Stock futures hold steady as Wall Street eyes key inflation data

Stock futures were flat Sunday night as Wall Street looked ahead to key inflation data to be released this week.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 46 points, or 0.15%. S&P 500 futures rose 0.14% and Nasdaq 100 futures gained 0.18%.

The moves came after a week of victories for US stocks, as the three major averages A three-week losing streak was cut short. The Dow is up 2.66% for the week, while the S&P 500 is up 3.65%. The Nasdaq Composite was 4.14% higher.

Stocks were volatile ahead of the Federal Reserve’s September meeting, when the central bank is expected to raise interest rates for the third time in a row by 0.75 percentage points in a bid to combat high inflation.

Wall Street investors were looking for signs that the size of future interest rate hikes may be smaller as inflation slows, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell confirmed last week that he is “strongly committed” to lowering inflation.

This week, investors are looking forward to Consumer Price Index report for August, He is scheduled to be released Tuesday. This report is one of the last data on inflation that the Federal Reserve will see before its September meeting. Retail sales and industrial production reports will be released on Thursday.

“With another 0.3% increase in the base rate for August expected, if the number is higher, that will be negative for stocks and bonds. If the report is lower, that will be a catalyst for a market rally,” David Donabedian, investment director at CIBC Private Wealth in the US Retail sales are also expected to remain flat for August, as they were in the previous month.”