The S&P 500 was 0.1% higher in early trading, coming off just its second losing week in the last eight. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 103 points, or 0.3%, at 33,840, as of 9:45 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% lower.
The Fed has acknowledged inflation has slowed since last summer, when it peaked just above 9%, But it's also hinted that it may raise rates one or two more times this year before holding them at a high level to ensure inflation returns to its 2% target. When bonds are paying more in interest, stock investors aren't willing to pay as much for each $1 in profits that companies are producing. That puts downward pressure on stock prices.
The other big factor that sets stock prices, corporate profits, will also come into focus at the end of this week, when companies begin reporting on how they did during the spring. FMC, an agricultural sciences company, sank 7.8% after it said it saw a sudden drop in business toward the end of May across most of the world as partners burned through inventory levels. It warned the "unforeseen and unprecedented" declines would hurt its results for the spring and full year.