Stock market today: Latest news - CNN

The Federal Reserve just set off some post-July 4 fireworks on Wall Street.

Dow futures soared on Wednesday morning after Fed chief Jerome Powell strongly hinted at rate cuts in prepared remarks.

"Bottom line, Jay Powell fully endorsed the July rate cut and did absolutely nothing to pull the markets back from that expectation," said Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at Bleakley Advisory Group.

Boockvar noted that in Powell's testimony, the Fed chief warned that "uncertainties about the outlook have increased" and "weakness" in foreign economies could impact the United States. Powell also said that inflation pressures "remain muted," implying the central bank has room to lower rates.

The negative comments from the Fed come despite some positive developments, including the US-China trade truce and the robust June jobs report.

Powell's dovish remarks sent the 10-year Treasury yield plummeting from 2.10% to 2.04%.

Even before Powell, Wall Street was pricing in a 100% chance of a rate cut at the Fed's July 31 meeting. But now the odds of a larger cut of half a percentage point have increased to 16%, compared with just 3% on Tuesday, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.

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