When Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell takes the stage Friday at the annual Jackson Hole, Wyoming, economic forum, he will face pressures ranging from President Trump's repeated calls for his resignation to a recent mix of worrying economic data.

Federal Reserve chair is under bombardment from Donald Trump and battling an insurgency within the central bank

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 tune into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's speech for any hints on whether the central bank might kick off interest-rate cuts in September.

By Howard Schneider WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Fed Chair Jerome Powell used the central bank's annual Wyoming research conference to promise inflation-fighting rigor when it was needed in 2022, then last year he came to the defense of the job market with promises of lower interest rates when the unemployment rate seemed on a steady rise.

The Nasdaq fell as megacaps lost, after having rallied for much of the year. Nvidia fell 3.5%, the biggest drop in nearly four months.