Stock Futures Rise as Investors Await Key Inflation Report Following Fed Hold
US stock futures pointed to a higher open on Thursday as investors awaited a key inflation report following the Federal Reserve's latest interest rate decision.The Nasdaq 100 was tracking 1% higher before the opening bell. S&P 500 futures rose 0.5%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average indicated a 0.3% gain.The indexes closed the previous session in the red after the Fed left interest rates unchanged in a divided decision, with three regional presidents calling for policy tightening.The personal income and outlays report for June is scheduled to be released at 8:30 am ET. The report includes the personal consumption expenditures price index, the Fed's preferred inflation metric, as well as data on consumer spending.While the market expects about two interest rate hikes over the coming 12 months, Jefferies said the next policy move will likely be a rate cut."We expect that labor market conditions will continue to gradually soften throughout the remainder of the year, and we are optimistic that inflation pressure is going to continue to soften as the energy surge from Iran reverses," Jefferies Chief US Economist Thomas Simons said in a note e-mailed to.The outlook is uncertain, so "we could certainly be wrong about the persistence of high inflation," Simons added.The Fed's next meeting is scheduled for Sept. 15-16.Treasury yields were up in premarket action, with the two-year rate increasing 2.6 basis points to 4.26% and the 10-year rate adding 7 basis points to 4.62%.Thursday's economic calendar also has the advance estimate for second-quarter gross domestic product, along with the weekly jobless claims bulletin.West Texas Intermediate crude oil fell 0.9% to $83.74 a barrel, while Brent declined 0.5% to $90.25.The US carried out fresh strikes against Iran on Wednesday in response to Tehran's attempted missile attacks on US forces in the Middle East a day earlier, the US Central Command said.Earlier in the week, Saudi Arabia and the US struck Iran-backed militias in Iraq.Meta Platforms (META) shares fell 9% before the bell as the company's second-quarter earnings unexpectedly fell year over year late Wednesday. The social media giant's third-quarter revenue guidance also missed Wall Street's expectations at the midpoint.Microsoft (MSFT) surged 9% after its quarterly results topped estimates driven by a revenue surge in cloud computing platform Azure.Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN) are scheduled to release their latest financial results after the bell Thursday. Mastercard (MA), Shell (SHEL), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) and Altria (MO) were among the companies scheduled to release results before markets open.Gold rose about 1% to $4,139 per troy ounce.
