – Market wrap for the North American session - August 26

[Ben Graham]

Log in to today's North American session Market wrap for August 26

Markets are still looking for more data: as it could have been expected after the bout of volatility from last Friday, in the middle of a typical, low-volatility and low-volume end-August trading (most of the biggest players take their vacations around now).

Particularly after the crazy upside in risk-assets, followed by a lack of more continuation, participants might be leaving markets on pause at least until Thursday.

In terms of politics, FED's Lisa Cook, appointed by President Biden in 2022, got fired yesterday evening with the FED Spokesperson appearing to explain their side of things – tldr; nothing too exceptional.

FED's Cook had been a relative hawk, Markets should see further reactions depending on who President Trump appoints next.

In terms of geopolitics, there hasn't been much advance in Eastern Europe, so Trump started to resume menaces on Russian tariffs.

The Financial Times also announced the Security Guarantees for Ukraine which may lead to some announcements regarding to a much-anticipated Zelenskyy-Putin meeting – They were along the guidelines demanded from Putin during the meeting with Trump from the previous Friday, with no direct presence on the battlefield.

FX Markets have been dead, same for Equity indices today but Cryptos are having a very decent session.

Read More:

• What’s driving the US Dollar after Powell’s Friday remarks? Dollar Index (DXY) outlook
• Crypto markets enjoy a bullish session – ETH, BTC and SOL technical outlook

Cross-Assets Daily Performance

Cross-Asset Daily Performance, August 26, 2025 – Source: TradingView

Low volatility all across Markets except for altcoins, led by ETH (check out our most recent crypto article!)

A picture of today's performance for major currencies

Currency Performance, August 26 – Source: OANDA Labs

Very muted session for FX Markets, mostly mean-reverting yesterday's action (CHF leads and USD lags).

A look at Economic data releasing in tomorrow's session

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

The calendar for tomorrow's sessions is almost empty of any mid-tier data, so this time I added low tier data.

Still, NZD traders should log in to monitor the NZ monthly Inflation data that will guide future outlooks for the Royal Bank of New Zealand. Expectations are for up 0.4% M/M to 2.3% Y/Y. The data is releasing tonight at 21:30.

Tomorrow's biggest event for the US will be the 5Y Bond Action releasing at 13:00 which should influence the US Dollar.

Safe Trades!

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