Stock futures slipped Friday morning as Wall Street awaited a highly-anticipated speech by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell at the U.S. central bank’s economic symposium in Jackson Hole.
Futures tied to the S&P 500 fell 0.4%, while futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed roughly 100 points, or 0.3%. Nasdaq futures were off by 0.6%. The moves come after all three major averages rallied in the previous session to log gains of more than 1%.
Powell is scheduled to deliver remarks at 10 a.m. ET in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where central bankers from around the world gathered this week to discuss economic policy. Investors are bracing for hawkish messaging from the U.S. central bank chief on his commitment to tighten monetary conditions and temper inflation.
“At the Jackson Hole Symposium, Fed Chair Powell will be on a mission to deliver one key message: ‘raise and hold’,” EY Parthenon Chief Economist Greg Daco said in a note on Friday following a second estimate on GDP showed the U.S. economy contracted at a slightly slower rate than estimated last quarter.
Federal Reserve officials have asserted that imminent policy decisions will be guided by economic data on a meeting-by-meeting basis – and so far, many readings on economic activity have affirmed the central bank is likely to proceed with further tightening of monetary conditions.
On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President Esther George told Yahoo Finance in a sit-down interview that policymakers have “more work to do” on interest rate hikes, and the sharpest impacts from its recent moves have not yet been felt.
“We are trying to get back to 2% inflation as quickly as we can, without doing damage to the economy,” George said in Jackson Hole.
“So July looked like there was some easing in those price pressures, but certainly not enough that you would say, we’re in the right direction,” she added. “So I think we have more data to see. And I think we have more work to do, to begin to see that trend move down.”
On Friday, traders will get readings on the core personal consumption expenditures price index, or PCE – the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure – and the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment survey.
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Alexandra Semenova is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @alexandraandnyc
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