U.S. Stocks Open Higher as Investors Shake off Powell Remarks

U.S. stocks rebounded Tuesday as traders weighed Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s latest rate hike comments.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose about 160 points, or 0.5%, led by Nike’s post-earnings report gain. The S&P 500 added 0.4% and the Nasdaq Composite ticked up 0.4%.

Wall Street came off a volatile session Monday, as Powell said “inflation is much too high” and vowed to take“necessary steps”to curb inflation. The comments came less than a week after the Fed raised rates for the first time since 2018.

“If we conclude that it is appropriate to move more aggressively by raising the federal funds rate by more than 25 basis points at a meeting or meetings, we will do so,” said Powell on Monday to the National Association for Business Economics. One basis point equals 0.01%.

Some market participants raised their expectations for rate hikes following Powell’s comments. Goldman Sachs on Monday upped its forecast to 50 basis point hikes at the May and June Fed meetings.

“We think odds of a 50 bp rate hike are rising,” UBS chief U.S. economist Jonathan Pingle said in a note Monday.

The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield on Tuesday rose to a multi-year high, above 2.36%.

Bank stocks rose Tuesday as interest rates rose. JPMorgan and Bank of America added about 1%.

Nike shares moved up more than 4% after the retailer reported a beat on the top and bottom lines for its fiscal third quarter, buoyed by strong demand in North America.

Procter & Gamble added about 1% as Truist upgraded the stock to a buy rating and said the company’s fundamentals are undervalued.

Investors on Tuesday continued to watch the situation in Eastern Europe, with President Joe Biden saying Russian President Vladimir Putin’s back is“against the wall”as the war with Ukraine nears a stalemate.

The three major averages are on pace to finish the month positive, even amid geopolitical risk and Fed tightening.

“Stocks have done okay ... in recent sessions,” U.S Bank Wealth Management’s Lisa Erickson told “Squawk Box” on Tuesday. “It’s on the back of what’s going on fundamentally with the macroeconomy as well as with underlying company earnings.”

“There has been some slowing, but, really, both of those factors have been quite resilient,” Erickson added.