November 14, 5:00 pm EST

Later today Fed Chair Powell will be speaking at a Dallas Fed event.  We’ve talked over the past two days about the potential for Powell to use this opportunity to dial down expectations of a December rate hike.

Overnight, Japan reported a contraction in their economy for the third quarter. And this morning Germany’s GDP report showed the first contraction in more than three years. Meanwhile, U.S. core CPI came in softer than expected this morning.  And the headline number will be hit, in the next reading, by a 28% plunge in oil prices.

Add this to the outlook for gridlock in Washington on any further pro-growth policy-making, and Powell has the perfect excuse to start telegraphing a pause on rate hikes.

If he does, expect stocks to respond very favorably.  We will see.  He speaks at 6:05pm EST.

Here’s a look at stocks and the decline of the past month, as we head into this Fed discussion on the economy …

Technically, today the S&P and the Dow both hit a big retracement level and bounced aggressively.  This sets up nicely for the Fed discussion.