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Stock futures edged higher as Wall Street awaited the August consumer price index.
The CPI, due at 8:30 a.m. ET, measures the average change in prices paid by consumers for a basket of goods and services and is a key gauge of inflation.
Economists polled by Dow Jones expect consumer prices to rise 0.4% in August from the previous month and 3.4% from a year earlier, while core CPI is expected to increase 0.2% on the month and 2.4% annually.
The data will be closely watched for clues about the Federal Reserve’s next interest-rate move.
Stocks finished lower for the fourth day in a row on Thursday, pressured by rising oil prices and Treasury yields. August’s producer price index, a gauge of wholesale inflation, rose 0.4% on the month and 5.4% from a year earlier.
Oil prices were easing in premarket trading, but Brent crude was still trading above $104 a barrel.
Kyle Rodda, senior financial market analyst at Capital.com, said comments from President Donald Trump that he sees the war ending after the U.S. midterm elections “sparked concerns that the US is preparing for a war that will carry on in its current form at least until the end of the year.”
“Surging oil prices sparked a significant move in rates and fixed-income markets, with the knock-on effects responsible for a fall in stocks and a sharp plunge in precious metals,” he said.
“The 2-year yield jumped by around 15 basis points to a more than two-year high, with rates markets ramping up the implied probability of a Fed rate hike next week to about 70%.”
Rodda said the market moves come ahead of crucial CPI data that could help determine whether the central bank hikes rates next week or holds off.
