Stock indexes push higher on Wall Street in early trading

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are pushing higher on Wall Street in early trading but remain mostly in the red for the week as traders try to gauge whether the Federal Reserve will succeed in its mission to get inflation under control. The central bank’s policymakers meet again in two weeks, and markets expect them to deliver another jumbo-sized interest rate increase of three-quarters of a percentage point. Investors will be closely watching appearances by Fed officials later Wednesday to see if they drop any hints about the Fed’s thinking. The S&P 500 was up half a percentage point. Treasury yields fell and oil prices rose.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

U.S. futures fluctuated ahead of public comments from Federal Reserve officials who have all but assured they will crank up interest rates again in their months-long effort to tame inflation.

Futures for the Dow and the S&P 500 fell 0.1%.

Major U.S. benchmarks may be headed for a fourth week of losses with anxiety over more Fed rate increases consistently driving markets lower.

Fed vice chair Lael Brainard speaks Wednesday and on Thursday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell takes part in a conversation with the head of the Cato Institute about interest-rate policy.

The Fed meets again in two weeks, when economists expect that the central bank will raise rates anywhere from a half-point to three-quarters of a point. That’s on top of four increases this year that have pushed its main borrowing rate from near zero during the pandemic, up to a range of between 2.25% and 2.5%.

In June, Fed officials projected that the benchmark rate will reach a range of 3.25% to 3.5 % by year’s end and roughly a half-percentage point more in 2023.

Global shares are mostly lower Wednesday with the possibility of a European energy crisis looming.

“The mood in markets is defensive ahead of key central bank decisions,” said Anderson Alves at ActivTrades.

Rising energy prices are adding to the worries about recessions in some parts of the world, he said.

Britain’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.6%, while France’s CAC 40 and Germany’s DAX each shed 0.4%.

Shares fell in Tokyo, Sydney, South Korea and Hong Kong, but were little changed in Shanghai. Oil prices fell, while the Japanese yen continued to decline against the U.S. dollar to about 144 yen.

In Japan, the government is giving 50,000 yen ($350) to needy families, to help cope with daily needs and energy prices in a move also designed to boost the lagging economy.

“The real solution to this inflation crisis obviously lies on the supply side, in terms of energy and other key goods. Yet that really takes us a step away from inflation-targeting and back towards an echo of how macro-stability was previously achieved,” according to RaboResearch.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 shed 0.7% to finish at 27,430.30. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dropped 1.4% to 6,729.30. South Korea’s Kospi slid 1.4% to 2,376.46. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dipped 0.8% to 19,044.30, while the Shanghai Composite was little changed, inching up less than 0.1% at 3,246.29.

China’s trade weakened in August as high energy prices, inflation and anti-virus measures weighed on global and Chinese consumer demand, and imports of Russian oil and gas surged, China’s customs data showed. Exports rose 7% over a year ago, decelerating from July’s 18% expansion, while imports contracted by 0.2%, compared with the previous month’s already weak 2.3% growth.

Demand for Chinese exports has softened as Western economies cool and the U.S. Federal Reserve and central banks in Europe and Asia raise interest rates to contain surging inflation. Repeated closures of China’s cities to fight virus outbreaks has weighed on Chinese consumers’ willingness to spend.

In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude fell 22 cents to $86.66 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, also fell 22 cents to $92.61 a barrel.

In currency trading, the U.S. dollar rose to 144.94 Japanese yen from 142.76 yen. The euro was down 98.81 cents.