- US stocks rose on Wednesday as investors await the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve's last FOMC meeting.
- Investors will be looking for clues on the trajectory of future interest rate hikes.
- A surge in bond yields on Tuesday sparked a 2% sell-off in the S&P 500, the worst since mid-December.
US stocks edged higher on Wednesday as investors await the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve's last FOMC meeting.
Investors will look for clues on the trajectory of future interest rate hikes. In recent weeks, hot inflationary data has led to ramped-up expectations that the Fed will hike lift by another 50 basis points, at least.
And some Fed presidents like James Bullard and Loretta Mester have recently advocated for a return to 50-basis-point rate hikes to combat inflation rather than the last rate hike of 25 basis points. Bullard would like to see the fed funds rate rise to just below 5.5%, compared to its current level of 4.6%.
But Bullard did say he is seeing behavior that could lead to further disinflation. In an interview with CNBC on Wednesday, he pointed to Walmart's latest earnings results and said, "Consumers are trading down and they're benefiting. That sounds like a disinflationary process."
Here's where US indexes stood shortly after the 9:30 a.m. ET open on Wednesday:
- S&P 500: 4,003.23, up 0.15%
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: 33,185.86, up 0.17% (56.27 points)
- Nasdaq Composite: 11,540.33, up 0.42%
Here's what else is happening this morning:
- Home Depot warned that there will be a slump in renovations as consumers battle inflation, rising debt, and falling home prices.
- Tesla CEO Elon Musk's last tranche of options tied to his compensation package were vested last month, meaning he's now technically working for free.
- S&P Global Ratings has cut its long- and short-term credit ratings for Adidas after the German sportswear giant warned that the end of its partnership with Kanye West is likely to hammer earnings.
In commodities, bonds and crypto:
- West Texas Intermediate crude oil fell 0.21% to $76.20 per barrel. Brent crude, oil's international benchmark, dropped 0.36% to $82.75.
- Gold rose 0.18% to $1,845.80 per ounce.
- The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell two basis points to 3.93%.
- Bitcoin fell 0.79% to $23,969, while ether dropped 0.85% to $1,630.