Wall Street was heading for a quiet start Thursday, one day after a landmark inflation reading as traders brace for a wave of corporate earnings reports.
-
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average
YM00,
+0.13%
rose 29 points, or 0.1%, to 36189 -
Futures on the S&P 500
ES00,
+0.06%
rose 4 points, or 0.1%, to 4720 -
Futures on the Nasdaq 100
NQ00,
+0.05%
added 17 points, or 0.1%, to 15904
On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
rose 38 points, or 0.11%, to 36290, the S&P 500
SPX,
increased 13 points, or 0.28%, to 4726, and the Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
gained 35 points, or 0.23%, to 15188, after a report showing U.S. inflation running at a 7% clip, a nearly 40-year high.
What’s driving markets
Peter Garnry, head of equity strategy at Saxo Bank, said the market is expecting inflation to recede in 2022. But the dilemma facing traders is the uncertainty by how much will prices cool.
“U.S. equities are now firmly in a trading range, and we believe it will require significant surprises on earnings (either way) or a breakout in the U.S. 10-year yield
TMUBMUSD10Y,
to take US equities out of the trading range,” he said.
Earnings season starts to rev up on Friday with major banks including JPMorgan Chase
JPM,
due to report results.
On the economics front, weekly jobless claims and the latest reading on wholesale inflation are due. Fed Gov. Lael Brainard will be testifying as part of her nomination hearing to become the vice chair of the institution.
