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Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell will testify before the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday and the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday.
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Global stocks fell early on Monday as investors paused after last week’s rally and waited for the next catalysts.
After a week dominated by central bank decisions, the next few days will see them remain the center of attention as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell delivers two days of testimony to Congress and the Bank of England will make its final interest rate decision.
The New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock Market are closed Monday for June 19, along with the US bond market and over-the-counter markets. Trading will resume as normal on Tuesday.
But for those markets that opened on Monday, there wasn’t much positivity. that of Hong Kong
The Hang Seng index fell 1%, while that of Japan
Nikki 225
also fell 1% after hitting a 33-year high on Friday.
The outlook for Chinese stimulus, amid a stalled Covid recovery, is a major near-term driver for Asian markets. The Chinese cabinet met on Friday to discuss possible measures, but the lack of details emerging from the meeting, according to state media, may have left investors disappointed.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was down 0.6% shortly after the open, the German index
DAX
and French
CAC
both about 0.5% lower. The United Kingdom
FTSE100
down 0.4%.
“Investors lack motivation on Monday today as caution returns amid concerns over global growth,” said Susannah Streeter, analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown. “European indices opened lower with the FTSE 100 down as investors ponder what lies ahead for the path of interest rates given stubborn inflation amid lingering concerns over the loss of momentum in China’s recovery,” she added.
Write to Callum Keown at callum.keown@barrons.com