US shares were trading mixed early Friday just ahead of Fed chair Jerome Powell’s long-anticipated speech in which he will likely announce that the central bank is not done fighting inflation.
But with inflation at a 40-year high, officials have drilled home the message that investors should temper those expectations. Upbeat economic data meanwhile continued to trickle in, with the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation index falling 0.1 percent in July compared to June, according to the Commerce Department.
On Thursday, government reports meanwhile showed initial applications for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week, dispelling concerns about a weakening job market.The broad-based S&P 500 fell 0.1 percent to 4,194.13, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index slid 0.2 percent to 12,610.91.