Forex Today: Financial markets about to wake up

What you need to take care of on  Friday, August 26:

The greenback ended Thursday mixed across the FX board, although there were no significant changes among major pairs. Investors are mildly optimistic as macroeconomic figures were upbeat but cautious ahead of central banks' governors, set to speak within the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium.

Germany reported that the Q2 Gross Domestic Product rose by 1.7% YoY, better than the 1.4% previously estimated. In the quarter, it was up by 0.1%, revised from 0% previously. Also, the August IFO survey showed the Business Climate reached 88.5, better than the 86.8 expected. Expectations and the assessment of the current situation were better than anticipated.

The European Central Bank released the minutes of its latest meeting, which showed that a "very large number" of Governing Council members agreed that it was appropriate to raise key rates by 50 basis points while also noting that members agreed that it was "appropriate to take further steps on the path of monetary policy normalisation."

The US published the second estimate of the Q2 GDP, which was upwardly revised from -0.9% to -0.6%. Additionally, Initial Jobless Claims for the week ended August 19 declined to 243K, beating the market expectations.  

The EUR/USD pair briefly traded above parity but could not retain gains and stabilised around 0.9970, unchanged for a third consecutive day. GBP/USD holds above the 1.1800 figure. The USD/CAD pair is at around 1.2920, while the Australian dollar was the best performer vs the greenback, now trading at around 0.6980.

Spot gold is up for a third consecutive day and currently trades at around $1,757 a troy ounce. Crude oil prices, on the other hand, gave back some ground, and WTI stands at $93.10 a barrel.

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