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U.S. stock index futures on Wednesday morning were struggling to recover from Tuesday’s sell-off in the wake of comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell suggesting bigger interest rate rises may be needed to quell inflation.
How are stock-index futures trading
-
S&P 500 futures
ES00,
-0.01%
were up less than 1 point, or 0.02%, to 3990 -
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures
YM00,
+0.02%
rose 12 points, or less than 0.1% to 32876 -
Nasdaq 100 futures
NQ00,
+0.01%
added 12.75 points, or 0.1% to 12871
On Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
fell 575 points, or 1.72%, to 32856, the S&P 500
SPX,
declined 62 points, or 1.53%, to 3986, and the Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
dropped 145 points, or 1.25%, to 11530.
What’s driving markets
U.S. stock market sentiment is again fragile after Federal Reserve chairman Jay Powell on Tuesday told the Senate Banking Committee that the central bank was prepared to increase the pace of interest rate hikes if data indicated it was warranted to damp inflation.
Powell will give further testimony on Wednesday, this time to the House Financial Services Committee, starting at 10 a.m. Eastern
Powell’s comments have hammered government bonds, forcing short-term yields
TMUBMUSD02Y,
to fresh four-decade highs, as the market increased bets that the Fed may hike rates by 50 basis points in two week’s time, and ultimately take rates as high as 5.65% by the autumn.
The sight of rising borrowing costs, and the prospects of a recession they may cause, pushed the S&P 500 index back below both the 4,000 level and its 50-day moving average on Tuesday.
“The global stock sell-off is continuing with investors jolted by the realization that the work of the Federal Reserve in trying to tame wild inflation in the U.S. far from over,” said Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, in a note to clients. “Wall Street ended in sharp retreat, and the risk-off sentiment has spilled over to trade in Asia, with European indices also heading for falls in early trading.”
In U.S. economic data, ADP said the private sector added 242,000 jobs in February. Economists polled by the Wall Street Journal earlier forecasted an increase of 205,000.
Other U.S. economic updates set for release on Wednesday include the trade balance for January at 8:30 am. The JOLTS job openings survey is published at 10 a.m. The Fed’s Beige Book of economic anecdote will be released at 2 p.m. All times Eastern.
Companies in focus
-
Campbell Soup Co.
CPB,
-0.86%
stock was up 0.4% in premarket trades on Wednesday after it beat Wall Street’s adjusted earnings estimate on a boost from higher prices for its food products. -
Occidental Petroleum Corp.’s stock
OXY,
-1.35%
rose almost 3% premarket after filings disclosed that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. had upped its stake in the energy company by 6 million shares, taking its total to over 200 million shares worth more than $12 billion. Berkshire’s BRK.B, -1.85% stock edged up 0.1%. -
CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. shares
CRWD,
-2.08%
increased almost 7% premarket after the security software company posted higher-than-expected fourth-quarter adjusted earnings and a fiscal first quarter outlook that also beat analyst expectations. D.A. Davidson also raised the stock’s price target to $165 from $145. -
Tesla Inc.’s stock
TSLA,
-3.15%
stock moved down 0.8%, adding to the 3.2% drop in the previous session, which was part of a broader stock market selloff. Berenberg downgraded the electric vehicle maker from buy to hold, but raised the stock price target to $210 from $200, according to press reports. -
United Natural Foods Inc.
UNFI,
-0.92%
plunged 22% toward a 19-month low in premarket trading Wednesday after the grocery wholesaler reported fiscal second-quarter profit that missed by a wide margin, as “rapidly accelerating inflation” took a bite out of results.
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