US pre-open: Futures lower ahead of February PPI reading
By Iain Gilbert
Date: Thursday 13 Mar 2025
(Sharecast News) - Wall Street futures were in the red ahead of the bell on Thursday as market participants looked ahead to yet another key inflation reading.
As of 1220 GMT, Dow Jones futures were down 0.30%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.41% and 0.61% weaker, respectively.
The Dow closed 82.55 points lower on Wednesday as the blue-chip index extended its losing streak to three sessions as it heads for its worst week since March 2023.
Thursday's primary focus will be February's producer price index, due out at 1230 GMT, with economists expecting to see PPI increase by 0.3% month-on-month and 3.3% year-on-year, which would be slight decelerations from 0.4% and 3.5% in January.
Last month's PPI reading comes just a day after February's consumer price index, the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge, came in softer than expected on Wednesday, with headline inflation rising 0.2% month-on-month and 2.8% on an annualised basis.
Trade Nation's David Morrison said: "Yesterday's numbers represented the smallest increase in inflation since April 2021. Despite this, inflation remains well above the Fed's 2% target. But the general feeling is that the numbers are finally heading in the right direction after ticking up last year. This, according to the CME's FedWatch Tool, has increased the likelihood of three 25 basis point rate cuts this year. But that could be overdone as it's quite clear that inflation isn't the market's main preoccupation right now.
"While recession fears have jumped, there's little evidence that US economic growth is anywhere close to reversing. The labour market is strong, inflation is coming down and corporate earnings have been very healthy. Yet consumer confidence has sagged, and this week Walmart and Delta Air Lines warned of slowing consumer activity. In addition many of the market-leading corporations still have sky-high valuations despite the recent pullback."
Elsewhere on the macro front, weekly jobless claims data from the Labor Department will be out at 1330 GMT.
In the corporate space, discount retailer Dollar General posted better-than-expected Q4 sales but fell short of profit estimates as a result of sticky inflation and ongoing economic uncertainty.
Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com
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