Economic recovery is far from complete, Powell
U.S. stocks are expected to start trading mildly higher on Wednesday as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell moved to reassure market participants that inflation would not prompt the central bank to change its ultra-low interest rate policy.
Powell, who testified before the U.S. Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday, noted that the economic recovery “remains uneven and far from complete.
Therefore, he said, Fed policymakers did not see a reason to adjust their policy of keeping interest rates near-zero and the $120 billion-a-month bond-buying program.
Powell is scheduled to start his second day of Congressional testimony at 10:00 a.m. ET
By 5:15 a.m. ET, futures for the blue-chip Dow were indicated 34 points, or 0.11% higher to 31,526. Those tied to the S&P 500 climbed 7.62 points, or 0.2% to 3,885.62 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures added 37.38 points, or 0.28% to 13,229.38.
GameStop ousts CFO Jim Bell
GameStop (NYSE: GME)’s chief financial officer Jim Bell is resigning a month after retail traders on the Reddit social media site spurred wild swings in shares of the company.
In a press release late Tuesday, GameStop said that Bell will be departing the company for good on March 26. According to the press release, GameStop has launched a search for a permanent CFO that can help it accelerate its transformation.
The video game retailer said his departure “was not because of any disagreement with the Company on any matter relating to the Company’s operations, policies or practices, including accounting principles and practices.”
Bell joined the company in 2019 as it was struggling with the growth in digital video games sale and online shopping.
As of this writing, GameStop stock were down 2.18% to $43.99 per share in the pre-market trading session Wednesday.
Cathie Woods buys more Tesla shares
Meanwhile, Cathie Wood of Ark Investment Management bought an additional $171 million worth of Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) shares on Tuesday when stock dropped sharply and ended the session below $700 for the first time this year.
Wood added 177,214 Tesla shares for the ARK Innovation Fund, 11,893 shares to the ARK Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF, and 51,441 shares for the ARK Next Generation Internet ETF.
ARK Invest owns a stake of roughly 0.5% in Tesla, weighing 6.6% across all its funds. Wood said during an interview on Bloomberg Radio yesterday that she sees a $7 trillion opportunity in the self-driving vehicle industry.
Tesla stock was up 4.10% to $727.48 a share in the pre-market trading session.
Nvidia earnings on tap
On the earnings front, chipmaker Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) will report its latest earnings today.
Analysts expect Nvidia to post another quarter of solid growth for its data center sales, but at a slower rate than the past two quarters.
The company is seen reporting earnings of $2.81 per share on revenue of $4.82 billion after the closing bell.
Other notable quarterly reports set for today include Lowe’s (NYSE: LOW), L Brands (NYSE: LB), TJX Cos (NYSE: TJX), and ViacomCBS (NASDAQ: VIACA).
