US open: Stocks trade slightly higher ahead of tomorrow's CPI reading

Wall Street stocks traded slightly higher early on Wednesday as major indices continued to search for direction ahead of the release of May's consumer price index tomorrow.

As of 1530 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.05% at 34,616.99, while the S&P 500 was 0.12% firmer at 4,232.17 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 0.24% higher at 13,957.79.

The Dow Jones opened 17.17 points lower on Wednesday, taking a modest bite out of losses recorded in the previous session as major indices continued to hover near record levels.

While things were mostly quiet ahead of tomorrow's CPI print, reopening play Carnival traded slightly higher, while "meme stocks" were again in focus, with Reddit users now turning their attention to Clover Health, down 4.97% in early trading following an 85% rally on in the previous session.

Also in focus was news that the US government had committed to spending $1.2bn on nearly 2.0m courses of Merck's experimental Covid treatment, according to the American drug firm. Molnupiravir, which has not yet received regulatory approval, is currently in phase 3 clinical trials for the treatment of non-hospitalised Covid-19 patients who have at least one risk factor associated with poor disease outcomes. The payment, for 1.7m courses, is conditional on Molnupiravir receiving emergency use authorisation from the Food and Drug Administration.

On the macro front, applications for mortgages slipped in the US during the week ended 4 June as refinancing dropped to the lowest level seen since February 2020. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, its seasonally adjusted market index fell 3.1% week-on-week and 27% year-on-year.

Elsewhere, US wholesale inventories increased 0.8% month-on-month in April to $698.0bn, according to the Census Bureau, in line with preliminary estimates and following a 1.2% uptick in March. On a yearly basis, wholesale inventories advanced 5.2% in April.