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10/07/24
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Wall Street Inches Up Ahead Powell’s House Testimony
On Wednesday, Wall Street inched up slightly and continued to gain before more comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
The NASDAQ Composite rose 70 points or 0.4%, the S&P 500 gained 11 points or 0.2%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 26 points, or 0.1%, higher.
On Tuesday, the NASDAQ Composite and the S&P 500 both closed at record highs, with gains generally biased towards heavyweight tech stocks, amid persistent hype about AI.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will continue his 2-day testimony before Congress later today, this time before the House of Representatives.
On Tuesday, Powell spoke before the Senate Banking Committee and said that the U.S. economy had in recent months cooled and was also moving towards the Fed’s inflation target of 2%.
Powell added that too much easing in the labor market would present another risk to the economy and that maintaining interest rates too high for too long may present the economy with more headwinds.
The Fed Chair did however not give any direct cues on the timing of possible interest rate cuts and added that future decisions will depend on upcoming economic data.
According to CME’s Fedwatch tool, Powell’s comments resulted in traders maintaining bets on a rate cut in September.
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