- Stocks and equities futures in the US climbed amid a period of calm in global markets after Fed's Powell pushed back against the anticipation of more aggressive interest-rate hikes.
- An Asian stock index rose 1% thanks to Japan, China, and Hong Kong. After a wild S&P 500 session, which saw the index return to close barely changed, US and European contracts climbed.
- It's possible that decreasing panic in the highly speculative Bitcoin market is boosting sentiment. Bitcoin increased by 2.5% to top $29,000.
- Fed's Powell's reiterated that the Fed will likely raise rates by a half-point at each of its next two meetings and that it is not seriously considering a 75 bps hike.
- However, he left the door open to doing more if necessary to bring excessive inflation under control. Concerns that tightening monetary policy will cause an economic downturn continue to suffocate recovery in the shadow markets.
