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 Thursday night as investors awaited big inflation indicators and quarterly results from big banks.
Futures tracking the S&P 500 rose 0.1% and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.1%. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 43 points.
The move comes on the heels of a day of declines in major averages, with the S&P 500 and Dow 30 setting record lows in Thursday trading. The overall market index fell 0.2%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 0.1%. The Nasdaq Composite fell slightly by 0.05%.
New figures released on Thursday raised investors’ concerns that inflation is not cooling quickly enough. The consumer price index in September increased by 0.2% from the previous month and by 2.4% from the previous year. These results beat the 0.1% monthly increase and 2.3% year-over-year increase expected by economists surveyed by Dow Jones.
Federal funds futures trading suggests there is about an 87% chance the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point in November, according to the CME FedWatch tool. However, central bank policymakers will closely monitor additional data to determine the direction of interest rates.
“The statistics are not convincing enough to deter the Fed from cutting rates across the board in November,” said Preston Caldwell, senior U.S. economist at Morningstar. “However, if more such data (as well as robust data on economic activity) is released, the December 2024 or January 2025 meeting could be skipped.”
In fact, another trigger awaits on Friday morning: the producer price index, a measure of wholesale prices. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect the PPI index to rise 0.1% on a monthly basis in September. Excluding food and energy costs, the increase is expected to be 0.2%.
JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo are also scheduled to report quarterly results before the bell. The results could impact markets on Friday.
Major average stock prices are heading into the final day of the week with modest gains. The S&P 500 is up 0.5% since the beginning of the week, and the Dow is up 0.2%. The Nasdaq was the outperformer among the three stocks, gaining 0.8% over the same period.
