Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) during morning trading on January 11, 2024 in New York City.
Angela Weiss | AFP | Getty Images
Stock futures were little changed on Thursday evening, as investors looked ahead to a wholesale inflation reading and quarterly results from major banks.
Futures tied to the S&P 500 inched higher by 0.02%, while Nasdaq 100 futures hovered just below the flatline. Futures linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average added one point.
The action follows a losing day for the major averages, with the S&P 500 and the 30-stock Dow pulling back from their records in Thursday’s session. The broad market index slipped 0.2%, while the Dow lost about 0.1%. The Nasdaq Composite posted a slight decline of 0.05%.
Fresh data issued on Thursday raised investors’ fears that inflation wasn’t cooling off quickly enough. September’s consumer price index rose 0.2% on a monthly basis and 2.4% from a year earlier. Those results topped the 0.1% monthly advance and 2.3% year-over-year gain economists polled by Dow Jones anticipated.
Fed funds futures trading suggests a roughly 87% likelihood that the Federal Reserve will dial back interest rates by a quarter point in November, according to the CME FedWatch Tool. However, central bank policymakers will keep a close eye on additional data, which will shape their course on rates.
“The data isn’t compelling enough to deter the Fed from cutting entirely in November,” said Preston Caldwell, senior U.S. economist at Morningstar. “But further data like this (as well as strong data on economic activity) could induce a skip in the December 2024 or January 2025 meetings.”
Indeed, another catalyst awaits on Friday morning: the producer price index, a measure of wholesale prices. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect the PPI index to have risen 0.1% in September on a monthly basis. Excluding food and energy costs, they forecast a 0.2% advance.
JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo are also slated to report quarterly earnings before the bell. The results could influence the market on Friday.
The major averages are heading into the final day of the week with modest gains. The S&P 500 is up 0.5% week to date, while the Dow is toting a 0.2% gain. The Nasdaq is the outperformer of the three, up 0.8% in the period.
