Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The major averages are holding on to their substantial gains that have drastically improved their standing this week. Only the Nasdaq Composite (+1.9%) still holds a loss for the week (-0.6%).

In response to Fed Chair Powell's Jackson Hole speech this morning, Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack (FOMC non-voting member) stated in a CNBC interview that she has heard that Mr. Powell is open-minded to the September FOMC meeting. Mrs. Hammack said she is open-minded but emphasized that she remains "squarely focused" on the inflation side of the mandate, adding that the Fed is still falling well short on that front.

In corporate news, New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez today announced that DOT has granted Alphabet's (GOOG 205.36, +4.74, +2.36%) Waymo its first-ever permit to begin testing a limited number of autonomous vehicles (AV) in parts of Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn under the nation's strictest AV safety rules, including a requirement to have a trained AV specialist behind the wheel at all times.