Nasdaq, S&P, Dow futures tread cautiously ahead of Powell's speech at Jackson Hole

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Stock index futures showed little movement on Friday as investors awaited Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's speech at Jackson Hole.

S&P 500 futures (SPX [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/SPX]) were unchanged, Nasdaq 100 futures (US100:IND [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/US100:IND]) +0.1%, and Dow futures (INDU [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/INDU]) +0.2%.

The 10-year Treasury yield (US10Y [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/US10Y]) rose 1 basis point to 4.31%. The 2-year yield (US2Y [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/US2Y]) was flat at 3.80%.

Wall Street closed lower on Thursday, pressured by declining shares of Walmart (WMT [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/WMT]).

“The theme of 'good news is bad news' returned to markets yesterday following a strong US PMI release. This led investors to dial back expectations of Fed rate cuts…that leaves investors in a jittery mood going into the Jackson Hole Symposium,” Deutsche Bank's Peter Sidorov said.

The main event for the day will be Powell's speech. He will speak on “Economic Outlook and Framework Review” before the 2025 Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium. Traders will hope to get any clues about the monetary policy outlook. Markets are expecting a rate cut in September.

“Investors will be keenly watching whether Powell places more emphasis on weaker payrolls versus more stable measures of labor market slack and still solid activity and inflation data,” Sidorov added.

Powell's speech is slated for 10 am ET.

“Powell has lacked confidence and failed to articulate a medium-term vision for the economy at a time of uncertainty caused by structural change. The resulting mantra of 'data dependency' has not been helpful, as data has very obviously become significantly less reliable,” UBS' Paul Donovan said.

Today’s speech by Powell in theory looks at the economic outlook. It is to be hoped it will offer a robust defense of central bank independence too, Donovan added.

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