The major U.S. index futures are currently pointing to a roughly flat open on Wall Street on Wednesday, with stocks likely to show a lack of direction following the rally seen in the previous session.
The futures remained little changed even after the Labor Department released its highly anticipated report on consumer price inflation in the month of July.
The Labor Department said its consumer price index rose by 0.2 percent in July after edging down by 0.1 percent in June. The modest increase by consumer prices matched expectations.
Core consumer prices, which exclude food and energy prices, also crept up by 0.2 percent in July after inching up by 0.1 percent in June. The uptick by core consumer prices was also in line with economist estimates.
Meanwhile, the report said the annual rate of consumer price growth slowed slightly to 2.9 percent in July from 3.0 percent in June. Economists had expected the pace of growth to remain unchanged.
The annual rate of core consumer price growth also slipped to 3.2 percent in July from 3.3 percent in June, in line with expectations.
While the slowdowns by the annual rates of price growth suggest the Federal Reserve is likely to lower interest rates next month, traders may feel the chances of a rate cut are already priced into the markets after yesterday’s rally.
CME Group’s FedWatch Tool is currently indicating a 56.6 chance the Fed will lower rates by a quarter point and a 43.5 percent chance of a half point rate cut.
Traders may also be reluctant to continue making significant moves ahead of the release of a slew of U.S. economic data on Thursday, including reports on weekly jobless claims, retail sales and industrial production.
Following the lackluster performance seen to start the week, stocks moved sharply higher over the course of the trading day on Tuesday. The major averages all showed strong moves to the upside after ending Monday’s trading narrowly mixed.
The major averages saw continued strength going into the close, ending the day near their highs of the session. The Nasdaq soared 407.00 points or 2.4 percent to 17,187.61, the S&P 500 surged 90.04 points or 1.7 percent to 5,434.43 and the Dow jumped 408.63 points or 1.0 percent to 39,765.64.
The rally on Wall Street came following the release of a Labor Department report showing producer prices crept slightly higher in the month of July.
The Labor Department said its producer price index for final demand inched up by 0.1 percent in July after rising by 0.2 percent in June. The uptick by producer prices matched economist estimates.
Meanwhile, the report said the annual rate of producer price growth slowed to 2.2 percent in July from an upwardly revised 2.7 percent in June.
Economists had expected the annual rate of producer price growth to decelerate to 2.3 percent from the 2.6 percent originally reported for the previous month.
The notable slowdown by the annual rate of price growth increased confidence the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates at its monetary policy meeting next month.
“The PPI data this morning came in lower than expected – across the board – which is good news for those investors that worried the Fed would have to be more cautious in lowering interest rates due to lingering inflation,” said Chris Zaccarelli, Chief Investment Officer, Independent Advisor Alliance.
He added, “If tomorrow’s CPI report comes in lower than expected, like this morning’s PPI report did, then the Fed truly has a green light to cut rates by 50 bps at their next meeting if they deem it necessary to quickly get back to neutral in the face of a looming slowdown in the economy.”
Semiconductor stocks turned in some of the market’s best performances on the day, resulting in a 4.2 percent spike by the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index.
Substantial strength was also visible among computer hardware stocks, driving the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index up by 3.2 percent.
Housing stocks also showed a significant move to the upside, as reflected by the 1.7 percent gain posted by the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index.
Software, airline and pharmaceutical stocks also moved notably higher on the day, while energy stocks bucked the uptrend amid a sharp pullback by the price of crude oil.