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Investing.com — U.S. stock markets bounced in early trade on Thursday after a fresh wave of volatility in bond markets eased off, ahead of a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
Powell is due to speak at 12:05 PM ET (1705 GMT), in what will be his last public appearance before the Fed’s next policy-setting meeting. His comments will be parsed for any sign of unease at what has been happening in bond markets lately – having signally failed to show any concern last week in his testimony in front of Congress.
By 9:40 AM ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 155 points, or 0.5% at 31,425 points, while the S&P 500 was up 0.4%, along with the Nasdaq Composite. In essence, that means that the two ‘old-economy’ indexes have made good most of Wednesday’s losses, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq has only recouped less than a quarter of its losses.
Money started to flow out technology stocks again as the morning progressed, with Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock falling 1.6% to its lowest since late December, Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) stock falling 1,6% and Square falling 5.2%, the market being unimpressed by its decision to buy Tidal, the streaming company founded by rap star Jay-Z.
Earlier, there were grounds for cautious optimism on the labor market, as the Challenger Job Cuts survey showed a drop in February to its lowest level in a year.
The Labor Department’s data on unemployment also showed a 1 million drop in the total number of people claiming jobless benefits through February 13, although a rise in initial jobless claims for the subsequent week provided a note of caution.
