US Open: Shares start higher with all eyes on Powell speech

(Sharecast News) - US stocks rose at the open on Friday as Wall Street investors awaited Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's Jackson Hole speech. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 112 points at 34,211, the S&P 500 added 19 points to 4,395, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 095 points to 13,559. All eyes are on Powell for any signs of future interest rate moves as the world's largest economy continues to battle inflation.

"Chair Powell is unlikely to declare victory in his Jackson Hole speech today, and he won't say the Fed is done raising rates. The FOMC's official position is that further rate hikes 'may' be necessary, but that it is now data-dependent and it will make decisions on a meeting-by-meeting basis," said Pantheon Macoreconomics enconomists.

"We see no reason to think that Mr. Powell is ready now to give up that clear optionality, given the tendency of the inflation numbers in the past couple years to disappoint after appearing to improve."

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com