US indices open modestly higher with Powell looming

<p>The major US indices are opening with gains of about 0.5% across the board. A snapshot of the market shows:</p><ul><li>Dow industrial average is trading up 202 points or 0.59% at 34301</li><li>S&amp;P index up 21.5 points or 0.50% at 4398</li><li>NASDAQ index up to 76 points or 0.57% at 13540.51</li></ul><p>Of course much will depend upon what Powell has to say and how the market interprets his thoughts. His speech begins at 10:05 AM ET. More hawkish and stocks move lower, and interest rates move higher. Less hawkish, and there could be a rebound from the sharp selling that we saw yesterday. </p><p>However, it was somewhat telling that Nvidia closed near unchanged yesterday after stellar earnings and is trading down today again by about $5 or -1.0% despite the gains in the major indices.</p><p>A look at the US interest rate market shows fairly steady yields versus the closes from yesterday:</p><ul><li>2 year yield 5.034%, +1.6 basis points</li><li>5 year yield 4.422%, +1.6 basis points</li><li>10 year yield 4.243%, +0.8 basis points</li><li>30 year yield 4.306% +0.5 basis points</li></ul><p>in other markets:</p><ul><li>Crude oil is trading up $1 or 1.28% at $80.06. Stay above the $79 level is more of a tilt to the upside</li><li>Gold is trading down $2.50 or -0.15% at $1914</li><li>Silver is up 2.4 cents or 0.10% at $24.12</li><li>Bitcoin is trading at $26,192</li></ul>

This article was written by Greg Michalowski at www.forexlive.com.