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Investing.com — U.S. stocks were wobbling early Tuesday as investors awaited an appearance by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
At 9:36 ET (14:36 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 31 points or 0.1%, while the S&P 500 was flat and the NASDAQ Composite was up 0.1%.
Powell will appear in Congress today starting at 10:00 ET and is expected to outline the case for keeping interest rates higher for longer as the central bank battles inflation.
Hotter than expected economic data has encouraged Fed officials to talk up the possibility of more rate hikes to put the benchmark rate at a level that is higher than previous forecasts.
The market expects the Fed will raise rates another quarter of a percentage point in March and May, and the rate to reach above 5.2% later in the summer.
Powell said last month that the “disinflationary process” had begun, but he has also emphasized that the Fed isn’t done in its battle with inflation, as it wants to nudge it back toward a sustainable 2% target rate.
Some traders even think the Fed could raise rates by half a percentage point this month, with some Fed officials commenting in recent days about taking a more aggressive approach.
One big data point the Fed will consider heading into the March meeting is Friday’s jobs report for February. Analysts expect the economy added 203,000 jobs last month after a blistering hot 517,000 added in January.
Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) rose 1.6% after Bloomberg News reported the company will cut thousands of jobs as soon as this week.
Dick’s Sporting Goods, Inc. (NYSE:DKS) rose 8.2% after the sports apparel and equipment retailer forecast annual earnings higher than estimates and more than doubled its dividend.
Oil fell. Crude Oil WTI Futures was down 0.4% to $80.16 a barrel while Brent Oil Futures crude fell 0.4% to $85.86 a barrel. Gold Futures was down 0.9% to $1837.
