Stock futures teetered ahead of Powell's speech

U.S. stock futures teetered in the morning on Tuesday ahead of a highly anticipated public speaking appearance by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell in Washington D.C., which is scheduled for early this afternoon.

Futures tied to the S&P 500 GSPC ticked up 0.1%, while futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJI fell by roughly the same margin. Contracts on the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite IXIC were off by 0.2%.

After the Fed's rate-setting meeting last week, and after Friday's blowout jobs report showed payrolls increased by 517,000, investors are expecting Powell to be interviewed by billionaire Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. around 12: 40 p.m.

If the Fed are unhappy with how the market interpreted last week's meeting, this is the opportunity for them to try and address things," Huw Roberts, head of Quant Insight head of analytics, said in a note. Even if he says nothing of interest, that is important. The benign neglect of Powell will be interpreted as a green light for risky assets to keep rallying. In other central bank news, the Reserve Bank of Australia raised interest rates by 25 basis points to an over 10 year high of 3.35%, following the U.S. Federal Reserve'sFederal Reserve's move last week.

In the U.S. stock market, shares of Chinese search engine Baidu BIDU went up 14% pre-market after indicating it is on track to launch its ChatGPT-like AI service in March.

After the retailer announced plans to raise $1 billion through an equity offering, wild swings were found across meme stock Bed Bath Beyond's BBBY Shares, which fell nearly 27% before the open. The plunge was due to a surge of 120% on Monday.

Shares of the education technology company Chegg CHGG fell 24% in extended trading on the back of disappointing guidance from executives on sales expectations.

Pinterest's PINS stock fell 2.5% after the platform reported quarterly revenue late Monday that missed Wall Street estimates, renewing concerns about weakness in the ad market.

In 2023 equity markets have been on a climb higher with risk-on sentiment fueled by expectations that waning housing and manufacturing data and a cooldown in inflation would prompt the Federal Reserve to pause and even cut rates sooner than expected.

Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari said during an interview with CNBC Tuesday morning that Friday's shock jobs data shows that he and his central bank colleagues must stay the course on fighting inflation.

In an interview with CNBC's Squawk Box, Kashkari said that raising rates can put a lid on inflation. We need to raise rates aggressively to put a ceiling on inflation, then let monetary policy work its way through the economy.