Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), December 7, 2022.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Stock futures were flat Thursday evening as investors look ahead to new inflation data due Friday.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 21 points, or 0.06%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures were down 0.05% and 0.06%, respectively. Shares of Lululemon fell more than 7% after the company gave a weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter outlook, even though it beat Wall Street expectations with its third-quarter results.
Earlier in the day, the S&P 500 rallied to break a five-day run of losses — its longest streak since October. The broad-market index gained 0.75%, and the Dow gained 183.56 points, or 0.55%. The Nasdaq had the strongest performance of the day, rallying 1.13%.
Even with Thursday’s gains, all three major averages are on track to post losses for the week. The S&P 500 is off by 2.6% for the week, while the Nasdaq is down more than 3%. The Dow shed 1.8%.
Next, investors are awaiting the Friday release of the November producer price index report, which will give further information about how the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes are working to tame high inflation.
“[The stock market] really has been so dependent on inflation this year and it’s likely to continue to depend on inflation,” said Courtney Garcia, senior wealth advisor at Payne Capital Management, on CNBC’s “Fast Money” on Thursday.
Next week, more inflation data and a Federal Reserve meeting are top of mind for traders. The November consumer price index report due Dec. 13 will further show if inflation is subsiding.
The central bank is widely expected to deliver a smaller interest rate hike of 0.5 percentage point on Dec. 14, the last day of its December meeting.