Wall Street is muted ahead of Powell's Jackson Hole speech and retail earnings

[Flag and Wall street sign]
Fabrice Cabaud

Wall Street’s major averages are muted on Monday as investors shift their focus to a wave of retail earnings and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s upcoming speech at the Jackson Hole symposium later this week.

The blue-chip Dow (DJI [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/DJI]), benchmark S&P 500 (SP500 [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/SP500]), and the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite (COMP:IND [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/COMP:IND]) are all near even on the day.

Thin trading volumes [https://seekingalpha.com/news/4486707-muted-monday-trading-volumes-dry-up-as-investors-await-powell-speech] have also been observed to kick off the week as well.

From a sector perspective, five of the S&P 500’s 11 segments are in the green, led by Consumer Discrtionary and Industrials. On the flip side, Real Estate has been the day’s biggest laggard so far.

Over in the bond market, the longer-end U.S. 10-year Treasury yield (US10Y [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/US10Y]) is up 1 basis points to 4.33%, and the shorter-end U.S. 2-year Treasury yield (US2Y [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/US2Y]) inched up 1 basis points to 3.77%.

Looking to the week ahead, attention will center on the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium, where Fed Chair Jerome Powell is set to speak on Friday. This year’s theme, “Labor Markets in Transition: Demographics, Productivity, and Macroeconomic Policy,” highlights the shifting dynamics shaping the U.S. economy.

Markets will be closely tuned to Powell’s remarks for any signal on the timing of potential rate cuts, or whether the central bank intends to maintain its cautious stance. His address also carries added weight given recent debates over the Fed’s independence and questions surrounding Powell’s tenure under the Trump administration.

Retail and consumer stocks will be in focus this week as earnings reports continue for names such as Home Depot (HD [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/HD]) on Tuesday, Lowe’s (LOW [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/LOW]) and Target (TGT [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/TGT]) on Wednesday, and Dollar Tree (DLTR [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/DLTR]) and Walmart (WMT [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/WMT]) on Thursday.

European heads of state will stand alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Washington on Monday as he faces pressure from Trump to strike a rapid peace deal with Russia that would involve ceding territory. This follows the Friday Trump-Putin meeting that took place in Alaska.

"Aside from the geopolitical situation, markets find themselves in an interesting position as we begin the week. On the one hand, there’s been incredible buoyancy across risk assets that’s seen valuations become increasingly stretched,” Deutsche Bank's Henry Allen said. The economic calendar for the day is relatively light.

The NAHB Housing Market Index [https://seekingalpha.com/news/4486567-homebuilder-sentiment-unexpectedly-dims-in-august] slipped to 32 in August from 33 in July.

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