Stock futures edged higher Thursday as oil prices declined and traders awaited more inflation data. Wall Street also weighed a slew of fresh earnings reports.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futuresadded 102 points, or 0.2%.S&P 500 futureswere up 0.2%, whileNasdaq-100 futuresgained 0.1%.
Brent crude futures shed 2% to trade at $87.17 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate futures slid 2.2% to $81.41 per barrel. The moves come as traders weighed falling oil demand while the U.S.-Iran war continues.
Wall Street will get another look at U.S. inflation on Thursday with the July reading of the U.S. producer price index — which gauges what wholesalers pay for raw goods and materials — set for release at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect an increase of 0.2% from the prior month.
The PPI report comes a day after an in-line reading on theconsumer price index.
CPI for July increased by 0.1% month over month, matching expectations. The tame report gave theS&P 500a boost, with the benchmark closing higher for the first time in three sessions. The report led to traders paring expectations for a rate hike in September.
"Still, the odds favor a rate increase in either October or December, after monetary policy officials take time to gauge the temperature on both sides of the central bank's mandate," said José Torres, senior economist at Interactive Brokers.
Across the Atlantic, Europe'sStoxx 600was 0.2% higher. In Asia, markets ended mixed.Kospirose 3.6% to enter a bull market. Mainland China's CSI 300 declined 0.57%. Japan'sNikkei 225added 1.16%. Australia's benchmarkS&P/ASX 200lost 0.23%.
Cisco Systems,CerebrasandCoherentall moved lower in premarket trading after earnings updates overnight. Cerebras plummeted 17.4% ahead of the opening bell, while Cisco was down 5.9%. Coherent was 5.1% lower.
Here's the latest ahead of the opening bell on Wall Street
Treasury yieldsedged lower as traders parsed inflation data for July thatmatched expectationsand showed price increases may have continued to cool.
The yield on the10-year U.S. Treasurynote — the key benchmark for pricing mortgages, auto loans and credit card debt — was 1 basis point lower at 4.6704%.
The2-year Treasury noteyield, which more closely tracks expectations for Federal Reserve interest rate policy, was off more than 2 basis points at 4.1738%. The longer-dated30-year Treasury bondyield held steady at 5.2371%.
Maersk shares jump 7% after shipping giant smashes profit estimates and hikes outlook
Danish shipping giantMaerskon Thursday hiked its 2026 earnings guidance for the second time this year, as global trade movements remain stymied by the Strait of Hormuz blockade.
Shares of the company surged 7% shortly after the opening bell.
Maersk, widely regarded as a barometer of global trade, reported preliminary underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $3 billion for April to June. That's well above the $2.04 billion expected by analysts in an LSEG-compiled consensus.
European markets open Thursday's session in the green
The pan-EuropeanStoxx 600was up 0.15% shortly after 8:10 a.m. in London (3:10 a.m. E.T.), as most regional sectors moved higher and the continent's main bourses notched early gains.
European banks were up 0.8%, with travel and leisure, household goods and retail all advancing more than 0.4%.
Meanwhile, Germany'sDAXwas up 0.39%, the ItalianFTSE MIBadded 0.37%, and the FrenchCAC 40gained 0.23%. But the U.K.'sFTSE 100retreated in early trade, moving 0.11% lower.
Kospi soars as Asia-Pacific markets end mixed
Asia-Pacific markets ended mixed Thursday.Kospirose 3.6% to end at 6,813.34, while the small-cap Kosdaq index added 0.29% to close at 861.37.
Japan's Nikkei 225 added 1.16% to 68,308.59, while the Topix ended 0.89% higher at 4,176.04
Australia's benchmarkS&P/ASX 200lost 0.23% to 9,188.5.
Mainland China's CSI 300 declined 0.57% to 4,663.95.
Hong Kong'sHang Seng Indexwas down 0.38% as of its final hour of trade.
Anthropic investors eye record $2 trillion IPO: FT
The Financial TimesreportedWednesday morning that Anthropic investors expect the company's valuation to exceed $2 trillion when it makes its stock market debut.
Anthropic couldgo publicas soon as October, with its investors targeting a record valuation of $2 trillion, according to the Financial Times.
