Markets enter Monday, August 24, 2026, with a light economic calendar, leaving US Treasury Secretary Bessent's 2:00 pm ET press conference — where he is expected to unveil the 'toughest' sanctions in history against Iran — as the day's focal point.

European Session

There is nothing on the European economic agenda today, with markets instead likely to consolidate or extend the trends that began with the Treasury buyback. For context, buybacks are operations in which the Treasury repurchases outstanding securities, a tool used to support liquidity in the US government bond market — the world's largest and a benchmark for global borrowing costs.

The most important event of the week lies further ahead: Fed Chair Warsh's speech at the Jackson Hole Symposium on Friday, August 28. The symposium, hosted annually by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, is closely watched by investors for signals on the direction of US monetary policy. Its reputation as a policy-signaling venue is well earned: past Fed chairs have used the podium for major announcements, from Ben Bernanke's 2010 remarks that foreshadowed a second round of quantitative easing to Jerome Powell's 2020 unveiling of the average inflation targeting framework.

American Session

The only notable event in the American session is Treasury Secretary Bessent's press conference at 2:00 pm ET, where he is expected to unveil the 'toughest' sanctions in history against Iran. According to the original commentary, much of the announcement appears to be already priced in, given that it was telegraphed a week in advance, though surprises cannot be ruled out. Bessent has separately stated that no one is outside the reach of US sanctions on Iran, including China.

The reach of the announcement extends beyond Washington. Iran is one of OPEC's largest crude producers, and US sanctions on the country have historically targeted its oil exports, banking sector, and shipping. Measures with extraterritorial, or 'secondary,' reach can penalize foreign firms that continue doing business with Tehran — the backdrop to Bessent's warning aimed at China, which is the largest buyer of Iranian crude. Among the details investors will be listening for at the press conference: which sectors are targeted, the enforcement and secondary-sanctions mechanisms, and whether exemptions or wind-down periods are provided, since those specifics typically determine how far the practical impact of such measures extends.

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Source: ForexLive