Stocks are mixed as Powell appears in Senate; Tech stocks lift Nasdaq

Investing.com -- U.S. stocks were mixed as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell repeated his comments about interest rates likely heading higher this year.

At 13:13 ET (17:13 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 91 points or 0.3%, while the S&P 500 was flat and the NASDAQ Composite was up 0.4%.

The Bank of England raised interest rates by a half of a percentage point on Thursday, its 13th consecutive raise as inflation there continues to run higher than expected.

On Wednesday, Powell told lawmakers in the House that the Fed wasn’t done raising interest rates to cool inflation, even though the central bank paused on more rate hikes last week. He is appearing as part of his semi-annual testimony to Congress about the economy.

On Thursday, Powell repeated his message to the Senate that it would be appropriate to raise rates again this year, possibly twice, if the economy performs as expected. He said working families suffer most directly from high inflation.

Powell’s remarks suggested that more rate increases are "a pretty good guess" of what the Fed has planned assuming the economy continues on its current path. Futures traders see a 74% probability of rates rising a quarter of a percentage point at the Fed’s July meeting.

Guided by data

The Fed’s next move will be guided by data, Powell said. Recent inflation data has shown signs that the economy is cooling, while the labor market is holding steady. Initial jobless claims on Thursday were 264,000, the same as the prior week and slightly above expectations.

Tech stocks were lifting the Nasdaq, led by shares of Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), which are up 3.4%.

Shares of Boeing (NYSE:BA) parts supplier Spirit AeroSystems Holdings (NYSE:SPR) fell 8.6% after it said it would suspend production at a plant in Kansas, where workers announced a strike starting this weekend. Boeing shares fell 2.4%.

Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) shares fell 3% after the parent of Olive Garden gave annual revenue guidance that was above estimates.