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How the Federal Reserve under Jerome Powell will handle red-hot inflation is key for investors.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Stocks wobbled on Wednesday ahead of jobs data and minutes from the latest meeting of the Federal Reserve, which should provide investors fearful of recession their latest chance to predict the Fed’s monetary policy pathway.
Futures for the
Dow Jones Industrial Average
retreated 10 points, or less than 0.1%, after the index slipped 129 points on Tuesday to close at 30,967.
S&P 500
futures signaled a start less than 0.1% lower with the tech stock-heavy
Nasdaq
poised to open just above flat; the S&P 500 and Nasdaq rallied 0.2% and 1.8%, respectively, in topsy-turvy Tuesday trading.
Overseas, the pan-European
Stoxx 600
jumped 1.8% as stocks across the region bounced back from a steep fall on Tuesday. Asian indexes were firmly in the red, with the
Shanghai Composite
losing 1.4% amid concerns about a new spate of Covid-19 cases in Shanghai, which recently endured a severe and economically painful lockdown to deal with outbreaks of coronavirus disease.
The risk of recession continues to dominate investor sentiment. Facing the highest inflation in decades, the Federal Reserve has already moved aggressively to fight rising prices with higher interest rates. As it continues down a pathway of tighter monetary policy, the central bank risks spurring a downturn by denting economic demand.
“The momentum is clearly slowing and a recession is not impossible,” said Katie Nixon, the chief investment officer at Northern…
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