Tonight's speech by Powell is likely to be a "tightrope walk": emphasizing data dependence, balancing inflation and growth risks, without clearly committing to give the market a "dovish" reason for a rate cut in September, and possibly not being so hawkish as to completely reverse the market's rate cut expectations.

The core purpose may be to retain maximum flexibility and options for the Federal Reserve before the September meeting. For investors, this means buckling up for potential market volatility and paying attention to any subtle clues in the speech regarding how the Federal Reserve assesses the economic outlook and policy framework.