U.S. Stocks Rise as Powell Heads Back to Capitol Hill

© Reuters.

By Liz Moyer

Investing.com -- U.S. stocks rose as investors tried to shake off recession fears as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell appeared for a second day of testimony on Capitol Hill.

At 10:52 AM ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 149 points or 0.5%, while the S&P 500 was up 0.7% and the NASDAQ Composite was up 1.2%.

Stocks closed Wednesday on a sour note after Powell told lawmakers in the Senate a recession was possible but that the central bank was “strongly committed” to taming inflation using interest rate hikes. He also said the economy was strong enough to endure multiple rate increases.

UBS joined Goldman Sachs and Citigroup in raising the odds of a recession at some point in the next year. The Swiss banking company put the odds at 69%.

Shares of home builder KB Home (NYSE:KBH) rose more than 8% after it renewed its outlook for the year despite saying it sees the housing market moderating this year. 

Darden Restaurants Inc (NYSE:DRI) shares fell 0.3% even after it reported profit of $2.24 a share on revenue of $2.6 billion, both beating expectations. 

Shares of Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) rose more than 1.6% after Warren Buffett’s conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRKa) disclosed it bought more than $500 million of shares to raise its stake to 16.3%.

Oil couldn't hold onto earlier gains. Crude Oil WTI Futures fell more than 1% to under $105 a barrel, while Brent Oil Futures fell 1% to $110 a barrel. Gold Futures was up 0.2% to $1.843.