Dow slides more than 200 points as traders brace for big Powell speech, Treasury yields rise: Live updates

The S&P 500 pulled back on Thursday, giving up some ground after a recent rally as investors readied for a speech by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell at the central bank’s annual Jackson Hole conference.

The broad index slipped 0.7%, moving away from trading within striking distance of the all-time intraday high set in July. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 210 points, or 0.5%, while the Nasdaq Composite shed 1.2%.

Stocks felt downward pressure from rising bond yields on Thursday. Notably, the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield climbed around 10 basis points to 3.875%.

Thursday’s action comes as market participants turn attention to Powell’s speech at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium on Friday, hoping for further insight into rate policy. Traders are unanimous in expecting a decrease in borrowing costs next month, per the CME Group’s FedWatch tool, but are divided over whether the reduction will be a quarter or half a percentage point.

That will follow minutes from the Fed’s July gathering released Wednesday. They indicated that most participants at the central bank’s meeting said it would “likely” be appropriate to lower the fed funds rate at the September meeting — if data continues to come in as expected.

Thursday’s retreat pulled the Dow down about 0.1% on the week and the Nasdaq near its flatline for the time period. The S&P 500 was still higher by about 0.2%.

In corporate news, software company Snowflake dropped more than 12% as rising costs hit its operating margins. Despite this, the company beat quarterly expectations and slightly raised its full-year product revenue forecast. Urban Outfitters slid more than 8% after disappointing second-quarter same-store sales growth.

Clarification: The Fed is expected to lower rates from a range of 5.25%-5.5%. A previous version misstated the expected change.