Wall Street on Monday looked past the cautious message delivered by Fed Chair Jerome Powell last week and braced for key inflation and jobs data arriving Thursday and Friday.
The S&P 500 (^GSPC) edged higher by 0.6%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) gained 0.6%, or more than 200 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) advanced 0.8%, notching a win during the final trading days of a bumpy August.
The economic and earnings calendars were sparsely populated to start the week, with no major earnings announcements while the Dallas Fed’s monthly manufacturing report served as the most notable piece of economic data. That report showed a continued pullback in the manufacturing sector in Texas.
While calls for a US recession have simmered or reversed in recent weeks, more market observers are bracing for a longer period of heightened interest rates. Powell’s speech in Jackson Hole Friday morning, while balanced and cautious, provided more fuel to investors who believe that the Fed will raise rates before the end of the year.
The data set to arrive in the coming days will offer central bankers more feedback on whether prior rate hikes have done enough to ease pricing pressures or if more increases are needed to tame inflation.
