Stock futures dipped Friday as investors awaited Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 87 points, or 0.3%. S&P 500 futures traded 0.4% lower, and Nasdaq 100 futures slipped by 0.6%.
The moves followed an up day for the major averages in which the Dow jumped about 300 points, and the S&P 500 gained 1.4%. The Nasdaq Composite was the outperformer, advancing 1.7% as a pullback in yields helped tech shares.
“Overall, it remains a really attractive moment to invest in equities. Underlying company performance is strong for the highest quality companies, and multiples are down because of macro fears. That’s the setup every long-term investor looks for,” Robert Cantwell, a portfolio manager at Upholdings, told CNBC.
Nevertheless, all the major averages are on pace for their second straight down week. The Dow is on track for a 1.2% decline. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite are heading to slightly smaller declines of 0.7% and 0.5%, respectively.
All eyes are on Powell’s widely anticipated 10 a.m. ET speech at the central bank’s annual symposium in Wyoming.
Investors are hoping for new guidance about how the Fed will act this autumn, but expectations are lower, with many expecting Powell to reiterate the Fed’s promise to slow inflation by raising interest rates. Opinion’s divided on whether the Fed will bump rates by half a percentage point or three quarters of a point at its next policy meeting in September.
The personal consumption expenditures, one of the Fed’s favorite inflation measures, will also be watched ahead of Powell’s speech Friday morning.
“We’re likely to see a relief tomorrow unless we get a big shock from what Powell says,” Gabriela Santos, global market strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, told CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime.” “One thing I would keep an eye out on if we look to next week and into the fall… implied bond volatility is still very, very high for where it normally is in late August, suggesting that actually we’re likely to continue seeing a lot of action in the yield curve, which could affect stock markets in the fall.”