S&P 500 futures rise on hopes a cooling labor market will cause the Fed to slow rate hikes

Stock futures rose Wednesday as Wall Street awaits a speech from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 23 points, or 0.1%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 0.2% and 0.3%, respectively.

Powell will give a speech at the Brookings Institution that may give insight into the central bank’s thinking on future interest rate increases. The Fed is slated to meet later this month and is largely expected to deliver a smaller 0.5 percentage point rate hike after four consecutive 0.75 percentage point increases to tame high inflation. A pause or pivot on rate hikes would likely send markets higher.

“This is a Fed-made recession, so eventually when he does pivot, the market should move higher pretty quickly,” said Steve Grasso, CEO of Grasso Global, on CNBC’s “Fast Money” Tuesday.

Wall Street is coming off a mixed session. The Nasdaq Composite shed 0.59% and the S&P 500 lost 0.16%, marking the third straight negative day for each. The Dow Jones Industrial Average notched a marginal gain, closing 3.07 points, or 0.01%, higher.

Stocks have been weighed down by China’s zero-Covid policy and have failed to fully recover from losses even as the country announced steps toward reopening, such as an uptick in vaccination rates for the elderly.

Investors will watch for the ADP private payrolls report and the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey Wednesday. Pending home sales and the Fed’s Beige Book will also be released Wednesday, giving further clues about the state of the U.S. economy.