US pre-open: Futures higher as investors brace for data onslaught

Wall Street futures were in the green ahead of the bell on Thursday as investors braced for a slew of data points.

As of 1230 BST, Dow Jones futures were up 0.22%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.09% and 0.14% firmer, respectively.

The Dow closed 242.75 points higher on Wednesday as market participants thumbed over July's consumer price index, which revealed a slowing annual inflation rate of 2.9%, the lowest seen since 2021, reassuring investors that an economic soft landing was still on the cards and that the Federal Reserve would likely lower interest rates at its September meeting.

Trade Nation's David Morrison said: "Headline CPI finally broke back below the 3.0% barrier to hit 2.9%, its lowest level since March 2021. That should have been a reason for bulls to celebrate. But they appeared to have run out of puff, having partied excessively on Tuesday in response to benign wholesale inflation numbers.

"In fairness, equities have put in an impressive performance since the panicky sell-off we saw just over a week ago. Buyers pounced on what now look like bargain stock prices, and confidence was quickly restored. The S&P 500 is now back to levels which held over the last two weeks of June. This was where the index consolidated before pushing up to fresh record highs in mid-July. Could we be ready for a repeat performance? It appears that the issues caused by the unwinding of the yen carry-trade, the frothiness of the tech sector and US recession fears have now dissipated. Investors are in a much better mood than they were ten days ago, although a period of consolidation may be required to fully digest recent gains."

On the macro front, weekly jobless claims data from the Labor Department will be published at 1330 BST, as will July's import/export index, retail sales figures, August Empire State manufacturing data and this month's Philadelphia Fed manufacturing survey.

Later on, July industrial production and capacity utilisation numbers were slated for 1415 BST, while June business inventories and the NAHB's August housing market index will follow at 1500 BST.

In the corporate space, Ulta Beauty shares traded higher in pre-market on the back of news that Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway had taken a $266.0m stake in the firm, while Snowflake shares traded lower as Berkshire Hathaway entirely dissolved its shareholding.

Elsewhere, Cisco shares traded higher after the networking specialists posted quarterly earnings and revenue beats and issued optimistic forward guidance, and Walmart was in the green after the retailer's latest batch of earnings were better-than-feared.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com