From the Wall Street Journal’s “Stock Futures Inch Higher Ahead of Powell Testimony” posted early Thursday:
U.S. stock futures edged higher while oil prices slipped ahead of a second day of testimony from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell after he warned that rapidly rising interest rates threatened a recession….
Investors have been shedding riskier assets in recent days, prompted by growing concerns that efforts by the Federal Reserve to bring inflation under control will take a toll on the economy. Investors are growing less optimistic that the Fed can engineer a so-called soft landing, whereby interest rates rise to curb inflation without pushing the economy into a recession.
Mr. Powell acknowledged those risks in testimony to lawmakers Wednesday, saying that a recession was possible and that a soft landing for the economy would be “very challenging.” Mr. Powell is set to continue that testimony Thursday in front of a second group of lawmakers….
“Inflation is at the center of all this but there is also fading growth and interest rates are going up. All of that together is a horrible cocktail and you just need to step aside and wait for that to work itself out,” said Hani Redha, a portfolio manager at PineBridge Investments.
Charts: Yahoo!Finance sees a bearish commodity-channel-index pattern. Max pain stays at $137 with a call mountain at $140 and a put peak at $130.
I.e., the market is treading water, waiting for the shoe to drop – or not.