Bansari Kamdar

(Reuters) – U.S. Stock Index Futures rose Tuesday after investors bought down stocks in anticipation of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s testimony. This may provide fresh insights on tightening policy and central bank plans to combat inflation.

Futures rose to end a five-day slump. The Nasdaq would extend its gains starting Monday, as large tech stocks won after having been battered by increasing bond yields.

Megacap growth companies include Apple Inc (NASDAQ) and Amazon.com Inc. Microsoft Corp Premarket trading saw a rise in activity by Meta Platforms Inc, Tesla Inc (NASDAQ) and Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ) Inc.

Marko Kolanovic, chief global markets strategist at JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:), called the recent pull-back in riskier assets “arguably overdone” and said it presented investors with a buying opportunity.

Powell will appear before Senate Banking Committee at 10:00 ET to discuss a second four year term as Fed head. Lael Brainard will appear before that same panel on Thursday to promote to Fed vice-chair for four years.

6.54 AM ET ET was up 95 points (or 0.26%), were up 19.25 point(s) and were up 93.5 point(s) or 0.6%.

The Fed minutes for December indicated that the Fed would soon increase interest rates to address rising inflationary pressures. Equity markets are now in turmoil

Investors will be watching key consumer inflation data Wednesday. The headline CPI is expected to rise to 7% year-on-year, increasing the risk that the Fed could alter the direction of its interest rate increases.

This week’s main event is Friday’s start of fourth-quarter earnings season. Big banks are expected to report an increase in core revenue due to increased lending and tightening Treasury yields.

Big banks such as JPMorgan Chase & Co, Goldman Sachs (NYSE:), Bank of America Corp (NYSE:), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: Citigroup Inc (NYSE 🙂 increased between 0.4% & 0.6%

Intel (NASDAQ) gained 1.3% as Micron Technologies’ finance chief David Zinsner was named CFO and executive Vice President starting Jan. 17, while Micron dropped 0.6%.