Wall Street down ahead of Jerome Powell’s testimony

Powell is set to appear before the Senate Banking Committee at 10 a.m. ET for consideration for a second four-year term as head of the Fed, while Lyle Brainard is slated for promotion to a four-year term Thursday. are ready to appear before the same panel. as Fed Vice President.

David Bansen, chief investment officer of the Bansen Group, said, “I believe Powell will stick to his script, because he’s generally disciplined enough to do it and I’m not expecting anything that happens. Surprise the markets.”

The S&P 500 index is on course to fall for its sixth straight session, while the Nasdaq posted gains from Monday as major tech stocks tumbled.

Ten of the 11 S&P 500 sectors were lower, with S&P 500 technology leading the decline.

“The start of 2022 has been a bit rough for equities, but investors need to remember that the fundamentals are still pretty strong,” said Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at LPL Financial.

Megacap growth companies including Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Microsoft Corp and Meta Platforms Inc were mixed in early trade.

Marko Kolanovic, chief global market strategist at JPMorgan Chase & Co., recently called risky assets “arguably overdone” and said it presented investors with a buying opportunity.

At 9:44 a.m., the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 253.81 points, or 0.70%, at 35,815.06, the S&P 500 was down 27.75 points, or 0.59%, at 4,642.54, and the Nasdaq Composite was down 95.47 points, or 0.64. %, at 14,847.36.

Equity markets have tumbled since the Fed’s December meeting minutes earlier this year, pointing to an early increase in interest rates due to rising inflationary pressures.

Investors will keep an eye on key consumer inflation data on Wednesday, with the headline CPI expected to hit the red-hot 7% ​​on a year-on-year basis, adding to fears that it could affect the trajectory of the Fed’s interest rate hikes. could.

The main event of the week is the start of the fourth-quarter earnings session on Friday, with large banks expected to show an increase in quarterly core revenue on fresh lending and firming Treasury yields.

“We are aware of concerns over Omicron, inflation and policy tightening, but Corporate America earnings should help prove once again why stocks are at their all-time highs,” Detrick said.

International Trading Machines fell 4.5% after UBS downgraded the stock to “sell” and lowered its price target.

There has been an increase in the number of issues declining to a 1.23-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and to a 1.48-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 14 new 52-week highs and no new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 16 new highs and 59 new lows. (Reporting by Bansari Mayur Kamdar and Shreyashi Sanyal in Bengaluru; Editing by Soumyadev Chakraborty and Maju Samuel)

This story has been published without modification in text from a wire agency feed. Only the title has been changed.