Wall Street Declining Ahead of Powell and Yellen Speeches

The main indices of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) opened Tuesday on a lower note, with the market anticipating new signals from upcoming remarks from the Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

Remarks are set to discuss the prospects of inflation and economic growth, as well as the rising Treasury bond yields and their reflection on the market at large.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down by 98.66 points, or 0.30%, at 32,632.54 points, while the S&P 500 index is 0.12% below its closing level on Monday. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite Index declined by 0.13%.

The U.S. benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield is down by about three basis points at 1.656%, but remains near its highest level in about a year.

Tech stocks remain impacted by high treasury yields, while the energy sector is also bearing losses due to the downward trend of oil prices, resulting from concerns about demand recovery amid a new wave of the Coronavirus pandemic and lockdown measures in Europe.