Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on August 4, 2022.
Source: NYSE
Stock futures rose on Friday as traders awaited an all-important policy speech from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell for guidance on future rate cuts.
Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average rose 157 points, or 0.4%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures advanced 0.5% and 0.8%, respectively.
The Fed chairman, who is scheduled to speak at 10 a.m. ET from the Fed’s annual meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, is expected to signal whether the Fed 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.”
Sep. Markets are unanimous in betting on a rate cut at the meeting, but there is less consensus on how big a cut it will be, according to the CME Group. FedWatch. Minutes of the July session showed a “majority” of members in favor of the September cut.
Stocks were pressured by a rise 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.
