PARIS (Reuters) – Early trading on Wall Street on Wednesday showed markets falling as investors worried about comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. The Dow Jones index lost 88.42 points, or 0.26%, to 33,965.45 points, the Standard & Poor’s 500 declined by 0.31% to 4,375.04 points and the Nasdaq Composite by 0.37%, or 50.50 points, to 13,616.79 points. Writing for his hearing before the House Financial Services Committee, Jerome Powell said there was still “a long way to go” to get inflation back on target, noting that “Almost all” central bank governors expected further rate hikes by the end of 2023.
His hearing will begin at 2:00 p.m. GMT.
Despite the Fed Chairman’s statements, market expectations for the terminal rate did not react, remaining below the 5.5%-5.75% range anticipated by the governors.
“Jay Powell’s hearings before Congress on Wednesday and Thursday are supposed to be non-events since they come only a week after the last Fed meeting,” notes Xavier Chapard, strategist at LBPAM, in a note.
“However, they could be of some significance because now that inflation and the economy have started to slow slowly, the Fed is approaching the point where the choice between employment and inflation becomes more difficult,” he said. he added.
On the stock market, Fedex fell 0.8%, penalized by the slowdown in the freight transport sector which put its margins under pressure.
Tesla advances 0.6%, supported by the decision of Texas to include a plug for the automaker’s cars in its electric charging stations.
(Written by Corentin Chapron, edited by Laetitia Volga)
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