US pre-open: Futures in the red as investors await retail sales figures

Wall Street futures were in the red ahead of the bell on Wednesday as market participants continued to digest yesterday's CPI reading and looked ahead to retail sales numbers later in the session.

As of 1240 GMT, Dow Jones futures were down 0.12%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.19% and 0.17% lower, respectively.

The Dow closed 156.66 points lower on Tuesday following the hotter-than-expected print in January's consumer price index, the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge.

Wednesday's primary focus will be on last month's retail sales data, scheduled for release at 1330 GMT. Economists expect to see retail sales increase 1.8% in January - bouncing back from the prior month's 1.1% decline.

CMC Markets' Michael Hewson said: "After yesterday's US CPI report all eyes will shift towards the January retail sales report for evidence that the US consumer is feeling the effects of higher prices and weaker demand. If anything, today's report is unlikely to confirm the narrative of a US consumer feeling that pressure. This is because, having finished November and December on the back foot, the milder weather that we saw in January which helped drive the jobs boom, as well as stickier inflation is likely to have prompted a surge in consumer spending if recent credit card data is any guide.

"This consumer resilience will only harden the resolve of the Federal Reserve to continue hiking, with expectations that January retail sales will see a sharp rebound of 2%, reversing the combined losses we saw from November and December."

Elsewhere on the macro front, US mortgage applications fell 7.7% in the week ended 10 February, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, erasing a 7.4% increase recorded in the previous week. Applications to purchase a home slipped 5.5% and applications to refinance a property sunk 12.5% week-on-week.

Still to come, the New York Empire State manufacturing index will be out at 1330 GMT, while industrial production figures for last month will follow at 1415 GMT, and December business inventories data and the NAHB's February housing market were both slated for release at 1500 GMT.

In the corporate space, Biogen and Kraft Heinz will both report their latest quarterly results before the bell.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com