DJIA futures up 149 points (Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - New York, 23 Aug - US futures were higher ahead of a highly anticipated speech from Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell that could change bets on the timing and size of interest rate cuts.

Wall Street ended lower yesterday as tech stocks, including AI giant Nvidia, were sold. The S&P 500 closed down 0.9%, the Dow fell 0.4% while the tech-heavy Nasdaq shed 1.7%.

Expectations today are that Fed chair Powell will signal a rate cut is appropriate sometime soon but will err on the side of caution when it comes to the size and frequency of any such move.

As inflation cools, investors are growing increasingly confident the central bank will cut deeper or more often to support flagging growth and a slowing jobs market.

According to the CME's FedWatch tool, the market is discounting a 75% chance of a 25 basis point cut and a 25% chance of a 50 point cut.

On the data front, home sales for July will present another opportunity to gauge the state of health of the real economy.

Shares in Workday jumped more than 12% premarket after the human-resources and software provider gave new long-term guidance while discount department store chain Ross Stores was up 5.4% after strong quarterly profits.

Futures on the Dow Jones were up 149.00 points, or 0.36%, S&P 500 futures were up 29.25 points, or 0.52%, while futures on the Nasdaq were 151.75 points, or 0.78%, higher.

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(RADIOCOR) 23-08-24 13:49:11 (0268) 5 NNNN