Stock futures edge up as Powell’s key speech at Jackson Hole draws attention: Live updates

Stock futures rose slightly in overnight trading Thursday as traders awaited a major policy speech from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell that could provide guidance on future interest rate cuts.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 35 points. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.1% and 0.2%, respectively.

Chairman of the Federal Reserve, He is scheduled to speak at 10 a.m. ET at the central bank’s annual conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It is expected to signal that it would be appropriate for the central bank to start lowering interest rates soon, but there were limited clues about the size and frequency of those cuts.

“Powell is expected to lay the groundwork for the Fed’s first rate cut in more than four years,” said Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist at LPL Financial. “Signs of muted price pressures and cooling economic growth could be enough for policymakers to start lowering their target rate.”

Markets expect the Fed to cut rates by a quarter percentage point at its Sept. 17-18 meeting, with about a one-in-four chance of a half-point cut, according to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Fed Watch. July meeting minutes The poll showed an “overwhelming majority” of members were in favor of a tax cut in September.

On Thursday, the eve of his speech at Jackson Hole, Stock market under pressure Affected by the surge in U.S. Treasury yields, the S&P 500 fell 0.9%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 1.7%, its biggest one-day drop since August 5. The blue-chip Dow Jones fell 177 points.

For the week, the Dow and S&P 500 are still up slightly. However, the Nasdaq is down 0.1% so far this week and is on track for its fifth weekly loss in six.