Stock futures are falling in premarket trading Monday, continuing the turbulence of the past couple of weeks.
This week is likely to be defined by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s big speech in Jackson Hole. He is expected to lay out a dovish position on Friday that will likely tee up a September interest-rate cut.
The Fed is also set to publish the minutes from its July meeting on Wednesday, which could also help the market to determine whether policymakers are ready to call time on their battle against inflation.
Elsewhere, oil prices were felling after U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken landed in Tel Aviv to discuss a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
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Volatility made a comeback on Monday as markets’ attention shifted to Jackson Hole.
The CBOE Volatility Index, a much-followed Wall Street “fear gauge” that tracks options contracts for the benchmark S&P 500, rose 7.2% in early-morning trading.
It had tumbled 27% last week for its biggest five-day drop of 2024 as concerns about a recession faded.
“We expect volatility to remain high for the rest of the year,” said Greg Marcus, a managing director at UBS Private Wealth Management. “While we do remain generally bullish, we don’t see a straight line up in the market, as the economy is slowing and there will likely be a mix of conflicting economic data points over the coming months.”
The Jackson Hole symposium could be “the next catalyst” for markets, he added. Fed Chair Jerome Powell is set to give a speech on Friday, and is expected to signal that the central bank will cut interest rates in September as it winds down its war on inflation.
