Stocks looked set to edge higher on Tuesday, with Wall Street reluctant to make any big moves ahead of a speech from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell that could give a better sense of where interest rates are headed.
Futures tracking the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 51 points, or 0.1%. Contracts tied to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 were trading flat.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note slipped 2 basis points to 4.13% in early trading. Gold climbed 0.4%, putting the precious metal on the brink of topping $3,800 an ounce for the first time ever. The U.S. dollar ticked up 0.1% against a weighted basket of its peers.
Still, the rally since April remains narrow, with most of the market’s gains being driven by Big Tech. Concerns remain about the overall health of the U.S. economy, with unemployment creeping up and inflation running nearly a full percentage point above the Fed’s 2% target.
“Equity indices are…
