Stock market today: Indexes rise as investors await more Powell testimony

• US stocks climbed at the open on Thursday as traders wait for Jerome Powell to speak again. 
• Powell will kick off a second day of congressional testimony at  10:00 a.m. ET. 
• Jobless claims fell in line with estimates, per data from the Labor Department.

US stocks climbed on Thursday as investors looked ahead to Jerome Powell’s second day of comments before Congress.

On Wednesday, Powell told the House Financial Services Committee that the Federal Reserve’s policy rate is at its “peak for this tightening cycle,” though he noted that rate cuts are not yet imminent. 

“Given the Fed’s extreme data dependence, the fact that noisy January data is not fit for policy calibration and the fact that most policymakers have retained a hawkish bias in their recent communication, the odds now clearly favor a June onset of the policy easing cycle, rather than a May onset as had been our base case for the past year,” EY chief economist Gregory Daco said in a note, adding that the firm expects a rate cut in June.

Meanwhile, jobless claims on Thursday clocked in at 217,000 for the week to March 2, according to the Labor Department, in line with expectations. Continuing claims came in just above 1.9 million, about 8,000 higher from its prior reading and also in line with expectations, per FactSet.

Nonfarm payrolls will be reported on Friday, and will be the next data point for the Fed to comb through for signs the economy is sufficiently cool to warrant cutting interest rates. Expectations are for employers to have added 198,000 jobs last month, lower than the blowout 353,000 reported in January. 

Overseas, the European Central Bank chose to hold its benchmark rates steady on Thursday, and policymakers lowered their forecast for economic growth. 

Here’s where US indexes stood shortly after the 9:30 a.m. opening bell on Thursday: 

• S&P 500: 5,143.09, up 0.75% 

• Dow Jones Industrial Average: 38,861.11, up 0.52% (+200.06 points)

• Nasdaq Composite: 16,183.06, up 0.95% 

Here’s what else is going on: 

• Palantir stock spiked on Wednesday after the AI firm inked a deal with the US army
• US sanctions pushed a key Turkish oil terminal to halt Russian imports.
• Technical analyst Milton Berg warned the S&P 500 might crash 60% and a recession is looming.
• Bullish tech bets are at the highest in three years, Citi said.

In commodities, bonds, and crypto: 

• Oil prices dropped, with West Texas Intermediate down 1.2% to $78.19 a barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, moved lower 0.95% to $82.15 a barrel.
• Gold edged higher 0.2% to $2,161.80 per ounce.
• The 10-year Treasury yield dipped by about one basis point to hover at 4.09%.
• Bitcoin climbed 0.23% to $67,351.