• Silver price gains to near $29.30 in the countdown to Fed Powell’s speech.
• Jerome Powell is expected to provide fresh cues on interest rates and the economic outlook.
• US bond yields remain under pressure on firm Fed rate cut prospects.

Silver price (XAG/USD) rises to near $29.30 in Friday’s North American session, with investors focusing on the Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair Jerome Powell’s speech at the Jackson Hole (JH) Symposium. The white metal gains as bond yields decline on expectations that Jerome Powell will deliver a dovish guidance on interest rates.

10-year US Treasury yields fall to near 3.84%. Lower yields on interest-bearing assets bode poorly for non-yielding assets, such as Silver, given that they reduce the opportunity cost of holding an investment in them.

The US Dollar Index (DXY), which tracks the Greenback’s value against six major currencies, recovers its intraday losses and rebounds to near 101.50.

Market participants are optimistic about Powell’s dovish guidance but they want more clarity on the likely size of interest rate cuts in September. According to the CME FedWatch tool, 30-day Federal Funds Futures pricing data shows that the probability of 50 basis points (bps) interest-rate cut in September is 28.5%. While rest is favoring a 25-bps interest rate reduction.