- Stocks rose slightly, with traders avoiding large bets ahead of Jerome Powell's speech on Friday, which could provide clues on how hawkish the Fed will be in the face of mounting economic challenges.
- The S&P 500's swing was capped within 1% for the second day in a row. Only three other instances of such intraday calm have occurred this year. A gauge of mega-cap stocks such as Apple (AAPL) and Tesla (TSLA) outperformed, with Elon Musk's electric-vehicle maker set to trade on a split-adjusted basis on August 25th. Big tech was hardly hurt during the earlier week's equity rout, as 10-year US yields topped 3% on renewed Fed jitters.
- Despite the controversial dovish-pivot narrative cited by some as one of the reasons for the short-covering bounce from June lows, those fears haven't gone away. Indeed, traders had to digest more hawkish talk just ahead of the all-important Jackson Hole conference, which will be attended by Powell and global policymakers. President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Neel Kashkari, stated late Tuesday that it is "very clear" that officials must tighten to bring inflation back under control.
