Wall St opens lower as yields rise ahead of Powell speech
Wall Street's main indexes opened lower on Monday as the 10-year Treasury yield regained 2007 highs, while investors awaited comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and more data this week to gauge the central bank's interest-rate path.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 52.00 points, or 0.16%, at the open to 33,455.50.
The S&P 500 opened lower by 3.53 points, or 0.08%, at 4,284.52, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.34 points, or 0.01%, to 13,217.99 at the opening bell.
Powell and Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Hasker will speak at a roundtable discussion, due 11 a.m. ET, with local employers and small business owners on efforts to grow the economy.
Later in the day, Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester will speak on the outlook for the U.S.
economy.
Yield on the 10-year Treasury note edged higher on Monday at 4.6371%, touching 16-year highs again, while the yield on the 2-year note, which best reflects interest rate expectations, remained above 5%.
U.S. stocks ended the July-September period lower to log their first quarterly decline in 2023 as investors grappled with the prospects of interest rates remaining higher for longer amid a recent rally in crude prices fueling inflation concerns.
Traders' bets on the benchmark rate remained unchanged in November and December at nearly 74% and 55%, respectively, according to CME's FedWatch tool, while they have priced in a 25-basis-point rate cut as early as March.
The Congress on Saturday passed a stopgap funding bill with overwhelming Democratic support after Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy backed down from an earlier demand by his party's hardliners for a partisan bill.
