Rolig åpning på Wall Street

Stockmarket opening in New York was relatively flat on Friday, as investors prepared for a key speech by Fed chief Kevin Warsh at the annual Jackson Hole symposium in Wyoming. The speech, not tied to an official interest rate meeting, provided investors with signals on potential future actions of the central bank. According to data from CME FedWatch, investors currently see a 64% chance that the central bank will keep interest rates unchanged at the next meeting.

Natalia Lojevsky, director at CIFC Asset Management, says Warsh's history with his speech makes this presentation especially noteworthy. New central bank chiefs often use this stage to set the tone for their tenure, and Warsh's words from Friday will be applied to every data point next year, she adds. Several investors urge Warsh to show strong commitment to combating high inflation.

The yield on US ten-year Treasury bonds reached its highest level since 2007 last week. LPL Financial's Jeffrey Roach expects Warsh not to provide a roadmap for future meetings, but rather to focus on how he connects inflation, productivity, and the bond market. Historically, Fed chiefs' speeches at Jackson Hole have not driven Wall Street significantly since 2000.

The S&P 500 has only risen by an average of 0.4% weekly after the meeting during that period, according to Bloomberg's data aggregation. Adven, a mutual fund, and Stripe, a payments company, have decided to drop plans to acquire the fintech giant PayPal. Bloomberg reported this, citing sources familiar with the matter. The acquisition would have involved over $50 billion in debt financing, making it one of the largest leveraged buyouts in recent times.

Paypal was founded at the end of the 1990s and was early in the digital payment market. In recent years, the company has struggled to keep up with technological advancements, while competitors like Apple and Google have taken significant market shares. Bloomberg notes that both Adven and Stripe may return with a new offer if the situation changes. Paypal's current market value is around $52.6 billion.