Fed not planning to withdraw policy support soon, Powell
Wall Street looks set for a negative open on Friday following Federal Reserve boss Jerome Powell’s remarks at the Wall Street Journal Jobs Summit that it is the labor market and inflation that remain the central bank’s primary concern.
By 5:30 a.m. ET, the blue-chip Dow were down 60 points, or 0.19% to 30,818. The S&P 500 futures dropped 8.38 points, or 0.22% to 3,757.12 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures gave away 51.75 points, or 0.42% to 12,403.25.
Powell reiterated Thursday afternoon that the Fed will maintain near-zero interest rates until it meets its employment and inflation targets, and will continue its large-scale bond buying program until “substantial further progress” has been made.
All three major U.S. indexes finished yesterday’ session in the red, pushing the Nasdaq into negative territory for the year. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note ended the day up 1.55% after Powell’s comments.
Eyes on February non-farm payrolls report
On the economic data front, traders are awaiting the release of U.S. employment report for February due at 8:30 a.m. ET.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones expect the report to show employers added 210,000 jobs in February, up from just 49,000 in January. The unemployment rate is projected to stay put at 6.3% from 6.3%.
The American economy is still 9.9 million short of fits pre-pandemic employment levels from February 2020, and the jobless rate remains well above the 50-year low of 3.5% recorded in February 2020.
Crude jumps as OPEC+ opts not to increase production
Meanwhile, crude futures moved higher early Friday after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, a group known as OPEC+ decided against unleashing a flood of crude on to the market.
The group on Thursday decided to maintain its voluntary oil production curbs of 1 million bpd through April even after crude prices rose over the past two months.
As of 5:30 a.m. ET, U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up $1.29, or 2.02% to $65.12 a barrel. International Brent crude futures were at $68.24 a barrel, up $1.50, or 2.25%.
