Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will answer questions from the Senate Banking Committee in Washington in the first of two days of testimony to Congress.
- Chairman Powell is expected to reiterate that the economy is in a “good place” while signaling there is no need to increase the expected pace of Fed tightening in 2018.
Home-builder confidence is expected to hold unchanged in July at a consensus 68. Readings in this report have been cooling this year though gains in new home sales have been strong.
In Overnight Trade:
- The MSCI Asia Pacific Index was little changed, while Japan’s Topix index closed 0.9 percent higher after its first trading session of the week.
- In Europe the Stoxx 600 Index was 0.1 percent higher at 5:45 a.m. as investors digested earnings data while waiting for Powell’s testimony.
- Crude’s recent bad run continued this morning, with a barrel of West Texas Intermediate for August delivery trading at $67.94 earlier this morning.
Notable Earnings: JNJ, Comerica, United Health Groups, Prologis, CSX host quarterly earnings calls. Before the bell Goldman Sachs also announced their revenues grew 5.28% in FY 2017 but net income fell 42.07%
