(Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange opened on Friday, while investors are looking forward to the speech of the President of the American Federal Reserve (Fed) to Jackson Hole.

In the first exchanges, the Dow Jones index earns 254.49 points, or 0.57%, at 45,039.99 points and the Standard & Poor’s 500, wider, increased from 0.27% to 6,387.06 points.

The Nasdaq Composite takes 0.07%, or 14.67 points, at 21,114.98 points.

This Friday, all eyes turn to the symposium in Jackson Hole.

Investors are waiting to know if Jerome Powell, who will be expressed at 2:00 p.m. GMT, will give clues to the upcoming trajectory of American interest rates while recent data on the employment front have fueled anticipations of a drop in loan costs in September.

The financial results published at the start of the week by the large retailers, including Walmart, gave a mixed image, investors being looking for new signals on the health of American consumers in a context of persistent customs tensions.

Michael Matousek, chief trader at US Global Investors, said Jerome Powell was going to “adopt a cautious approach”. “Customs duties are really starting to be felt, so he will remain prudent and declare that he wants to examine the data and see how things evolve, because the effects of customs duties were only felt at the beginning of the summer,” he said.

At the values, Alphabet is advancing 1.37% after Google concluded a six -year cloud computing agreement with Meta Platforms worth more than $ 10 billion, according to the declaration made Thursday in Reuters by a source close to the file.

Zoom Communications is in the green too, wins 6.51% after having noted its forecasts of turnover and annual profit on Thursday.

(Written by Mara Vîlcu, edited by Augustin Turpin)

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