Wall Street opens mixed as investors await Fed Chair Warsh's Jackson Hole speech

Wall Street's three major indexes opened mixed Friday as investors awaited Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh's speech at the Jackson Hole symposium.

As of 9:34 a.m. (local time) at the New York Stock Exchange, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 109.98 points, or 0.21 percent, at 53,679.42. The S&P 500 rose 7.48 points, or 0.10 percent, to 7,738.47, while the NASDAQ Composite slipped 6.33 points, or 0.02 percent, to 26,535.02.

Market participants are awaiting Warsh's remarks at the Jackson Hole symposium.

Warsh has been guarded about the interest rate outlook, but attention to his speech has intensified after the Treasury Department said last week it would expand government bond buybacks to calm bond markets.

Investors are also looking to the speech for clues on how the central bank plans to approach monetary policy, particularly after inflation data released this month sent mixed signals.

"There was a lot of concern among investors about staying invested because some of the stock moves were uncomfortably large," said Yungxin Kong, chief investment officer at Mast Investment. "Energy prices have also made inflation data quite difficult to interpret."

Kong added that "the bigger question for everyone is what Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is seeing and how that feeds into monetary policy."

By sector, communications and consumer discretionary stocks gained ground, while healthcare and real estate shares weakened.

PayPal shares fell 12.46 percent after Bloomberg, citing sources familiar with the matter, reported that private equity firm Advent and payments processor Stripe had decided against pursuing an acquisition of the company.

Marvell Technology shares dropped 7.42 percent after the company said the benefits of its partnership with Google to develop custom chips would not materialize until fiscal year 2029 or later, disappointing investors who had expected the collaboration to boost earnings sooner.

Buy now, pay later firm Affirm surged 15.40 percent after reporting fiscal fourth-quarter sales of $1.17 billion, topping the market consensus of $1.11 billion, and issuing next-quarter revenue guidance that also exceeded expectations.

European stocks advanced.

The Euro Stoxx 50 was up 0.77 percent at 6,473.88. Britain's FTSE 100 and France's CAC 40 rose 0.15 percent and 0.97 percent, respectively, while Germany's DAX gained 0.54 percent.

Oil prices fell.

West Texas Intermediate crude for October 2026 delivery, the front-month contract, was down 1.27 percent at $82.47 per barrel at the same time.