Early on Tuesday, U.S. markets were shaky as traders anticipated the arrival of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 31 points or 0.1% at 9:36 ET (14:36 GMT), while the S&P 500 was unchanged and the NASDAQ Composite was up 0.1%.

Powell will address Congress at 10:00 ET today and is anticipated to make a case for maintaining higher interest rates for a longer period of time while the central bank fights inflation.

Further rate hikes may be necessary to raise the benchmark rate above previously anticipated levels, according to Fed policymakers, who have been encouraged by hotter than anticipated economic statistics.

The market anticipates that the Fed will increase interest rates by another quarter point in March and May, with the rate eventually rising over 5.2% in the summer.

Powell stated last month that the “disinflationary process” had started, but he has also highlighted that the Fed is still fighting inflation and wants to push it back towards a sustainable 2% target rate.

As a result of recent comments made by Fed officials about adopting a more aggressive strategy, some traders even believe that the Fed could hike rates by 0.5 percentage points this month.

The February jobs report released on Friday will be one significant piece of data the Fed will take into the March meeting. Experts anticipate that the economy added 203,000 jobs in February after a scorching 517,000 in January.

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) rose 1.6% after Bloomberg News reported the company would cut thousands of jobs as soon as this week.

Dick’s Sporting Goods, Inc. (NYSE:DKS) rose 8.2% after the sports apparel and equipment retailer forecasted annual earnings higher than estimates and more than doubled its dividend.

Oil prices dropped. Although Brent Oil Futures crude declined 0.4% to $85.86 per barrel, WTI Crude Oil Futures saw a 0.4% decline to $80.16 per barrel. At $1837, gold futures were down 0.9%.