US equity markets were tracking in the green before the opening bell Friday as traders brace for a key consumer inflation report ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting next week.
The S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq were up 0.6% each in premarket activity. The indexes finished Thursday trading lower for the fourth consecutive session.
The consumer price index report for August is scheduled to be released at 8:30 am ET. Data are expected to show that consumer inflation increased 0.4% sequentially and 3.4% annually, according to a Bloomberg-compiled consensus.
Wall Street projects core CPI, which excludes volatile items such as food and energy, to rise 0.2% month over month and 2.4% year over year for August.
Treasury yields were mixed, with the two-year rate gaining 0.3 basis points to 4.55% while the 10-year rate declined 0.6 basis points to 4.94%.
On Thursday, government data showed that producer prices rose at the fastest pace in three months in August amid higher fuel costs. Oxford Economics predicted further upward pressure on wholesale costs as domestic diesel prices hit fresh peaks.
Markets are pricing in a 68% probability that the Fed will raise the benchmark lending rate by 25 basis points at its Sept. 15-16 meeting, according to the CME FedWatch tool. The remaining odds point to another central bank pause.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil dropped 3.4% to $99.02 a barrel, while Brent slipped 3.7% to $103.65.
The International Energy Agency said Friday it now forecasts global oil demand to drop by 2.5 million barrels a day this year, 940,000 barrels more than its previous estimate last month, with the deadlock in US-Iran negotiations likely to delay the normalization of crude flows into 2027.
On Thursday, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries cut its global oil demand outlook for 2026 as high energy prices are expected to weigh on consumption.
The average diesel price in the US hit a fresh record high at $6.0556 per gallon on Friday, according to AAA motor club data. The regular gas price rose to $4.2950 per gallon from $4.0116 a month ago.
Iran-aligned Houthis seized control of Yemen's port city of Mocha on Thursday, military sources said, gaining further leverage over the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the southern side of the Red Sea, Reuters reported.
Friday's economic calendar also has the preliminary University of Michigan's consumer sentiment report for September at 10 am, followed by the weekly Baker Hughes oil-and-gas rig count at 1 pm.
Shares of Oracle (ORCL) jumped 6.7% pre-bell as the cloud computing company reported fiscal first-quarter results above Wall Street's estimates. Adobe (ADBE) fell 3.8% as the Photoshop maker provided a fiscal fourth-quarter revenue outlook below market expectations at the midpoint.
Kroger (KR) reports its latest financial results before the bell.
Gold dipped 0.4% to $4,390 per troy ounce, while bitcoin decreased 0.2% to $77,001.
