(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures struggled for direction on Thursday after lackluster trading in the previous session as investors awaited a slew of economic data that could provide more clarity on the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy tightening path.
Wall Street’s main indexes closed slightly higher on Wednesday after wavering throughout the session as an on-target inflation print provided relief after Tuesday’s hotter-than-expected consumer prices data sparked the biggest percentage decline since June 2020.
Data on tap on Thursday include weekly jobless claims and retail sales that would help assess whether the economy can withstand an extend period of aggressive policy tightening by the Fed.
Around 226,000 Americans are expected to have filed for jobless claims for the week-ended Sept. 10, up from 222,000 in the previous week. Meanwhile, retail sales for August is largely expected to remain unchanged month-on-month.
Money markets are pricing in a 73% chance of a 75-basis-point hike, while placing 27% odds on the U.S. central bank delivering a 100-bps hike next week.
Union Pacific and CSX Corp jumped nearly 5% each after U.S. railroads and unions secured a tentative deal to avert a rail shutdown that could have hit food and fuel supplies across the United States.
At 07:19 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 1 point, S&P 500 e-minis were down 2.75 points, or 0.07%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 25.25 points, or 0.21%.
Shares of rate-sensitive growth and technology stocks slipped alongside a rise in bond yields. [US/]
Apple Inc, Meta Platforms and Tesla Inc were down 0.2% in premarket trading.
(Reporting by Ankika Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
