Aug 13 (Reuters) – Futures tied to Wall Street’s main indexes inched higher on Thursday as crude oil prices fell and investors awaited producer-price inflation data for clues on inflation and the Federal Reserve’s interest rate path.
Brent crude futures fell 1.9%, declining after six straight sessions of gains as investors assessed prospects for weaker global demand this year and higher U.S. crude stocks.
Iran and the United States remain at loggerheadsover efforts to agree on a permanent end to the war in the Middle East, according to a senior Iranian source, while traffic through the vital Strait of Hormuz remained severely curtailed.
Investors await the July producer prices figures due at 8:30 a.m. ET as they looked for clues to the Federal Reserve’s interest rate path.
This follows benign July consumer inflation data that strengthened expectations that the Fed would hold interest rates steady at its next meeting.
Money market participants saw a 66% chance that the Fed would hold rates steady, up from roughly even odds between a rate hike and a pause on Wednesday, according to CME’s Fed Watch tool.
At 05:47 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 128 points, or 0.24%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 12.5 points, or 0.16%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 5.5 points, or 0.02%.
PC makers Dell Technologies and HP gained 4% and 1.8%, respectively, in premarket trading after earnings from China’s Lenovo beat expectations.
Dow component Cisco Systems dropped 6% despite the networking equipment maker forecasting fiscal 2027 revenue above Wall Street expectations.
Cerebras Systems slumped more than 18% after the AI chip designer missed quarterly revenue estimates. Its shares had rallied about 24% in the last four sessions.
Most megacap and growth stocks were trading higher, with Alphabet, Amazon and Apple all up about 0.5% each.
The earnings calendar is thinning out, with more than 430 S&P 500 companies having already reported for the quarter ended June.
Overall, robust earnings in several sectors have proven to be the latest tailwind for U.S. stocks after a rocky start to the second half of 2026.
The Dow and the S&P 500 were hovering close to their record highs while the Nasdaq was around 2% away from its all-time highs.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq has rebounded after slumping to more than 10% below its all-time highs just two weeks ago, as strong earnings from AI hyperscalers and some technology stocks revived enthusiasm for the AI trade.
Later in the day, a weekly jobless claims report along with commentary from Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack and Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin, was on investors’ radar.
(Reporting by Avinash P in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)
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