The Nasdaq and S&P 500 slipped as major tech stocks like NVIDIA, Microsoft, and Meta declined, with investors closely watching Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s upcoming speech at the Jackson Hole symposium for signals on interest rate direction and the central bank’s economic outlook.
00:00All right, next update is the Nasdaq and S&P 500 dip on Tuesday driven by tech stocks as investors gear up for what Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will say about the path of interest rates at a key conference later in the week.
00:14The Nasdaq fell as mega caps, Nvidia, Microsoft and Meta platforms lost after having rallied for much of the year.
00:20The key event this week is the Fed's annual symposium at Jackson Hole, Wyoming from August 21st to 23rd, where Powell's comments will be scrutinized for any clues on the central bank's outlook on the economy and the monetary policy.
00:34I think things may be heading south today because possibly the prospect of the Fed cutting rates or discussing cutting rates at the meeting on Friday, maybe there's a little less chance of that.
00:54I've seen a lot of commentary recently about that there's really not a huge need to cut rates, that the economy is reasonably strong.
01:06And what many economists are more worried about is inflation.
01:11So I think the market has been up over, you know, for the past several weeks on the prospect of rate cuts.
01:20And perhaps that prospect is fading.
01:24When Powell speaks, he is very, very measured.
01:29So it is it's really hard to imagine that he would say something that would be like, oh, yes, we're definitely going to cut rates or we're definitely not going to cut rates.
01:39But, you know, sometimes if you can parse his words, you may get a little bit of a hint of one direction or the other.
01:51So, you know, that is one thing that we would definitely look for.
01:57I don't think we would actually get that.
01:59I think we're just more likely to want to see what his comments are on the economy.
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