Stocks opened higher Thursday as traders continued to process comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and awaited key employment data.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 130 points, or 0.4%. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite added 0.17% and 0.05%, respectively.
Those moves come a day after Powell reiterated his warning message to lawmakers that the central bank may raise interest rates higher than previously expected. While the Fed chair emphasized that no decision has been made regarding the March meeting, traders are bracing for a larger-than-expected hike, with more than 80% calling for a 50 basis point increase, according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool.
Investors received more news on the state of the labor market ahead of Friday’s closely watched nonfarm payrolls report. Jobless claims for the week ended March 4 rose more than expected, signaling that the labor may be starting to slow. In retrospect, ADP’s payrolls report and JOLTs data on Wednesday suggested a resilient economy, heightening fears that the Fed needs more hiking to slow it.
Some economists, including those at Citi, expect a positive surprise to the upside come Friday’s payrolls data, following January’s blowout report. Strong jobs growth could mean bad news for the market, wrote strategist Alex Saunders in a Wednesday note to clients.
“Given that good news is bad news for markets, we think this would likely cause equities to sell-off further and support the case for an outsize Fed hike,” Saunders said.