Powell Remarks Likely To Drive Early Trading On Wall Street

While the major index futures are currently pointing to a roughly flat open on Wall Street, early trading may be driven by reaction to remarks by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

Powell is scheduled to deliver opening remarks at the Division of Research and Statistics Centennial Conference just before the start of trading.

Traders are likely to pay close attention to Powell’s remarks for additional clues about the outlook for interest rates.

Optimism the Fed is done raising interest rates has contributed to recent strength on Wall Street, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 seeing their longest winning streaks since November 2021.

Later in the day, trading may be impacted by reaction to the results of the Treasury Department’s auction of $40 billion worth of ten-year notes.

The auction results could have an impact on treasury yields, which have recently been a key driver of trading on Wall Street.

Ahead of Powell’s remarks and the release of the auction results, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note is nearly unchanged.

Stocks moved mostly higher over the course of the trading day on Tuesday, extending the upward trend seen over the past several sessions. With the continued advance, the Dow and the S&P 500 reached their best closing levels in well over a month.

The major averages pulled back off their best levels going into the close but remained in positive territory. The Nasdaq jumped 121.08 points or 0.9 percent to 13,639.86, the S&P 500 climbed 12.40 points or 0.3 percent to 4,378.38 and the Dow rose 56.74 points or 0.2 percent to 34,152.60.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly lower during trading on Wednesday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index dipped by 0.3 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slid by 0.6 percent.

Meanwhile, the major European markets have moved to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index has risen by 0.4 percent, the German DAX Index is up by 0.3 percent and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index is up by 0.1 percent.

In commodities trading, crude oil futures are slumping $0.85 to $76.52 a barrel after plunging $3.45 to $77.37 a barrel on Tuesday. Meanwhile, an ounce of gold is trading at $1,970.70, down $2.80 compared to the previous session’s close of $1,973.50. On Tuesday, gold slid $15.10.

On the currency front, the U.S. dollar is trading at 150.94 yen compared to the 150.37 yen it fetched at the close of New York trading on Tuesday. Against the euro, the dollar is trading at $1.0663 compared to yesterday’s $1.0700.

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