AP NewsWatch

I'm Ben Thomas with an AP News Minute.

On Wall Street, stocks started the week mostly lower, as oil prices continued to climb.

The S&P fell 0.4 percent, the NASDAQ 0.7.

But the now saw a small gain, up 49 points, a little more than a tenth of a percent.

benchmark US crude is now topping $102 per barrel.

Speaking to economic students at Harvard, Fed Chair Jerome Powell says the central bank

can only do so much about the inflation that's likely to create.

The monetary policy works with long and variable lags famously.

And so by the time the effects of tightening and monetary policy take effect, the oil price

shock is probably long gone and you're weighing on the economy at a time when it's not appropriate.

Still Powell says the Fed's watching closely.

You can have a series of these supply shocks and that can lead the public generally, businesses,

price setters, households, lead them to start expecting higher inflation over time.

I'm Ben Thomas.