Dow Futures Down 100 Pts; All Eyes on Powell at Jackson Hole

By Peter Nurse

Investing.com -- U.S. stocks are seen opening lower Friday, as investors cautiously await Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech at the Jackson Hole symposium as well as key inflation data.

At 07:00 ET (11:00 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was down 100 points, or 0.3%, S&P 500 Futures traded 17 points, or 0.4% lower, and Nasdaq 100 Futures dropped 70 points, or 0.5%.

The main Wall Street indices closed higher Thursday as investors tried to revive the summer rally after a few down days, but are all on pace for their second straight down week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is on course for a 1.2% decline, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite are heading to slightly smaller declines of 0.7% and 0.5%, respectively.

Investors have been worried that the aggressive tightening by the Federal Reserve–a cumulative 225 basis points of interest rate increases since March–to combat soaring inflation will push the U.S. economy into recession.

With this in mind, investors are set to tune into Powell’s speech, with the Fed chief expected to reconfirm the Fed's commitment to taming inflation. However, specifics regarding the size of September’s interest rate hike, if there is one, are unlikely with a lot more economic data due for release before that policy decision is due.

Powell is scheduled to start his speech at 10:00 ET (14:00 GMT), and ahead of that another slate of economic data are released including the Fed's preferred inflation measure as well as information on personal spending and income.

In corporate news, HP (NYSE:HPQ) heads up a thin earnings schedule Friday, while Affirm (NASDAQ:AFRM) stock slumped 13% premarket after the fintech company reported a larger-than-expected quarterly loss, while issuing weak full-year revenue guidance.

On a more positive note, Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) stock soared 10% premarket after the cloud software firm reported strong quarterly earnings as well as an upbeat view of the future.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) stock rose 3.1% premarket after the chain of beauty stores lifted its full-year earnings and revenue guidance, while clothes retailer Gap (NYSE:GPS) stock rose 7.2% after posting a quarterly profit, excluding one-time-items, despite withdrawing its financial outlook for 2022.

Oil prices rose Friday, on course to end the week with strong gains at the prospect of a further tightening of global supply.

The prospect of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, led by Saudi Arabia, cutting output has boosted sentiment this week, outweighing the likelihood of the return of Iran to oil markets should it clinch a nuclear deal with the West.

Baker Hughes’ rig count and the CFTC’s positioning data round off the week, as usual.

By 07:00 ET, U.S. crude futures traded 1.4% higher at $93.80 a barrel, while the Brent contract rose 1.6% to $100.64. Both benchmarks are on course to register gains of around 3% this week.

Additionally, gold futures fell 0.7% to $1,759.25/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.1% higher at 1.0031.