U.S. stock futures on Friday edged lower, as investors awaited key data on inflation for further clues on whether the Federal Reserve will have to keep lifting interest rates.
What’s happening
-
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures
YM00,
-0.42%
fell 65 points, or 0.2%, to 33117. -
S&P 500 futures
ES00,
-0.53%
dropped 13 points, or 0.3%, to 4006. -
Nasdaq 100 futures
NQ00,
-0.87%
decreased 82 points, or 0.7%, to 12126.
On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
rose 109 points, or 0.33%, to 33154, the S&P 500
SPX,
increased 21 points, or 0.53%, to 4012, and the Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
gained 83 points, or 0.72%, to 11590.
What’s driving markets
Friday will see the Commerce Department release the latest update to the personal consumption expenditure price index, alongside numbers on consumer spending and personal income.
Economists at Mizuho Securities USA say they’re expecting a hot core PCE print, of 0.5%, and also will be watching the core services ex-housing number, which they expect to be 0.4%.
There’s also data to come on new-home sales, and the final reading of the University of Michigan’s consumer-sentiment index. That’s alongside a basketball team-sized list of Fed speakers: Fed Governors Philip Jefferson and Christopher Waller, and regional presidents Loretta Mester, James Bullard and Susan Collins.
Overseas, incoming Bank of Japan governor Kazuo Ueda said it would be appropriate to continue easing — for now. “Our colleagues in Tokyo judged that Ueda’s key views on economic conditions, the inflation outlook, the current monetary policy stance and transmission mechanism all differed little from those of [current Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko] Kuroda. In order to avoid generating unwelcome market volatility, of course, that was probably Ueda’s intention,” said economists at Daiwa Europe in a note to clients.
The dollar
USDJPY,
rose to 135.09 yen from 134.68 yen.
