Market Data Brief - 2026-08-02

This brief summarizes the latest records available in Vox’s local investdatar caches. Dates shown in source details are data dates, not publication promises.

Source cutoff: 2026-08-02 UTC. Historical reconstruction uses finalized local observations on or before 2026-08-02 UTC; it is not a point-in-time data vintage.

RSS Updates

RSS publication window: after 2026-08-01 through 2026-08-02 UTC.

atlfed_gdpnow

no items published after 2026-08-01 through 2026-08-02

sec_press_releases

no items published after 2026-08-01 through 2026-08-02

fed_press_all

no items published after 2026-08-01 through 2026-08-02

cftc_press_releases

no items published after 2026-08-01 through 2026-08-02

FRED Shock Summary

The supplied FRED observations show a stable administered-rate configuration alongside a sharp one-day increase in measured policy uncertainty. The Interest Rate on Reserve Balances remained unchanged at 3.65% from August 1 to August 2. The federal funds target range was also unchanged, with the lower limit at 3.50% and the upper limit at 3.75%. IORB therefore sat 15 basis points above the lower bound and 10 basis points below the upper bound, leaving it inside the 25-basis-point target corridor and close to its upper half. Across the supplied rate series, there is no day-over-day evidence of a change in the stated policy-rate structure.

The uncertainty measures moved very differently. The U.S. Economic Policy Uncertainty Index rose from 218.95 to 358.41, an increase of 139.46 index points, or roughly 63.7% relative to the previous observation. That is a large single-observation change in the supplied series and represents the strongest movement in this FRED snapshot. The Equity Market-related Economic Uncertainty Index also increased, from 65.69 to 73.80, a gain of 8.11 points, or about 12.3%. Both uncertainty indicators therefore moved upward on August 2, although the magnitude of the increase was substantially larger in the broad economic-policy measure than in the equity-market-related measure.

Taken strictly as a cross-sectional reading of these observations, the rate variables and uncertainty variables were moving on separate dimensions: the administered and target rates were completely unchanged, while uncertainty indexes rose materially. The data do not identify why the uncertainty measures increased, nor do they establish any causal connection between those moves and monetary policy. They also do not indicate any change in the stance of the target range on August 2. The defensible conclusion from the supplied FRED data is therefore narrow: the formal short-term rate settings were stable, while contemporaneous uncertainty readings were notably higher than in the immediately preceding observations, especially for the broader U.S. policy-uncertainty index.

Update details:

Interest Rate on Reserve Balances (IORB Rate) [IORB, unit=Percent]: latest 3.65 on 2026-08-02; previous 3.65 on 2026-08-01.
Federal Funds Target Range - Lower Limit [DFEDTARL, unit=Percent]: latest 3.50 on 2026-08-02; previous 3.50 on 2026-08-01.
Federal Funds Target Range - Upper Limit [DFEDTARU, unit=Percent]: latest 3.75 on 2026-08-02; previous 3.75 on 2026-08-01.
Economic Policy Uncertainty Index for United States [USEPUINDXD, unit=Index]: latest 358.41 on 2026-08-02; previous 218.95 on 2026-08-01.
Equity Market-related Economic Uncertainty Index [WLEMUINDXD, unit=Index]: latest 73.80 on 2026-08-02; previous 65.69 on 2026-08-01.

Yahoo Shock Summary

The supplied cross-asset observations show gains in both major cryptocurrencies, only small changes in EUR/USD and GBP/USD, and a comparatively large decline in USD/JPY. Bitcoin closed at 63,482.00 on August 2, up 718.68 dollars or 1.15% from August 1. Ethereum closed at 1,882.52, up 39.10 dollars or 2.12%. Ethereum therefore posted the larger percentage gain of the two crypto assets, exceeding Bitcoin’s return by about 0.97 percentage points over the stated comparison interval. Both crypto observations point in the same direction, giving this part of the cross-asset snapshot a consistent positive sign.

The European currency pairs were much quieter. EUR/USD was reported at approximately 1.15, with a 0.18% increase from its previous completed close on July 30. GBP/USD was approximately 1.35, with a 0.23% increase over the corresponding interval. Because the displayed prices are rounded to two decimals, the stated percentage changes contain more information about the movement than the rounded spot levels themselves: both pairs appreciated modestly against the U.S. dollar according to the supplied returns, but neither move was large in percentage terms.

USD/JPY showed the largest absolute percentage move among the listed foreign-exchange pairs. It fell from 160.18 to 157.58, a decline of 2.60 yen per dollar or 1.62%. Since the quote is U.S. dollars per yen only in inverse form conceptually but is presented here as USD/JPY, a lower USD/JPY value means fewer yen were required per U.S. dollar in this observation set. Relative to the small positive moves in EUR/USD and GBP/USD, the USD/JPY decline stands out as the dominant FX move in the packet.

Across the complete supplied market set, crypto prices rose while the dollar weakened against all three referenced currencies in percentage-change terms: EUR/USD and GBP/USD increased, and USD/JPY decreased. The scale of those moves was uneven, however. Crypto returns were larger than the changes in EUR/USD and GBP/USD, while USD/JPY moved by an amount closer in magnitude to the crypto changes. These observations describe co-movement only; they do not establish a common driver or imply that one market caused another to move. The appropriate reading is that the August 2 snapshot combined positive crypto performance with a broadly softer U.S.-dollar configuration across the three listed currency pairs, most visibly against the yen.