Stocks – Wall Street Falls Ahead of Powell Testimony 

Investing.com – Wall Street opened lower on Wednesday as a trade deal between the U.S. and China seemed less likely, while trading was subdued as investors awaited testimony from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on the central bank’s monetary policy.

The was down 29 points or 0.1% by 9:44 AM ET (13:44 GMT), while the lost 7 points or 0.3% and the slipped 22 points or 0.3%.

Trump said in a speech on Tuesday that while a deal with China was “close” he could still increase tariffs if no deal was reached. He is also expected to decide on possible tariffs on automobiles from the European Union today, although experts expect him to delay a decision by six months.

“Now is more the realization that ‘phase one’ is really not a done deal,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities in New York.

“It felt for a couple weeks that the deal was almost done and then you have these comments that sort of puts us in the same place we were.”

Traders will also be tuning into testimony from Powell, who is set to testify before Congress in a hearing at 11:00 AM ET. He is expected to address the Fed’s recent decision to apparently put any further interest cuts on hold.

Tesla (NASDAQ:) rose 1.3% after CEO Elon Musk said the electric car company would build a car and battery factory in Berlin, Germany, while Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:) gained 0.6% ahead of its earnings after the bell.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:) fell 0.4% on news that Nike (NYSE:) will no longer sell its products through the e-commerce giant, while SmileDirectClub (NASDAQ:) tumbled 15.4% after reporting a loss in the last quarter and said it expects losses to continue due to rising expenses.

In commodities, the , which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was up 0.1% to 98.215 and gained 0.7% to $1,464.35 a troy ounce. rose 0.4% to $56.99 a barrel.

-Reuters contributed to this report

Disclaimer: Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. All CFDs (stocks, indexes, futures) and Forex prices are not provided by exchanges but rather by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual market price, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Therefore Fusion Media doesn`t bear any responsibility for any trading losses you might incur as a result of using this data.

Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.