The Dow plunged more than 200 points before “Powell”.

The Dow plunged more than 200 points before Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell delivered a semi-annual statement on monetary policy and the state of the US economy to Congress today.

As of 21.58 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 31,260.32, negative 261.37 points or 0.83%.

Powell will make a statement to the Senate Banking Committee today at 10:00 am US time or 10:00 pm Thai time and to the House of Representatives Financial Services Commission tomorrow.

Analysts expect Powell will make a statement that will build confidence in the market that the Fed will tolerate an inflation hike, but it will not rush to raise interest rates.

Powell is expected to emphasize that the Fed has not met its inflation and employment targets. Which will take a while “Before the economy has made enough progress to allow the Fed to reduce its bond purchase limit following quantitative easing (QE),” Unicredit reports.

In the past, according to tradition The Fed chair is scheduled to make statements to Congress twice a year, the first time in February. And again in June or July

Investors keep an eye on Mr Powell’s statement. For signs of economic conditions, inflation rate, US interest rate direction Including the impact of the coronavirus outbreak On the US economy

Powell’s announcement this week is the first time he will make a statement to a new Congress, where Democrats have a majority in both the Senate and House of Representatives. While the government of President Joe Biden is also a Democrat.

In addition, Mr. Powell’s statement is important. Because investors are worried that A rebound in US government bond yields And the numbers of inflation signaling a sharp rise May push the Fed to end the monetary easing policy. This is after previous estimates that the Fed will keep interest rates close to 0% for about two years.

The Fed previously signaled a slowdown in stimulus by lowering its bond purchase limit under QE measures in 2013, which prompted the Fed to reduce the injection of money into the economy. This caused a sharp collapse in Wall Street and global stock markets in the year.

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