US pre-open: Futures fall ahead of inflation data

US stock futures were slightly lower on Monday morning as investors treaded carefully ahead of a busy week for economic data, which includes the latest reading on consumer price inflation.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was flat in pre-market trade in New York, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures dipped 0.2%.

That follows some impressive gains on Wall Street last Friday, which saw the tech-heavy Nasdaq surge 2.05% – its biggest one-day gain since May – the Dow rise 1.2% and the S&P 500 jump 1.6%.

Inflation figures, due out at 0830 ET on Tuesday, are expected to show that core inflation was unchanged at 4.1% in October – still firmly above the Federal Reserve's 2% target.

Fed chair Jerome Powell – along with other policymakers – delivered somewhat hawkish comments to the public last week after saying that the central bank wouldn't hesitate to tighten monetary policy further to bring inflation down towards the target.

"Last week we heard a slew of Fed members calling on the likely need for further hikes in order to drive inflation lower. While not all commentary was firmly hawkish, the key message across the week was that it was too early to declare victory on inflation and, as such, further tightening might still be needed," said analyst James Harte of Tickmill Group.

Meanwhile, another potential government shutdown could be on the cards, with Congress having just four more days to pass a new stop-gap bill before the current one runs out on 17 November. Speaker Mike Johnson unveiled a new proposal at the weekend to push funding into January, but measures faced opposition from both parties.

"Moody’s decision to shift the US credit rating outlook from stable to negative on Friday signalled a growing feeling that the country is becoming increasingly unstable under the weight of increased debt and ballooning repayment costs," said analyst Joshua Mahony from Scope Markets.

In company news, Boeing futures were flying higher in pre-market trade on reports that China might call an end to its four-year suspension of Boeing 737 Max airlines ahead of Joe Biden's meeting with Xi Jinping's at the APEC summit this week.