Wall Street wavered after Powell’s statement

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell sparked major movements in financial markets on Tuesday when he indicated in his address to Congress that the central bank is prepared to increase the pace of interest rate increases in order to tackle soaring inflation.

Powell believes that the strength of the US economy points to higher interest rates than previously expected, and that view was not dampened by today’s ADP report, which showed stronger-than-expected private employment opportunities in February.

The US central bank governor, who continues to testify before Congress on Wednesday, made sure in his hawkish speech on Tuesday to raise the “two-year” interest rate to more than 5 percent. On Wednesday, however, it fell to 4.96 percent, while the interest rate on the “10-year-old” fell six points to 3.91 percent.

However, the yield curve is still inverted by more than 1 percentage point, which has not happened until Tuesday since 1981.

job numbers

New figures released by ADP Employer Services on Wednesday showed that the number of private sector workers in the US rose in February by 242,000.

The prior consensus was an increase of 200,000, according to Trading Economics.

The figures for January originally showed employment growth of 106,000, while the consensus was 178,000. The January number has now been revised to 119,000.

movements

This is how the indices performed on Wall Street:

• The Dow Jones index fell 0.18 percent to close at 32,800.15 points.
• The Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 0.14 percent to 3,992.43 points.
• The Nasdaq index rose 0.40 percent to 11,576.00 points.

FixThe index, which shows the expected volatility of the S&P 500 over the next 30 days, fell 2.81 percent to 19.04.

oil

The price of a barrel of North Sea oil Brent It fell 0.15 percent to $82.54 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate– Oil fell 1.33 percent to $76.55 a barrel.

stock

There was a good mood among the tech giants of Wall Street, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Alphabet (Google’s parent company), also known as FAANG stock:

• Facebook rose 0.25 percent to 184.97.
• Amazon shares rose 0.40 percent to 93.92 points
• Apple shares rose 0.85 percent to 152.89 points.
• Netflix shares rose 1.09 percent to 311.83 points.
• Alphabet shares rose 0.51 percent to 94.65.

encryption

It was very steady in the crypto market on Wednesday:

• Bitcoin rose 0.09 percent to 17,767.35
• Ethereum rose 0.67 percent to 1,559.25 points