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.

This week's set-piece event is the Jackson Hole central-bank gathering in Wyoming, slated for Thursday through Saturday. Investors will be glued to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's speech, hoping for any insight into whether the central bank might kick off interest-rate cuts in September.

The world’s most influential central bankers are gathering in Wyoming this week for the 2025 Jackson Hole Economic Symposium. The economic stakes are far more complicated than a year ago. There’s also a pivotal political one: the independence of the Fed Reserve, the world’s largest and most influential central bank.