Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on August 4, 2022.
Source: NYSE
Stock futures rose on Friday morning as traders awaited Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s all-important policy speech for guidance on future rate cuts.
Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average rose 85 points, or 0.21%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.34% and 0.56%, respectively.
The central bank chairman, who is scheduled to speak at 10 a.m. ET from the central bank’s annual conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, is expected to signal whether the central bank is appropriate to begin cutting interest rates soon, with limited clues about the size and frequency of interest rate hikes. reductions.
“Powell is expected to lay the groundwork for the Fed’s first rate cut in four years,” said Adam Turnquist, chief technology strategist at LPL Financial. “Signs of subdued price pressures and cooling economic growth could be enough to prompt policymakers to begin lowering the target rate.”
According to CME Group, markets are betting on a quarter percent cut at the September 17-18 meeting. FedWatch. Minutes of the July session showed a “majority” of members in favor of the September cut.
Stocks were pressured by a surge in Treasury yields ahead of the Jackson Hole speech on Thursday. The S&P 500 fell 0.9%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 1.7%, its worst day since Aug. 5. The blue-chip Dow lost 177 points.
The Dow and S&P 500 are still modest this week. However, the Nasdaq is down 0.1% year to date, poised to post its fifth negative week in six.
