Hawkish Cues From Fed Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell emphasized the need for continued vigilance in the battle against inflation in a meeting at Jackson Hole, WY on Aug 25. U.S. consumer sentiment recorded a larger-than-expected decline in August, primarily due to increasingly negative perceptions of the job market and persistent inflation, which collectively dampened overall optimism. While default fears of bond payments by developer Country Garden are mounting, China’s property giant Evergrande has filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection.