Dow and broader stock market bounce around as Fed’s Powell says ‘carefully watching developments’

U.S. stocks wavered between gains late-morning Friday as Wall Street was parsing a much-anticipated speech from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell at a symposium of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyo. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -1.82% briefly flipped into positive territory after showing triple-digit losses and was most recently up 0.2% at 26,295, the S&P 500 index SPX, -1.93% was up 0.1% at 2,925, while the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, -2.28% was 0.1% higher at 8,002.

Powell on Friday said the central bank was “carefully watching developments” in the economy and would “act as appropriate,” but stopped short of promising any specific interest-rate easing steps. Stock indexes were wavering solidly between gains and losses as the statements were being digested. Powell’s remarks come after the market was declining on the back of a report from China indicated that it was preparing to launch fresh tariffs against the U.S. on Sept. 1 and Dec. 15 to coincide with some $300 billion in tariffs set to be leveled against China goods by the U.S.

“Powell’s Jackson Hole speech did not mention a mid-cycle adjustment and investors could take that as a hint that he is probably closer to an easing cycle than just seeing couple of rate cuts,” wrote Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda, after Powell’s prepared remarks were released Friday morning at 10 a.m. Eastern Time.

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Ed Moya

Ed Moya

Contributing Author at OANDA
With more than 20 years’ trading experience, Ed Moya was a Senior Market Analyst with OANDA for the Americas from November 2018 to November 2023. His particular expertise lies across a wide range of asset classes including FX, commodities, fixed income, stocks and cryptocurrencies. Over the course of his career, Ed has worked with some of the leading forex brokerages, research teams and news departments on Wall Street including Global Forex Trading, FX Solutions and Trading Advantage. Prior to OANDA he worked with TradeTheNews.com, where he provided market analysis on economic data and corporate news. Based in New York, Ed is a regular guest on several major financial television networks including CNBC, Bloomberg TV, Yahoo! Finance Live, Fox Business, cheddar news, and CoinDesk TV. His views are trusted by the world’s most respected global newswires including Reuters, Bloomberg and the Associated Press, and he is regularly quoted in leading publications such as MSN, MarketWatch, Forbes, Seeking Alpha, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Ed holds a BA in Economics from Rutgers University.