Wild Overnight Session Kicks Off Busy Week Featuring Powell, Key Earnings From Nike, FedEx

Wild Overnight Session Kicks Off Busy Week Featuring Powell, Key Earnings From Nike, FedEx

With "Fed week" out of the way, investors might have thought they'd get a break from monetary policy and more wild market swings in the days ahead. No dice. An incredible 14 Fed speeches are scheduled this week following a big turnaround in a wild overnight session Monday. If even a handful of Fed speakers have as much impact as St. Louis Fed President James Bullard's Friday comments about a possible 2022 rate increase and less need for the Fed to buy mortgage-backed securities, we could have an interesting few days. Especially tomorrow when Fed Chair Jerome Powell appears for testimony on Capitol Hill. He's scheduled to discuss Covid but could get asked about possible tapering of monetary stimulus. Bullard's remarks Friday“”following a more hawkish tone from the Fed meeting“”slammed the market like a double left hook going into the weekend. Investors had been worried that the Fed might get caught complacent about rising inflation, but instead the Fed caught the market being complacent about Fed policy. Any complacency on Wall Street left town in a hurry late last week as the Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) quickly jumped above 20 by Friday from below 16 a few days before and