S&P 500 futures were flat on Wednesday as Wall Street awaits a day speech on the economy from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
S&P 500 futures were essentially little modified, with the benchmark trying to snap a 3-day losing streak. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 6 points, also trading near the flatline. Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 0.2%.
Traders were hit with two reports Wednesday morning that caused volatility in stock futures. On one hand, a labor report signaled the job market might be cooling, raising hopes the Federal Reserve would slow its aggressive rate-hiking campaign. Then again, an updated reading of third-quarter gross domestic product was released and it showed the economy was stronger last period than first realized.
Payroll processing firm ADP said Wednesday that personal firms added just 127,000 positions for the month, well below the 190,000 consensus estimate from economists polled by Dow Jones.
However the Bureau of Economic Evaluation also said Wednesday that third-quarter GDP increased at a 2.9% annual rate, in line with its second estimate. That was revised higher from the two.6% first estimate.
Powell will give a speech on the Brookings Institution this afternoon which will give further insight into the central bank’s pondering on future rate of interest increases. The Fed is slated to fulfill later this month and is essentially expected to deliver a smaller 0.5 percentage point rate hike after 4 consecutive 0.75 percentage point increases to tame high inflation. Any signal of a pivot on future rate hikes would likely send markets higher.
“It is a Fed-made recession, so eventually when he does pivot, the market should move higher pretty quickly,” said Steve Grasso, CEO of Grasso Global, on CNBC’s “Fast Money” Tuesday.
Wall Street is coming off a mixed session. The Nasdaq Composite shed 0.59% and the S&P 500 lost 0.16%, marking the third straight negative day for every. The Dow Jones Industrial Average notched a marginal gain, closing 3.07 points, or 0.01%, higher.
Stocks have been weighed down by China’s zero-Covid policy and have failed to totally get better from losses whilst the country announced steps toward reopening, equivalent to an uptick in vaccination rates for the elderly.
