Stocks edged higher Friday as investors awaited Federal Reserve Chairman
Jerome Powell’s
speech at Jackson Hole, seeking clues about when the U.S. central bank might start to scale back its easy-money policies.
The S&P 500 was up 0.3% shortly after the opening bell. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2%, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite ticked up 0.2%.
Major stock indexes are close to all-time highs, powered by expectations that strong economic growth will extend a surge in corporate profits. A key question for investors is when the Fed will scale back its $120 billion in monthly asset purchases and consider raising interest rates. Minutes from the Fed’s late July policy gathering showed that many of the officials thought asset buying could start to slow down by the end of this year.
New data released by the Commerce Department on Friday showed consumer spending grew 0.3% in July, suggesting the recovery has lost momentum amid uncertainty caused by the Delta variant.
Mr. Powell is due to address the central-bank symposium in Wyoming at 10 a.m. ET and his remarks will be streamed online. Investors are looking to gauge whether the Delta variant, which threatens to delay a rebound in travel and leisure spending, will alter the Fed’s plans.
“Everyone is waiting for Jackson Hole, for Powell’s speech,” said Joost Van Leenders, senior investment strategist at Kempen Capital Management. “It is clear the hawks in the [Federal Open Market Committee] are getting more vocal on this and there is not a full consensus. I would like to have more clarity on this.”
Mr. Powell is unlikely to give a clear date at which the Fed will end its bond-buying program Friday and will probably stress that raising interest rates isn’t linked to tapering, Mr. Van Leenders said.
A spurt of inflation has prompted some central-bank officials to push for stimulus to be dialed down soon. Three Federal Reserve officials said Thursday that the time to cut back on bond-buying is looming. “We want to get going on taper, get the taper finished by the end of the first quarter next year,” Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President
James Bullard
said.
In the bond market, the yield on 10-year Treasury notes ticked up to 1.344% from 1.342% Thursday. Yields move in the opposition direction to bond prices.
Among individual stocks,
slid more than 9% in morning trading. The company lowered the price of its original stationary bike by 20% and said growth in demand would slow.
fell 3.1% after the company said supply-chain difficulties had stopped it from meeting demand for computers.
tumbled 7.5% after revenue growth in its cloud-computing business fell short of analysts’ expectations.
Oil prices rose, extending a rebound driven by shrinking U.S. stockpiles of crude oil and gasoline as well as signs transportation activity has picked up in Chinese cities. Futures on Brent crude added 1.7% to $71.35 a barrel.
In overseas markets, the pan-continental Stoxx Europe 600 ticked up 0.1%. Asian markets were mixed. China’s Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.6%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.4%.
Write to Joe Wallace at Joe.Wallace@wsj.com
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