The major stock were higher Wednesday, with investors tuning into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s second day of testimony to Congress.
The S&P 500 (SP500) was up +0.32%, Nasdaq Composite (COMP:IND) was up +0.63%, but the Dow Jones (DJI) was down -0.04%.
The 10-year Treasury yield (US10Y) was flat at 4.29%. The 2-year yield (US2Y) fell 1 basis point to 4.63%. The rest of the yields can be seen here.
During yesterday’s testimony, Powell said that although the Fed continues to make decisions meeting by meeting, labor data is sending “a pretty clear signal that labor market conditions have cooled considerably, compared to where they were two years ago.”
In addition, he said that “the labor market appears to be fully back in balance,” and that “it’s not a source of broad inflationary pressures for the economy now.”
Turning to the sectors, info technology (XLK) was up 0.73%; materials (XLB) was up 0.59%; energy (XLE) was up 0.31%; communication services (XLC) was up 0.18%; consumer staples (XLP) was up 0.09%; health care (XLV) was up 0.10%; industrials (XLI) was down 0.01%; utilities (XLU) was up 0.01%; real estate (XLRE) was down 0.08%; consumer discretionary (XLY) was down 0.41% and financials (XLF) was down 0.16%.
Investors are also expecting the June consumer price index numbers that will come tomorrow morning. CPI is expected to see a slight rise of 0.1% month-over-month, and 3.1% year-over-year. Also, core CPI is expected to rise 0.2% monthly, and 3.4% yearly.
Today’s market movers include Carmax (KMX) up 5.14%, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) up 4.33% and Walgreens (WBA) up 3.66%.