Stock futures are flat as Wall Street awaits Fed Chair Powell’s speech

Stock futures were little changed Tuesday evening as Wall Street awaits a Wednesday speech from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell that may give further insight into future rate hikes.

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 9 points, or 0.03%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures slipped 0.06% and 0.13%, respectively.

The moves come after a mixed day for stocks. The Nasdaq Composite shed 0.59% and the S&P 500 lost 0.16%, their third negative days in a row. 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.

On Wednesday, Chair Jerome Powell will give a speech at the Brookings Institution that may give insight into the central bank’s thinking on future increases.

Investors are closely watching the Federal Reserve ahead of its December meeting, where the central bank 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 in rate hikes, or a pivot 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.”

Wall Street will also be watching for economic data that will give more information on the state of the U.S. labor market and the consumer.

The ADP private payrolls report will come out Wednesday, as will the latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey for October. 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.

Earnings season continues as well, with Salesforce, Petco and Five Below on deck.