U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s will deliver the Fed’s semiannual report to Congress on the economy
U.S. stock futures are trading mixed ahead of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s two-day testimony before Congress.
The major futures indexes are expected to decline slightly on the Dow when trading begins on Wall Street.
Powell will deliver the Fed’s semiannual report to Congress on the economy. Investors will wait for cues on monetary policy related to rising inflation. Central bank officials have said that they believe pricing pressures will be short-lived.
A report on Tuesday showed consumer prices in June rose by the most in 13 years. The report adds to worries that the Fed might consider withdrawing its low-interest rate policies and scale back its bond purchases earlier than expected.
Traders will get another look at inflation when the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports wholesale price data for June.
According to Refinitiv forecasts, headline PPI is expected to increase 0.6% month-over-month, slightly lagging May’s 0.8% rise. Year-over-year, prices paid by wholesalers are anticipated to jump 6.8%, up from 6.6% in May.
The series of financial-sector earnings continues Wednesday with Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, BlackRock and PNC Financial Services all posting ahead of the opening bell.
In Asia, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 shed 0.4%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 0.7% and China’s Shanghai Composite tumbled nearly 1.1%.
The S&P 500 dropped 0.4% on Tuesday, with most of the companies in the benchmark index lower. The pullback brought the major stock indexes slightly below the record highs they set a day earlier. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.3% to 34,888.79, while the Nasdaq declined 0.4% to 14,677.65.
Bond yields dropped to 1.40% from 1.42% late Tuesday. Overall, yields have been trending lower following a sharp spike earlier in the year.
