Inflation fears ease
U.S. stock futures edged up on Thursday morning, implying stocks would extend gains when the opening bell rings, a day after a key inflation report showed consumer prices cooled off in July.
Data released by the U.S. Labor Department yesterday revealed that consumer price index (CPI) rose 8.5% on a year-over-year basis in July, down from 9.1% in June and a bigger slowdown than analysts had forecast.
Core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, remained unchanged at 5.9% in July, but lower than expected.
Traders and Federal Reserve policymakers have been looking for a peak in consumer prices for a long time now and yesterday’s report reignited hopes for such an outcome.
As of 5 a.m. ET, the blue-chip Dow futures were indicated 70 points, or 0.21% higher to 33,330.
S&P 500 futures climbed 5.25 points, or 0.12% to 4,215.25 while the tech-focused Nasdaq 100 futures added 15.25 points, or 0.11% to 13,407.25.
Disney pops 8% on upbeat earnings and subscriber growth
On the earnings front, shares of Disney were surging in Thursday’s premarket trading session after the entertainment giant topped estimates for its fiscal third quarter ended July 2.
Disney late Wednesday reported earnings of $1.09 per share versus an estimate of 94 cents per share. Revenue came in at $21.5 billion, surpassing expectations of $20.99 billion.
The company said its Disney+ streaming service added 14.4 million subscribers during the quarter, well above expectations of 10 million.
Disney also announced that starting on Dec. 8, it will raise prices for Disney+ subscribers in the U.S. who want to watch without ads.
The current ad-free option of Disney+ will jump from $8 to $11 a month. The ad-supported version will cost $8.
As of writing, shares of the company were up 8.51% to $122 apiece.
Jobless claims, PPI data eyed
Today’s key economic data releases are weekly jobless claims and the U.S. producer price index (PPI) for July. Both reports will come out at 8:30 a.m. ET.
Economists expect claims of 263,000 for the week ended August 6, down from 260,000 during the previous week.
Continuing claims for the week ended July 30 are expected to come in at 1.407 million, down from 1.416 from the prior week.
PPI is expected to have only jumped 0.2% in July, compared to a gain of 1.1% in June. Core PPI is projected to have increased 0.4%, the same as June.
Several companies including Poshmark (POSH), Flowers Foods (FLO), Rivian Automotive (RIVN), Aegon (AEG), and Warby Parker (WRBY) will also announce their quarterly earnings today.
