Stock futures were little changed ahead of an important U.S. inflation reading Friday, although shares of furniture and home goods retailers pulled back sharply after President Donald Trump unveiled new tariffs.
Futures associated with the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked up 0.1%, while those pointing to the tech-heavy Nasdaq and benchmark S&P 500 were down 0.1% and near flat, respectively. All three indexes ended lower for a third consecutive session yesterday after having posted three straight record-high closes through Monday.
Investors today will be focusing on the Personal Consumption Expenditures inflation report due at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal expect prices to have risen 2.7% over the year in August, up from a 2.6% annual increase in July, which would mark the fourth month in a row the key inflation measure has accelerated.
The 10-year Treasury yield, which affects borrowing costs on a variety of consumer and commercial loans, was little changed at around 4.18%. The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the value of the greenback against a basket of foreign currencies and hit its lowest level since early 2022 last week, edged lower to 98.45.
West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. crude oil benchmark, were down slightly at $64.85 per barrel. Gold futures were little changed at $3,775.
Shares of furniture companies Wayfair (W) and RH (RH) fell about 5% and 4%, respectively, in premarket trading, and those of home goods retailer Williams-Sonoma (WSM) pulled back 3% after President Trump announced new tariffs.
Intel (INTC) stock, which paced the S&P 500 and Nasdaq yesterday by soaring nearly 9% for their third straight session of gains, are up a further 3% before the bell. Shares of the chipmaker have risen 18% during its streak, aided by a report that the chipmaker had discussed Apple (AAPL) buying a stake.
Oracle (ORCL) shares, meanwhile, fell 5.6% yesterday for their third consecutive day of declines, and they were down a further 0.8% in premarket trading. Trump signed an executive order Thursday to bring TikTok‘s U.S. operations under American control, and said the group includes Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.
Amazon (AMZN) shares, which have closed lower every day this week, are pointing slightly higher before the bell. They slipped almost 1% yesterday after the company agreed to pay $2.5 billion to settle a FTC lawsuit over allegedly deceptive subscription practices for Prime memberships.