U.S. stocks open lower as Fed Powell testimony looms
U.S. stock indexes opened lower on Wednesday after posting back-to-back losses as investors weighed Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s latest comments on the prospect of further interest-rate hikes this year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA was off 150 points, or 0.5%, to 33,906. The S&P 500 SPX shed 0.3%, while the Nasdaq Composite COMP dropped 0.4%. Fed Chair Powell on Wednesday said he and his colleagues expect more interest-rate increases ahead as inflation is still too high. However, he did not shed any new light on the timing of the moves. “Nearly all FOMC participants expect that it will be appropriate to raise interest rates somewhat further by the end of the year,” Powell said, in testimony prepared for delivery to the House Financial Service Committee on Wednesday. Fed funds futures traders now see a slightly higher chance of a quarter-of-a-percentage-point rate hike by the Federal Reserve in September, following a similar-size move in July, according to CME FedWatch tool. Powell will take questions from members of the House panel starting shortly after 10:00 a.m. Eastern.