The market is increasingly interested in the central bankers’ meeting in Jackson Hole in the state of Wyoming. Investors are hoping that Powell’s speech on Friday will provide more precise information about the Fed’s monetary policy. The market has so far assumed that the central bank is on the verge of its first interest rate cut in more than four years.
“Powell is expected to announce rate cuts in his speech, but the speed and extent of the easing remain uncertain,” wrote economist James McCann of asset manager Abrdn. Given persistently moderate inflation and looming weakness in the labor market, the Fed may primarily try to bring about a soft landing by scaling back restrictive monetary policy settings.
Among the individual stocks, attention is focused on Paramount Global. There is a bidding war for the traditional Hollywood group after media investor Edgar Bronfman also made a purchase offer. Paramount had actually already agreed to a takeover in July with the media group Skydance, which is run by film producer David Ellison. However, Bronfman now apparently wants to win over the owners of non-voting shares. Paramount shares rose by 0.5 percent.
Zoom shares rose by a good 13 percent. The video conferencing service is no longer growing as rapidly as it did during the coronavirus pandemic, but it is still growing faster than Wall Street expected.
Urban Outfitters shares fell by 8.6 percent. The clothing retailer had recorded comparable sales growth in the retail segment in the second quarter, which missed analysts’ expectations.
Snowflake shareholders suffered a loss of more than 13 percent. The software developer’s outlook did not allay concerns about the artificial intelligence business.
