U. S. stock index futures were flat before Wednesday and trading in the stock market was flat. Risk sentiment in the financial market has become cautious, and investors' attention has turned to the annual meeting of the central bank in Jackson Hole on Thursday and Friday, especially Powell's speech at 10:00 EDT on Friday.
As of press time, Dow futures are up 0.01%, S & P 500 index futures are up 0.15%, and Nasdaq futures are down 0.10%.
The FTSE 100th index in the UK rose 0.4 per cent, Germany's DAX index fell 0.2 per cent and France's CAC-40 index rose 0.2 per cent.
Safe-haven currencies rose on Wednesday, with the dollar index back above the 93 mark, while G10 currencies such as the euro and sterling were moderately under pressure.
Gold came under selling pressure, hitting as low as $1790.17 an ounce.
Investors around the world are still focused on the Fed's seminar in Jackson Hole this week. The seminar will be held on Thursday, when policy makers are likely to elaborate on plans to scale back the Fed's $120 billion-a-month bond-buying program. Federal Reserve Chairman Colin Powell will give a speech on Friday.
Since the beginning of this week, market fears that the Federal Reserve will immediately scale back its bond purchases have eased, as well as the full approval of Pfizer Inc by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).And the COVID-19 vaccine produced by BioNTech eased concerns, propping up global stock markets.
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tan Desai will hold a press conference on Wednesday to introduce the latest developments of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"traders have been injecting money into the Chinese stock market because they have a better understanding of the regulatory outlook in China," said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at AvaTrade.
"this shift to Chinese stocks has boosted Nasdaq.It rose as investors took advantage of the opportunity to buy shares of Chinese companies that have suffered huge losses in recent months. "
Risk appetite in the global market has improved since the US Food and Drug Administration fully approved the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech, a move that could accelerate vaccination efforts in the US.
Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on Tuesday that if vaccination increases, the United States is expected to contain the epidemic by early next year.
However, as the Delta epidemic overshadowed the outlook, expectations that Federal Reserve Chairman Colin Powell would give a timetable for retrenchment at the Fed's annual economic seminar in Jackson Hole on Friday have diminished.
Now, people will be watching Powell's speech at the Fed's annual economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Aug. 27, and whether he will give a timetable for withdrawing the stimulus.
Goldman Sachs GroupEconomists raised the chances that the Fed would begin to scale back its bond purchases in November and predicted that the central bank might choose to cut purchases by $15 billion at each meeting.
Treasury yields edged higher on Wednesday morning, with the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield rising less than a basis point to 1.29 per cent. The yield on the 30-year Treasury note also rose less than one basis point to 1.91%.
In response to Powell's keynote speech at the annual meeting of the central bank in Jackson Hole, Antoine Lesne, head of strategy and research at State Street Global Investment Management firm SPDR ETF, said that based on improved economic data, he thought the Fed might start talking about scaling back its bond purchases, but this would be more of a topic of discussion at the Fed's September policy meeting.
"We believe that there is still a long way to go to raise interest rates, certainly not in 2021, but more likely in 2022, and scaling back bond purchases will be a step forward by the end of this year," he said. "
Goldman Sachs Group wrote in the report that acknowledging that progress has been made in the labour market since the Fed's interest rate meeting in July will help maintain expectations of the release of curtailment of bond purchases in September and the Fed's move to curtail bond purchases in November.
However, Goldman Sachs Group believes that Powell will be very careful to prevent the Fed from falling into the time frame expected by the market to reduce bond purchases. The minutes of the July Fed meeting were surprisingly optimistic about the economic risks posed by the epidemic, and Powell's tone is expected to be very different this week.
It is worth noting that due to the accelerated spread of the delta mutant strain and the deterioration of the COVID-19 epidemic, the annual meeting of the global central bank will be held online, so expectations for a major announcement at the event have been reduced.
Some analysts point out directly that the fact that the Fed will hold an online meeting (Jackson Hole) suggests that they may be considering the need to continue to support the economy.
The data, to be released at 20:30 Beijing time, will reveal demand for cars, home appliances and other durable goods in July. Economists expect new orders for durable goods to fall 0.5 per cent from the previous month on a seasonally adjusted basis.
Focus stocks
Johnson & JohnsonIt rose nearly 1% before the plate, and the antibody produced by Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine enhanced injection was 9 times higher than that of the first vaccination.
Express rose 11.5% before trading and adjusted earnings per share in the second quarter beat expectations.
Nordstrom fell nearly 11% before trading, and revenue performance in the second quarter was below pre-epidemic levels.
FSD Pharma fell nearly 7% after the company said it planned to end the second phase of its experimental COVID-19 treatment.
Taiwan Semiconductor ManufacturingIf the price increases by 1.86% before trading, Chuantai SMC notifies customers of a comprehensive price increase of 20%, which will take effect.
Hong Kong drug developer REGENCELL BIOSCIENCE HLDGS LTD rose more than 56 per cent before trading and closed more than 11 per cent higher on Tuesday.
LexinFintech Holdings Ltd.Revenue from Q2 rose 4.8% to 3.3 billion yuan before trading, while revenue from science and technology services increased by 47.9% compared with the same period last year.
Kingsoft Cloud HoldingsIt was down 5.48% before trading. It lost $0.01 per share in the second quarter.
YihangSmart pre-market short-term lower, now down 7.7%. The loss per ADS in the second quarter was 1.34 yuan, compared with a loss of 0.34 yuan in the same period last year.