Traders were selling ahead of the possibility that Fed Chair Jerome Powell's highly anticipated speech Friday could disappoint investor hopes for a signal that interest rate cuts are coming.

Since 1982, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City has hosted a conference in Jackson Hole. The Fed chair usually speaks at the event, and, as with any public speech from Powell, investors will pore through his remarks to glean whether the Federal Reserve will cut rates.

The US stock market fell again on Thursday, dragging major indexes deeper into red territory as investors brace for Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s remarks this Friday at the central bank’s annual gathering in Jackson Hole,