Jerome Powell’s House Speech in Big Focus, despite High Chance of Cutting on ‘Sharp Corners’

U.S. stock indices are rising during their first minutes of trading as investors avoided big bets on the outcome of the much-expected Powell's grilling and Friday's monthly jobs data. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell began two days of semi-annual monetary policy hearings on Capitol Hill today, with investors viewing the hearings as a major risk event. On Tuesday, he will appear before the Senate Banking Committee, and on Wednesday he will face the House Financial Services Committee. His comments should shed more light on the outlook for the U.S. economy, emphasizing inflation, salaries stagnation and overall employment health, as bets on future action have grown in recent weeks.

Corporatewise, Meta Platforms (META), the parent company of Facebook (FB) and Instagram, is reportedly planning a new round of layoffs, with thousands of job cuts expected as early as this week. The world's largest social media company cut its workforce by more than 13% in November to become a more efficient company. In the previous round of layoffs, Meta cut 11,000 employees for the first time. Regulators are also reportedly looking to block the prospective merger between JetBlue Airways (JBLU) and Spirit Airlines (SAVE), sending shares of the latter sliding nearly 9%.

European markets are trading sideways this European afternoon. Germany's Federal Statistical Office Destatis announced that factory orders rose 1% in January. UK annual house prices increased by 2.1% in February.

As of 3:40 p.m. CET, the French CAC 40 is reclaiming a tiny 0.04%, while Worldline SA is sliding by 1.16%. At the same time, the British FTSE 100 is up 0.29%, as Tui (TUI.L) rose by 2.29%, but the German DAX lost 0.09%, concurrently, with Covestro (1COV.DE) ascending the most by 1.54%. Meanwhile, the pan-European Euro Stoxx 600 is edging down by 0.15%.

On the Fx front, Bank of England policymaker Catherine Mann told Bloomberg Television the pound sterling could weaken further in the coming months as investors assess the impact of the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank's plans to raise interest rates.