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Investing.com — Stocks were muted on Monday as investors awaited the semiannual Congressional testimony of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
Powell heads to Capitol Hill tomorrow and Wednesday and is expected to outline a case that there is still work to be done on inflation to get it heading back toward the central bank’s 2% target.
A key part of the Fed’s analysis will be the jobs report due out on Friday. Analysts expect the economy to add 200,000 jobs during February, which would be well below the 517,000 created in January. That earlier, hotter-than-expected number, helped reverse an early year rally in stocks on the hope that the Fed was nearing the end of its rate hiking.
Since early February, investors have worried that interest rates would rise higher and stay higher for longer than expected.
Futures traders are now expecting at least two more rate hikes, of a quarter of a percentage point each, in March and May. Some are even predicting a move of a half percentage point, as the Fed pushes the benchmark rate to above 5.25% by late summer.
The Fed will also get fresh data on inflation before its next meeting later this month.
Here are three things that could affect markets tomorrow:
1. Powell testimony
Powell is scheduled to appear in Congress at 10:00 ET (15:00 GMT) both Tuesday and Wednesday as lawmakers ask him questions about the direction of monetary policy and its effects on the American consumer and economy.
2. Dicks Sporting earnings
Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc (NYSE:DKS) is expected to report earnings per share of $2.89 on revenue of $3.4 billion.
3. Stitch Fix earnings
The personal styling platform Stitch Fix (NASDAQ:SFIX) is expected to report a 33 cent loss per share on revenue of $413 million.
