U.S. Stocks Opened Higher as Powell Head Back to Capitol Hill

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Investing.com — U.S. stocks opened higher as investors tried to shake off recession fears as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell prepared for a second day of testimony on Capitol Hill.

At 9:53 AM ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 89 points or 0.2%, while the S&P 500 was up 0.2% and the NASDAQ Composite was flat to modestly higher.

Stocks closed Wednesday on a sour note after Powell told lawmakers in the Senate a recession was possible but that the central bank was “strongly committed” to taming inflation using interest rate hikes. He also said the economy was strong enough to endure multiple rate increases.

UBS joined Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) and Citigroup (NYSE:C) in raising the odds of a recession at some point in the next year. The Swiss banking company put the odds at 69%.

Shares of home builder KB Home (NYSE:KBH) rose nearly 7% after it renewed its outlook for the year despite saying it sees the housing market moderating this year. 

Darden Restaurants Inc (NYSE:DRI) shares rose 2.3% after it reported profit of $2.24 a share on revenue of $2.6 billion, both beating expectations. 

Shares of Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) rose more than 2% after Warren Buffett’s conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRKa) disclosed it bought more than $500 million of shares to raise its stake to 16.3%.

Oil staged modest gains. Crude Oil WTI Futureswas up 0.2% to $106 a barrel, while Brent Oil Futureswas up 0.3% to $112 a barrel. Gold Futures was flat at $1,838.