US stocks retreat from records as investors mull economic-recovery progress and new Powell comments
- Stocks slipped as investors digested Jay Powell's comments from last night's 60 minutes interview.
- The Fed chair said the "outlook has brightened substantially" for the US economy.
- Investors are awaiting key inflation data due tomorrow.
US stocks slipped from record highs as investors digest Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's recent comments and prepare for a busy week ahead for economic data and earnings.
In an interview with CBS, which aired on Sunday, Powell said that the US is at an "inflection point" and is likely to see a boom in growth and hiring, but still faces threats from COVID-19.
"The outlook has brightened substantially," he told CBS's "60 minutes." Yet he said there was a risk that coronavirus starts spreading again.
He also discussed the outlook for a digital dollar, and said the the US central bank is working hard on researching one as nervousness grows in some quarters about China's rapid development of its own digital currency.
As the economy continues to recover from the pandemic, investors are focused in on inflation data that is due Tuesday. Economists polled by Reuters expect the consumer price inflation index to jump 2.5% from 1.7% year on year in February.
On the earnings front, Wall Street behemoths Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Wells Fargo are due to report on Wednesday.
Here's where US indexes stood at the 9:30 a.m. ET open on Monday:
- S&P 500: 4,123.52, down 0.13%
- Dow Jones industrial average: 33,748.55, down 0.15% (58.14 points)
- Nasdaq composite: 13,857.80, down 0.32%
Bitcoin rose as much as 2.6% to $61,229 as the crypto world prepares for Coinbase's direct listing on Wednesday. The surge took the coin close to its all-time high of $61,742 reached on March 1.
West Texas Intermediate crude climbed 1.7%, to $60.31 per barrel. Brent crude, oil's international benchmark, rose 1.6% to $63.97 a barrel.
Gold slipped 0.5%, to $1,737 per ounce.