U.S. stocks wobble as investors await comments from Fed’s Powell By Investing.com


© Reuters.

By Liz Moyer

Investing.com — U.S. stocks wobbled ahead of an appearance later today by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell as investors try to gauge the central bank’s next steps.

At 9:45 ET (14:45 GMT), the was down 111 points or 0.3% while the was down 0.2% and the was up 0.1%.

Powell is participating in a question and answer session at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., and his answers will undoubtedly be scrutinized for clues about where the Fed believes interest rates should go next. 

Last week’s strong for January gave investors reason to believe the Fed will continue raising rates to tame , while some investors had been looking for signs when the Fed might pause its rate increases or even reverse course.

Last week, when the Fed by a quarter of a percentage point, Powell said the work on inflation wasn’t done yet, a sentiment echoed by other Fed officials.

The prospect of the Fed nearing an end to its tightening has lit a fire under growth stocks this year, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq up 13% so far this year despite slowing growth in the sector.

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc (NASDAQ:) shares fell 38.9% on Tuesday after the struggling home goods retailer announced plans to sell $1 billion in stock to raise cash. 

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (NYSE:) shares jumped 5.3% after it reported that bookings have exceeded pre-pandemic levels as its loss was smaller than expected. 

Oil rose. were up 1.5% to $75.20 a barrel, while are up 1.1% to $81.89 a barrel. were up 0.2% to $1,882.

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